Release date: 25th December 2001

Cast: Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith

Director: Michael Mann

Run time: 2hrs 47mins

Rating: 6.8/10

Ali is a life story of heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, following the champ’s early days as Cassius Clay and his rise in sports and politics, including his controversial refusal to fight in the Vietnam War and his infamous comeback battles against Joe Frazier and George Foreman.

Ali in the 1960s stood for the proposition that principles matter, that equality among people is just and proper, and that the war in Vietnam was wrong. Every time he looked in the mirror and preened, “I’m so pretty,” he was saying “black is beautiful” before it became fashionable to do so. But one of the reasons Ali had the impact he did was because there was an ugly edge to what he said. Many of his views changed later on, but he was unrepentant regarding what he once believed. And by covering up the true nature of Ali’s earlier beliefs, the current keepers of his legacy are losing sight of why he so enthralled and enraged segments of American society.

Ali’s love affair with the world reached its zenith in 1996, when he was chosen to light the Olympic flame in Atlanta. It was a glorious moment. More than three billion people watched on television and were united by love and caring for one man. But the 1996 Olympics carried negatives as well, for it was in Atlanta that corporate America “rediscovered” Ali. Since then, there has been a determined effort to rewrite history. In order to take advantage of Ali’s economic potential, it was deemed desirable to “sanitize” him. As a result, all of the rough edges have been filed away from his life story.