title: THE GREATEST
year: 1977
cast: Mohammad Ali, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Duvall
rating: **
In 1977 Mohammad Ali wasn't only a boxing champion, he was a personality. His confidence and poetic rants made people smile, sometimes in disbelief.
So they decided, instead of creating a documentary, to allow him to star in a film covering his lean hungry youth, when he went by the name Cassius Clay, to his rise as "the greatest boxer in the world".
Another somewhat dependable actor plays a teenage Ali, but then we switch to the real thing much too soon. When this was shot, Ali was a man who seemed mellow and tired i.e. nearing the end of his game. An iconic millionaire playing a hungry climber is not only misplaced, but at times downright embarrassing.
While he does have a graceful, laidback charm, and it's fun seeing him interact with real actors like Ernest Borgnine and Robert Duvall, the film, in cutting from excerpts of actual fights back to the movie-at-hand, feels spotty and contrived.
This is Ali's personal propaganda for his life and name-changing Muslim faith and the hardships against the white man, all played out like something you'd see on television. And the last fifteen minutes, as Ali jogs to a Bill Conti-like score before the final bout, it's obvious that without Sly Stallone's blockbuster ROCKY the year before, THE GREATEST would never have been made: at least not in this fashion.
So they decided, instead of creating a documentary, to allow him to star in a film covering his lean hungry youth, when he went by the name Cassius Clay, to his rise as "the greatest boxer in the world".
Another somewhat dependable actor plays a teenage Ali, but then we switch to the real thing much too soon. When this was shot, Ali was a man who seemed mellow and tired i.e. nearing the end of his game. An iconic millionaire playing a hungry climber is not only misplaced, but at times downright embarrassing.
While he does have a graceful, laidback charm, and it's fun seeing him interact with real actors like Ernest Borgnine and Robert Duvall, the film, in cutting from excerpts of actual fights back to the movie-at-hand, feels spotty and contrived.
This is Ali's personal propaganda for his life and name-changing Muslim faith and the hardships against the white man, all played out like something you'd see on television. And the last fifteen minutes, as Ali jogs to a Bill Conti-like score before the final bout, it's obvious that without Sly Stallone's blockbuster ROCKY the year before, THE GREATEST would never have been made: at least not in this fashion.
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