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Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Posted By: Efgrapha
Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC, 16:9 (720x480) VBR | 02:44:59 | 7.75 Gb
Audio: English AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps | Subs: English, French, Spanish
Genre: Sports Drama, Biopic

Notoriously obsessive director Michael Mann and star Will Smith devoted nearly two years and over 100 million dollars from the coffers of Columbia Pictures and other financiers to creating this biography of boxing great Muhammad Ali, which focuses on the ten-year period of 1964-1974. In that time, the brash, motor-mouthed athlete quickly dominates his sport, meets and marries his first wife (Jada Pinkett-Smith), converts to Islam (changing his name from Cassius Clay), and defies the United States government by refusing to submit to military conscription for duty in Vietnam. His world heavyweight champion title thus stripped from him entirely for political reasons, the champ sets about to win back his crown, culminating in a legendary unification bout against George Foreman (Charles Shufford) in Zaire, dubbed the "Rumble in the Jungle." In his travels, Ali becomes a symbol of power to disenfranchised African-Americans everywhere and meets such luminaries as Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles), Martin Luther King Jr. (LeVar Burton) and Maya Angelou (Martha Edgerton). Ali features an all-star supporting cast that includes Jon Voight, Giancarlo Esposito, Jamie Foxx, Nona Gaye, Michael Michele, Joe Morton, Paul Rodriguez, Ron Silver, Mykelti Williamson, and Jeffrey Wright.

Synopsis by Karl Williams, Allmovie.com

He was, of course, the greatest. He told us so himself. We believed him them. We believe him now.

In "Ali," we believe it because we believe Will Smith in the role.

If Michael Mann's new biopic of Muhammad Ali is not right up there with the gold standard of boxing biographies, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro's "Raging Bull," it misses by only a whisker.

"Ali" connects so often and so persuasively that its shortcomings – the movie goes slack from time to time – really don't amount to much.

The film covers 10 years of the boxer's life that were also pivotal years in the nation's history, from 1964 to 1974. Social and political upheaval – civil rights, assassinations, the Vietnam War – coincided directly with the heavyweight champion's rise to worldwide fame and, extraordinarily for a prizefighter, moral influence.

At more than 2 1/2 hours, the film's length is both its weakness and the source of much of its strength. It's a trade-off many of us will gladly make.

Look at the ground covered. Inside the ring, there are bouts with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Jerry Quarry. Outside, there are Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Elijah Muhammad. At ringside, there are the women in Ali's life, especially Jada Pinkett Smith as first wife Sonji Roi, an independent spirit who didn't meet his requirements for a Muslim spouse.

In the most surprising supporting role of all, there is Jon Voight as the often imitated but nonetheless inimitable sportscaster Howard Cosell, who, among other things, became an unlikely father figure for Ali.

Smith's performance is probably inseparable from Mann's directing of it – including amazingly observed and detailed fight sequences. In any case, it is a complete transformation of an actor we thought was very familiar. It is rare to see an actor lose himself so completely in a role.

Beefier and fuller in the face, Smith projects not just the flamboyant showman Ali, playing to the media and psyching out his opponents, but also the steel-willed figure of impeccable morality. The speech cadences are there, including the taunting rhymes and outrageous declarations of his own beauty, but also, uncannily, what is unspoken. This is a very thoughtful Ali, and Smith makes us see what he is thinking.

Even though this film has the endorsement of Ali himself, it is by no means sugarcoated. Ali's fallings-out with his family, with women, with the American public over his refusal to be inducted into the military, even with Elijah Muhammad, are all there.

He had given up the "slave name" Cassius Clay to be renamed by the Black Muslim leader, who later would suspend him from the practice of Islam. If his conversion to Islam had shocked boxing fans in the first place, his refusal to fight in Vietnam shocked them even more. Notoriously, Ali declared, "No Viet Cong ever called me nigger." He was indicted for draft evasion and barred from the ring at the height of his career and of his power as a boxer.

He remained his own man. His response to all this: "I never stopped being a Muslim, I never stopped being a champion."

The length of the movie has its payoffs. Early on, Mann takes his time to show the changing fortunes of the match with then-champion Liston (Michael Bentt), catching Ali's cocky stride giving way to stumbling from impaired sight. The defiance in Liston's own eyes turns to fear, and there is the convincing detail of his mouthpiece falling to the canvas. In another fight, a knockout blow is preceded by a sound like an avalanche about to hit.

Mann is creator of TV's "Miami Vice" and director of the original Hannibal Lecter movie, "Manhunter," as well as last year's "The Insider," with Russell Crowe. Even as "Ali" resolutely unfolds, Mann does not italicize its points. There are no titles to announce dates or locations, nor does he take pains to telegraph that Mario Van Peebles, for example, is Malcolm X. He lets the audience put the pieces together, which is one of the pleasures of this film.

Pinkett Smith, the star's wife, shares a mesmerizing erotic scene with him on the dance floor at the beginning of the Sonji-Ali relationship. "I always know what I know," he tells her. One of the things he says he knows is that he is prettier than she is.

An out-of-the-ring scene with Frazier (James Toney), when Ali asks him to announce a rematch if Ali beats Quarry, is very effective. Then, Ali's embrace of the exhausted Quarry in the ring is unexpectedly moving.

Mykelti Williamson as promoter Don King, possibly the only man who could outdo Ali in outrageousness, restores the film to life as it approaches the two-hour mark, for the "Rumble in the Jungle" match in Zaire with Foreman.

Ali's matches included verbal sparring with Cosell when ABC was the undisputed champion of sports broadcasting. Cosell knew good TV when he saw it,

and he saw that Ali was a natural. Voight's impersonation – a style of acting so unusual for this actor – is a constant delight. Their bantering makes it easy to believe that Ali's best relationship, at least in this movie, was with Howard Cosell.

Review by Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle

IMDB 6,7/10 from 68 218 users

Wiki

Director: Michael Mann

Writers: Michael Mann, Eric Roth, Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson

Cast: Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Mario Van Peebles, Jeffrey Wright, Mykelti Williamson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Nona Gaye and other

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]

Ali (2001) [Director's Cut]


Special Features:

Audio commentary with director/co-writer/co-producer Michael Mann
"Making-of" featurette (29 min)

All thanks to original releaser

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