Ali Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)December 25th, 2001
ALI
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Cowriter/director Michael Mann ("The Insider") showcases the decade between 1964, when the 22 year old Cassius Clay grabbed the world heavyweight boxing title from Sonny Liston, through the civil rights movement and Vietnam War which redefined a country and shaped the morals of a great athlete, to 1974 when that man regained his title under another name - "Ali."
Featuring amazingly accurate impersonations from Will Smith ("Men in Black") in the title role and Jon Voight ("Pearl Harbor") as Howard Cosell, as well as terrific work from Ron Silver ("Reversal of Fortune") as coach Angelo Dundee, Jamie Foxx ("Any Given Sunday") as corner and quip man Drew "Bundini" Brown and Jada Pinkett Smith as Ali's first wife Sonji Roi, "Ali" suffers from a lack of focus. Mann's attempt to notate every historical event in a decade dense with them detracts from his biographical subject. That the recent Oscar winning documentary "When We Kings" covered the event "Ali" culminates with also doesn't help.
Mann and Coscreenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson ("Nixon")
quickly begin name dropping by opening the film with an extended performance by
Sam Cooke (David Elliott). In rapid fire succession, we meet famous friends Malcolm X (Mario van Peebles, "Panther") and Cosell and see Bundini insinuate himself into Ali's team and become drinking buddies with Cassius Clay Sr. (Giancarlo Esposito, "Monkeybone"). After the Liston fight, Clay aligns himself with the Church of Islam and takes leader Elijah's (Albert Hall, "Get on the Bus") opportunistic son Herbert (Barry Shabaka Henley, "Rush Hour") on as his manager. Ali goes through a string of wives as his fortunes fall (he's banned from boxing for refusing to step forward for the draft) and rise again with the career resurrecting Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman
(boxer Charles Shufford) in Zaire.
The film's ofttimes impressionistic structure alternately presents too much information too quickly ('Float like a butterfly' author Bundini's entry and exit, Ali's marriages and children) and veers off on tangents for extended
periods (the assassination of Malcolm X, musical performances). Ali's lawyer (Joe Morton, "Bounce") is even shown on a pay phone to the champ beneath the motel balcony where Martin Luther King (Levar Burton, "Roots") is being shot, which, if true, nonetheless stretches credibility here. Still,
"Ali" is involving simply because its subject is so compelling, a deeply religious man with a weakness for women, a showboat who put his money where his mouth was, a man who demanded and gave loyalty yet allowed himself to be used. As his marriage to second wife Belinda (Nona Gaye) breaks down in Zaire over his affair with Veronica Porsche (Michael Michele, TV's "ER"), she's disgusted that he trusts Don King (Mykelti Williamson, "Three Kings"), who 'lives white, talks black and thinks green.'
Mann goes against the commercial grain by bringing us into boxing bouts with no slo-mo (climatic last punch excepted) and once again employing the offbeat world music composers Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke ("The Insider"). Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki ("A Little Princess") eschews a glossy commercial style for the overlit, grainy look of the period.
Smith's physical transformation, including his new bulk and taped down ears, is so impressive, one forgets one's watching the star of "The Wild, Wild West." He's got the moves and the voice to match. His chemistry with the equally impressive Voight as Cosell is palpable.
While "Ali" the film isn't the greatest, its quality components still make it an Oscar contender.
B
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