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Every year, there’s always one movie that never quite
grabs you emotionally, but is still technically perfect. A
few years ago, it was L.A. CONFIDENTIAL. After that, SAVING
PRIVATE RYAN. You know what I’m talking about. It gets
tons of acclaim and all the award nominations it can handle,
even though it never connects with the audience the way your
TITANICs or your SHAKESPEARE IN LOVEs do. This year, ALI is
that film. While I did like it quite a lot, I can’t say
that it was the most fun I’ve ever had in a movie theater,
nor can I say that I’ll ever see it again. It’s
just not the kind of movie that you watch over and over. In
fact, ALI is very much like a finely made chair or table—expertly
crafted sure, but with little else to offer anyone.
That being said, what a fine looking chair or table it is.
Michael Mann is truly one of the best directors we’ve
got working for us these days. The style he brings to the
screen is truly unique. In fact, the sequences of the film
shot on video looked so good, I almost wished the entire thing
had been done in that format. Now, the pacing of the film
is what some of your more hyperactive types would call “slow”
or “lagging,” but not I. No, I call it… well,
slow and lagging, but in a good way. Many of the shots in
ALI seem to linger a few beats too long, creating a tenuous
balance between artistic style and forgetting to turn off
the camera. But it all comes together in the end, creating
a film of such technical grace, you almost forget that you
already know everything in the plot.
The time span of the film takes us from Cassius Clay’s
re-birth into Muslim-hood as Muhammed Ali all the way to his
infamous bout with George Foreman, also known as The Rumble
in the Jungle. This, as any fan will tell you, is a pretty
well documented time in the champ’s life. So really,
there aren’t any surprises here. I took my father to
see this with me (he being president of the Ali: The Greatest
Fan Club) and he was neither shocked nor surprised by any
of the info presented in the movie. Which is not to say that
the movie is boring. On the contrary, the movie is quite exciting,
but the reason for that has more to do with a trio of fine
performances than it does with amazing plot twists.
Let’s start at the top… Will Smith as Muhammed
Ali. A lot of people I know pooh-poohed the idea of Smith
taking on the role simply because “he was in that piece
of crap WILD, WILD WEST.” Granted, that movie was bad
like murder is bad, but you don’t see people sneering
at Kevin Klein or Kenneth Brannagh in the same manner. And
might I remind you, Will Smith was just playing himself in
that movie. Brannagh gave what was not only the worst performance
of his career, but also what will forever be known as one
of the worst performances of all time in the history of cinema.
So lay of the Fresh Prince, ’kay? As it happens, Will
Smith is terrific in ALI. In fact, about halfway through the
film, I stopped thinking of him as “Will Smith, Actor”
and began to just see the brash young fighter that we all
know and love. As far as becoming a role, I would equate Smith’s
performance to that of Jim Carrey’s in MAN ON THE MOON.
As Carrey was Kauffman, so goes Smith as Ali.
Moving on, let’s discuss Jon Voight for a minute. Now
as a general rule, I don’t care for Mr. Voight. He’s
always struck me as an actor who makes movies solely to pay
his electric bill and nothing more. In the last 10 years or
so, his most notable performance was that of the almost offensively
Spanish-accented villain in ANACONDA. Not what you’d
call an A-list role. But here, he gives a moving, if not brief,
turn as Howard Cosell that I guarantee will be mentioned come
Oscar time.
And speaking of which, I hereby officially nominate Jamie
Foxx for the aforementioned award. Who the hell knew Jamie
Foxx could actually act? If I’m not mistaken, wasn’t
he the lead character in one of The WB’s crap line-up
of sitcoms? How he got from there to ALI by way of a fine
role in ANY GIVEN SUNDAY I’ll never know. But his Bundini
Brown is a sad, almost tragic portrait of addiction and pain,
rivaling some of the best out there right now. If we can keep
him out of movies like BOOTY CALL, we should have a fine actor
on our hands.
Really, it all comes down to style and performance. ALI has
got both in spades and I honestly can’t imagine anyone
different in front of or behind the camera. While not a moving
picture by any means, it is certainly one made at the highest
level of skill and for that, I declare it one of the finest
films of the season.
—Clint Davis
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