This comprehensive two-part documentary on Muhammad Ali focuses almost entirely on his boxing career with extensive footage of his fights from those as an amateur all the way through to his ill-considered final fights when he was clearly past his best. Indeed, just to make the point, as the film progresses, we are constantly shown his updated career record after his every bout.
Director Antoine Fuqua eschews any kind of narrative voice-over to contextualise time and place although he does insert a few contemporary events to try to place Ali in his era but while the reporting of say, the killings of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and America's involvement in the Vietnam War are obvious staging posts given Ali's stance on Civil Rights and the war, I didn't get the insertions on Watergate and Nixon's resignation or the U. S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics.
I also felt that more coverage could have been given of Ali's siding with the official Nation of Islam rather than its rebellious spokesman Malcolm X and his three-year fight against the Draft even as I appreciate these could themselves be the subjects of separate documentaries. There was also next to nothing on Ali's personal or family life bar the odd appearance-in-passing of his mother, wife and children in background footage.
What there is though is lots of fight action from his earliest fights as an amateur, winning the Olympic gold medal, interestingly as a light-heavyweight, through his climb to the top and momentous fights with Liston, Foreman and of course Frazier although I'd almost forgotten about his titanic series of scraps with Ken Norton for one. Oddly, the film ignores any reference to the controversial, computerised so-called "Super-Fight" with Rocky Marciano.
These sporting clips show a wonderful athlete and pugilist who revolutionised the fight game with his speed and movement. It's a sin and a shame that he was deprived of the chance to fight at his absolute peak for the three years he was instead fighting the Courts, a loss to sports fans I can only equate with the premature retiral of football genius George Best at the age of 26.
It was sad of course to see Ali's physical and mental degeneration as he succumbs to Parkinson's Disease, although he still managed to live to a good age, but the film makes no reference to any possible link between this and his years as a boxer. I was pleased though to be reminded of his charitable and humanitarian works including his part in freeing U. S. hostages in Iraq.
Again though, we don't get to really see those occasions when he went too far in his personal criticisms of his opponents, most notably his arch-nemesis Frazier. Although some might describe these antics as publicity-seeking trash-talk, some of it was offensive and regrettable, in my opinion. I could also have done without the inclusion of Ali mocking the gay community in one TV interview.
Nevertheless, slanted and selective as they were, it was impossible not to come away from these programmes with a heightened appreciation of the sporting legacy of the man voted Athlete of the 20th Century. Perhaps it wasn't the rounded portrait of this particular artist I might have hoped for but it will certainly enhance his legend of that I have no doubt.
Director Antoine Fuqua eschews any kind of narrative voice-over to contextualise time and place although he does insert a few contemporary events to try to place Ali in his era but while the reporting of say, the killings of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and America's involvement in the Vietnam War are obvious staging posts given Ali's stance on Civil Rights and the war, I didn't get the insertions on Watergate and Nixon's resignation or the U. S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics.
I also felt that more coverage could have been given of Ali's siding with the official Nation of Islam rather than its rebellious spokesman Malcolm X and his three-year fight against the Draft even as I appreciate these could themselves be the subjects of separate documentaries. There was also next to nothing on Ali's personal or family life bar the odd appearance-in-passing of his mother, wife and children in background footage.
What there is though is lots of fight action from his earliest fights as an amateur, winning the Olympic gold medal, interestingly as a light-heavyweight, through his climb to the top and momentous fights with Liston, Foreman and of course Frazier although I'd almost forgotten about his titanic series of scraps with Ken Norton for one. Oddly, the film ignores any reference to the controversial, computerised so-called "Super-Fight" with Rocky Marciano.
These sporting clips show a wonderful athlete and pugilist who revolutionised the fight game with his speed and movement. It's a sin and a shame that he was deprived of the chance to fight at his absolute peak for the three years he was instead fighting the Courts, a loss to sports fans I can only equate with the premature retiral of football genius George Best at the age of 26.
It was sad of course to see Ali's physical and mental degeneration as he succumbs to Parkinson's Disease, although he still managed to live to a good age, but the film makes no reference to any possible link between this and his years as a boxer. I was pleased though to be reminded of his charitable and humanitarian works including his part in freeing U. S. hostages in Iraq.
Again though, we don't get to really see those occasions when he went too far in his personal criticisms of his opponents, most notably his arch-nemesis Frazier. Although some might describe these antics as publicity-seeking trash-talk, some of it was offensive and regrettable, in my opinion. I could also have done without the inclusion of Ali mocking the gay community in one TV interview.
Nevertheless, slanted and selective as they were, it was impossible not to come away from these programmes with a heightened appreciation of the sporting legacy of the man voted Athlete of the 20th Century. Perhaps it wasn't the rounded portrait of this particular artist I might have hoped for but it will certainly enhance his legend of that I have no doubt.