Ali

By Teddy Durgin
tedfilm@aol.com

Muhammad Ali truly was the greatest of all times. Still probably the most famous man on the planet, Ali transcended the sport of boxing to become an ambassador to the world and an entertainer for the masses. Not only could he punch, jab, and dance his way to win after win in the ring, the guy was truly and legitimately funny as Hell!

In journalist terms, he was a "great quote."

Will Smith has done something I didn't think he could do. In the role of his lifetime, he has managed to transform himself into Ali. The new movie Ali features an incredible and Oscar-worthy performance by the former Fresh Prince. He's so good in the role, we're gonna have to rename him the Fresh King! It takes about five to 10 minutes of screen time to get used to him as the boxer. After all, both men are mega-famous, albeit in different ways. Smith does it through a nice one-two combination of Ali's rehearsed, flowing vocal pattern and his often-imitated, never-duplicated style of boxing.

Muhammad Ali was really the first sports figure I thrilled to in my youth, yet amazingly I can't recall ever seeing him fight. My most vivid memory of The Champ was his guest-starring role on Diff'rent Strokes in which he made the Gooch faint just by talking to him on the phone. But I also remember his hilariously entertaining interviews with ABC sports commentator Howard Cosell. I remember his rhyming boasts (Ali once bragged, "I'm so mean, I make medicine sick!"), his good humor, and his keen mind.

Most of all, I remember his wonderful rapport and frequent jokes as the expense of Cosell. In the film Ali, Jon Voight is just outstanding as the late commentator. As with Ali, it would have been so easy to do a lame imitation of the man. Smith and Voight make both men real, and their byplay on-camera and off is alternately hilarious and touching. To this day, you can't think of one without the other.

Smith, in particular, is so good at capturing everything that Ali was in his prime that it's a bit of a shame that Michael Mann's big-budget biopic isn't a better movie. Smith gives a great performance in a merely good movie. There are 100 ways to tell any story. Ali would probably tell you there are 1,000 ways to tell his. Mann, who directed such diverse films as Heat and The Last of the Mohicans, chooses to set his movie mainly between the years 1964 and 1974. As such, we only get a fleeting glimpse into Ali's, a.k.a. Cassius Clay's, childhood and adolescence. Instead, Mann chooses to make Ali's friendship with Malcolm X (Mario Van Pebbles, in the best role of his career) the jumping-off point for the movie. When the community leader is slain, the movie starts to fall out of focus, literally becoming a Greatest Hits of Ali's career.

In the end, what we get is something of a Cliff Notes version of the boxer's prime. The classic fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman are there. So, too, are Ali's ups and downs with the Nation of Islam and his historic stand against the Vietnam War draft. But the film is somewhat confusing from a chronological standpoint. It short-changes several key moments and figures in Ali's life-Ron Silver as trainer Angelo Dundee barely has any dialogue. And I was really shocked that the movie ended with Ali's triumph over Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle and makes no mention of his current battle with Parkinson's Disease.

Ali feels somewhat incomplete. Consequently, the film's inability to crack many critics' 10 Best lists may make Smith vulnerable come Oscar time.

Regardless, my money's still on the champ.

Ali is rated R for violence and language..