Ali (2001)
Introduction:
Before beginning the review I must tell you some important facts. Will Smith (Mohammad Ali)
had trained for 2 years to become a (or, as some said, "to start looking like a") boxer. He had taken this job
really seriously.
This movie is based on true facts and is the life story of a worldwide known champion boxer, known as Mohammad
Ali. You might know him, you might not. But he has 3 times lost and regained his world champion title, which
makes him appear in the Guinness Book of Records.
Some say, and I agree, that Mohammad Ali was the same kind of person as Martin Luther King, and that they both
fighted for the same thing: rights for black people. But I think that Ali didn't at all do it the same way as
MLK. But he did it anyways.
Review
This movie takes place in the USA, during the years of racism. Blacks are being persecuted and killed.
The only ones that can still live almost normally are the famous people. And this is what Cassius Clay, later on
called Mohammad Ali, will become trough the movie. A famous person. A world boxing champion.
The movie begins at Ali's hometown, Lousville, where he will start his career in the city's boxing center and then,
slowly but surely, rise up to become a worldwide boxing champion. The movie is the quest of this man, who seeks the
world boxing champion title, but in the same time, tries to understand why black people are being persecuted. He wants to know.
And from his star position, where almost nobody can touch him, he will not become the little gentle boxer who just
wins championship and all. No. He will try to show to the world what black people have to live with each day: the insults,
the different bus places, etc...
This movie is also a movie that shows how most people do not care about each other. The father of islam that, at
first, shows a lot of respect for Cassius Clay, and who gives him the honorary name of Mohammad Ali, lets Ali down
immediately when he learns that this one got into trouble because he had refused to join the US army to go fight
in the Vietcong. But there are still some persons that care about Ali, per example his wife, but then Ali himself
lets her down.
After you've looked at the movie, the questions you might ask yourself are: Why were the black people persecuted in the USA?
In what kind of society are we living in? Are we really living in a "society", where everybody's sociable? What is the
meaning of life?
All these questions, and surely some more, can come to your head after you've seen this movie.
All this to say that this
movie, even if some people might not like it, has got some strong points and is a good movie.
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Buy the video
Buy the DVD
Movie Quotes:
"I am the great!" Ali
"I am sorry, but I got to ask this question: some people say that you are not the man you were 10 years ago anymore, what do you have to say?" The Interviewer
"I am sorry too, yes, I talked to your wide and you know what she told me? Well she told me that you are not the man you were 2 years ago!" Ali
Links:
Ali Movie Official Site
Ali's profile by The Time
Articles, books & photos of Ali by the NY Times
Ali Center Web Site
Ali's items to buy
Ali-Frazier 1971: The Fight of the Century
Ali's complete list of fights + 1 random Ali item to buy
Ali's interview (60 years old) with NPR
(see the transcript of the NPR interview because Ali has Parkinson and is difficult to understand in the interview)
Ali's photos by Howard Bingham
Ali's 35 covers of Sports Illustrated
Ali's and Frazier's two daughters fight
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