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ALI
DELIVERS A KNOCKOUT PUNCH TO HIS CRITICS & APPLAUSE TO
HOWARD KOSELL
 Of
all the boxers, Muhammad Ali was perhaps the most politically
savvy. The film Ali attempts to weave politics
into what might otherwise seem a conventional biopic, with
many minutes of fight scenes, love stories, and musical interludes.
Directed by Michael Mann, whose The
Insider won the Political Film Society’s
award for best film exposé in 1999, Ali begins by depicting
a youngster named Cassius Clay, who gains awareness of the
oppression of African Americans early in life, converts to
Islam under the influence of Malcolm X (played by Mario Van
Peebles), renames himself Cassius X (played by Will Smith)
when he first becomes world heavyweight champion by knocking
out Sonny Liston (played by Michael Bentt) in 1964 at the
age of twenty-two, and then is renamed Muhammad Ali by Elijah
Muhammad. Ali, however, is an articulate early opponent of
the American role in Vietnam’s civil war. Of draft age,
his previous deferment from military service is revoked, and
he is ordered to report for induction. His conscience prevents
him from doing so, so he is arrested, tried, and convicted
of a violation of a law in which the maximum sentence is five
years in jail and a $10,000 fine. While
his case is on appeal, however, his boxing license is revoked
in Illinois and New York, he is stripped of his world heavyweight
title, and the legal costs deplete his earnings.
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Not so Howard Kosell (played by Jon Voight), who respects
Ali’s integrity and keeps his name before the television
audience while even his so-called best friends desert him.
Soon, Ali gets back in the limelight by arranging a fight
with reigning heavyweight champ Joe Frazier (played by James
Toney) in Atlanta, as Georgia has no boxing commission. When
the Supreme Court finally rules 8-0 that Ali was wrongfully
given an induction notice, he is eager to regain the heavyweight
title. Don King (played by Mykelti Williamson) then arranges
a match in Kinshasa, Zaïre, where President-for-Life
Mobutu (played by Malick Bowens) puts up $20 million, with
George Forman (played by Charles Shufford). The film ends
as Ali knocks out Forman and regains his world heavyweight
title in 1974 at the age of thirty-two, though of course he
fought many other fights, earlier as well as later. Titles
at the end indicate that he now lives in Michigan with his
third wife. Gratuitously interlaced throughout Ali are scenes
of the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King,
Jr. The film shows the ugly politics within both boxing and
the Nation of Islam, that is, how Ali was used by others.
The most eloquent speech is Ali’s explanation for refusing
to agree to be drafted -- that he saw no reason for a black
man to fight for the white man to kill poor people in Asia
when the white man in America has never stood up for the black
man. The speech clearly provides the explanation for the government’s
desire to draft him or jail him, but the unanimous Supreme
Court ruling is based on the clumsy bypassing of due process.
Many who have followed Ali’s career in the media will
be surprised to see such a coherent presentation of a man
of conviction and integrity, and Ali’s
tagline cautions prospective filmviewers accordingly: "Forget
what you think you know." It should therefore be no surprise
that the Political Film Society has nominated Ali
as best film exposé for 2001. MH
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