ALIÂ (15)
D: Michael Mann
Columbia/Initial/Forward Pass/Picture
Entertainment/Overbrook (Jon Peters, James Lassiter, Paul Ardaji, Michael Mann & A. Kitman Ho)
USA 🇺🇸 2001
158 mins
Biopic/Sports
W: Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson, Eric Roth
& Michael Mann [based on a story by Gregory Allen Howard]
DP: Emmanuel Lubezki
Ed: William Goldenberg, Lynzee Klingman & Stephen
Rivkin
Mus: Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke
PD: John Mhyre
Will Smith (Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali), Jamie
Foxx (Drew 'Bundini' Brown), Jon Voight (Howard Cosell), Mario Van Peebles (Malcolm X), Angelo Dundee (Ron Silver), Jeffrey Wright (Howard Bingham), Mykelti Williamson (Don
King), Jada Pinkett Smith (Sonji)
An incredibly long, needlessly fleshed out biopic which
doesn't really focus on the background of one of the most famous sports personalities of the 20th century as much as I personally would have liked, instead it juxtaposes his renowned career
moments with significant events in the civil rights movement. Seemingly making the point that he wasn't the only black man in America involved in a fight.Â
Nevertheless, Will Smith does a brilliant job as Cassius
Clay/Muhammed Ali, carrying the film when the script let's it down.Â
The re-enactment of the Rumble In The Jungle fight was
also incredibly reconstructed, it's just a shame that the rest of the movie was a bit too pretentious and not a focused biopic many may have expected.
6/10