Ali (2001)

Float Like a Butterfly

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Ali on DVD.

Michael Mann's Ali reveals most of the usual strengths and weaknesses of big-budget biopics. At the center, Will Smith gives a great performance as the all-time great boxer, Muhammed Ali, and Jon Voight matches him with a jaw-dropping performance as sportscaster Howard Cosell. The film manages to capture the essence of the man himself, but the surrounding elements of his life -- even at nearly three hours -- feel sadly incomplete. Not even a ten-hour film could properly do justice to a man's life, especially one as complicated as Ali's, or Malcolm X's or Chaplin's or Jackson Pollock's. Mann pays homage to Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles) during the first third by showing Ali's friendship with him, but steering off course to finish the Malcolm X story (somewhat more effective than Spike Lee and Denzel Washington's 1992 version) before moving on with Ali's. And the last third was better told by the documentary When We Were Kings. But Mann keeps things well-oiled with his lack of sentiment, Smith provides the movie with a soul, and the friendship between Ali and Cosell give the movie its heart.

Starring: Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Mario Van Peebles, Ron Silver, Jeffrey Wright, Mykelti Williamson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Joe Morton
Written by: Gregory Allen Howard, Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson, Eric Roth, Michael Mann
Directed by: Michael Mann
MPAA Rating: R for some language and brief violence
Running Time: 165 minutes
Date: December 25, 2001