classicsoncall It should probably be a given that real life sports celebrities should never depict themselves in stories about their own life. Baseball star Jackie Robinson was called upon to do the same thing in a 1950 movie about his career up till then - "The Jackie Robinson Story". Quite unexpectedly, Robinson displayed a surprising lack of charisma portraying himself, no doubt due to the fact that he was probably very self conscious appearing on screen. The same can't be said of Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali of course. I don't think anyone could ever accuse him of being camera shy, but this picture simply doesn't do the former champ justice.I say this with the hindsight of having grown up with Clay/Ali's name in the headlines virtually non-stop from the time he became a heavyweight contender and handed Sonny Liston that stunning defeat to become World Champion on February 25th, 1964. From that point on, the colorful boxer maintained a ubiquitous presence on front pages of the nation's newspapers with his prophetic poetry and outsized ego. The story here does touch on all that, with a whirlwind overview of his troubles with the government and the matches that brought him his second world title at the 'Rumble in the Jungle' in Kinshasa, Zaire against a formidable George Foreman.Notably absent from this biopic, and one I can't quite understand, was the omission of legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell, who followed Ali's career closely and became a close friend. With other members of Ali's inner circle portrayed by actors like Ernest Borgnine, John Marley and Lloyd Haines, Cosell's absence stuck out like a sore thumb for this viewer.One thing that the picture depicted that I was never aware of was the business with the young Clay throwing away his Olympic gold medal over a racial grievance. I can't imagine how that ever got by me, and so I questioned it's accuracy while watching the picture. An internet search revealed a story about someone finding the medal in the Ohio River some fifty four years later on June 21, 2014, thereby putting to rest any concerns that the story was fabricated by the loquacious Ali as a publicity stunt when it was revealed for the first time.Die hard Muhammad Ali fans will probably want to tune into this story, but on the flip side, die hard fans won't learn anything new, so the novelty would be in seeing Ali portray himself as a young man on his climb to becoming 'The Greatest'. Unlikely as it may seem, the 2001 film "Ali" starring Will Smith as the legendary champ is more inspirational than this one, and comes recommended for fans of the boxer and the man.

skullislandsurferdotcom 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 to, instead of creating a documentary, allow him to star, as himself, 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: at 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, laid-back charm, and it's fun seeing him interact with real actors like Ernest Borgnine and Robert Duvall, the film's cutting from excerpts of actual fights back to the movie-at-hand is preposterously contrived.This Ali's personal propaganda for his Muslim faith and the hardships against the white man, all played out like something you'd see on television but without a lean young actor, much needed to capture the intensity attempted herein.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 the year before, this probably would never have been made: at least not in this fashion.

James Byrne THE GREATEST is a lamentable attempt to chronicle the tumultuous life and career of self-proclaimed 'Greatest boxer of all-time', Muhammad Ali, between the fourteen year period of his 1960 olympic success and regaining the world title against George Foreman in 1974. This flat, boring and unrealistic mess fails in every department, it doesn't entertain the movie fan, or enlighten the boxing aficionado. Ali plays himself - and doesn't do a very good job of it. The spontaneity, charisma, energy and humour that Ali displayed in his televised real life press conferences is sadly missing from his screen performance. What we get is a subdued, below-par Ali, sometimes mumbling and slurring his lines, making hard work of Ring Lardner's lackadaisical script and the inept direction of Tom Gries. James Earl Jones, who has a very brief cameo as Malcolm X, summed up Ali's acting ability with succinct honesty: 'Given his own words, he was a great performer, but given somebody else's words there was a self-consciousness that he was unable to overcome. Ali wasn't a great craftsman in the art of acting'.Jones doesn't come out of this movie with much credit either. He's much too bulky and aged to convince as the dynamic Malcolm X. The only really good performance comes from Ben Johnson as the head of the syndicate who sponsor Ali after his olympic triumph. Johnson once starred in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, in which a world heavyweight boxing champion, Primo Carnera, spars with a gorilla, the irony of which was not lost on me as I viewed this movie - given Ali's nickname for his bitter ring rival Joe Frazier.In between the Acting-By-Numbers sequences, clips of Ali's real fights are shown. Grainy b/w footage of Ali battering Lamar Clark, Archie Moore and Willie Besmanoff, plus a montage in colour of his comeback bouts against Buster Mathis, George Chuvalo, Jerry Quarry, Floyd Patterson, Bob Foster, Joe Bugner and Ken Norton. What I found interesting was seeing his old amateur foe and gym-mate Jimmy Ellis once again sparring with Ali just before the second Norton fight. Ellis was one of the very few boxers to beat Ali as an amateur, in 1958 at Louisville.There is a dedication at the end of the movie to director Tom Gries, who sadly died immediately after filming was completed. For a far better tribute to Gries talent, see the great Charlton Heston western WILL PENNY.

Joseph P. Ulibas 9?¬9?est (1977) was a bio-pic that starred Muhammed Ali as himself. This film was based upon a biography that was titled the same as the movie. Who else could portray the "Greatest of All Time" other than the man himself. The movie follows Ali from when he was known as Cassius Clay, winning the boxing gold medal, winning the World's Heavyweight Boxing title from Sonny Liston, refusing to be inducted into the military because of his deep religious beliefs and so on. How far does the film go into his life? You'll have to find out when you watch THE GREATEST!!I felt that Ali did a good job of portraying himself. I can't see any other person being able of doing the job. ALI, the movie just didn't do the man justice. It was filled with a lot of flaws and omissions. THE GREATEST may not be the best movie around, but if you want to see the man in all of his glory then you have to watch this movie. It was a real hoot to see Ali running his famous "Louisville Lip" and it was also nice to see Ali's inner circle of friends and confidants live and up close. I enjoyed this film much more than the overrated ALI.Recommended for boxing fans.