Rich On Ali

Rich on Reception goes to the movies

Easy to punch holes into films, you know. Obviously. What am I telling you for? We all do it.

My old man asked me recently how the economy in The Lord Of The Rings works. He asked how the Middle Earth people were supplied with power and who farmed the food. If they did, what did they receive in return? I responded with "They use magic. They can do what they want." He wasn't convinced but it shut him up.

My mate once said it was very harsh on the construction workers who were on the Death Star in Return Of The Jedi, because they were blown up in the middle of an honest day's work. Fair point. That was harsh.

Name the film and a hole can be ripped open. You have to be careful to avoid doing it sometimes, I think. If something bothers you it's best to ignore it or it can ruin the whole experience for you.

My main problem is seeing over-the-hill, burnt-out Hollywood actors 'performing' stunts they quite simply can't do. Sean Connery is the master. You can't argue with his Bond credentials but I have no interest in the seeing the old boy dangling from a building while defusing a bomb. It just doesn't work for me. Sean, mate, you're old. Where's your dignity? Down the plug hole with his hair, apparently.

Slow burn

The reason I've come round to this subject is because I went to watch Ali last night. Let me do the summing up bit and I'll get back to my earlier points. Ali is about 10 years in the life of Muhammad Ali/ Cassius Clay from the age of 22-32, culminating in the Rumble in the Jungle fight in Zaire in the early Seventies. It charts the struggle of a black political figure, family man and business man rolled into one, up against the odds and defying a government. I think.

We all know Muhammad Ali. We've seen most of his fights and we've seen what he's like today. We know what he achieved and when. We know he's a legend. So it was always going to be hard to produce the movie. There are going to be times when we think, "I don't remember that happening," or, "That's not true!" But as much as it's a biography it also needs to be an engaging piece of entertainment.

Director duties are handled by Michael Mann, whose credits include Heat and The Insider. The latter quite closely resembles Ali - another slow-burning biopic. Clearly very much up to speed on his facts and figures, Mann has gone for a very documentary-like feel. There's very little action but lots and lots of talking. And when the action does come it's worth waiting for. The boxing scenes will make it hard to take Rocky seriously again, although if you squint during the slow-mo pieces you can see the Italian stallion in the background. Especially with the cut-to-wife-looking-distressed-during-the-fight-shots. Adrian Balboa is listed in the credits as an adviser on those bits.

Faultless reproduction

What surprised me like most, was the choice of Will Smith in the title role. I've long been a Fresh Prince Of Bel Air fan and, although he can be wooden, I like him, because it's hard not to. So I went in hoping he'd do well. However this still takes me back to my original point. It's hard to believe you're watching Mohammed Ali when you've seen him blow up a 600-mile-wide alien spaceship.

Once you get used to Will Smith you do take it for granted he is Ali. His presence is clear very early on. A lot has been made of his training and effort for this movie and it genuinely is there to see. He is big and strong and dressed to look as much like Ali as anyone could hope. He obviously worked hard on the voice because his reproduction of the famous Ali rants and rhymes is faultless. His dedication to the role makes it hard not to like the film overall.

When I think back to the film I saw last night, I can honestly say that, despite the two and whatever hours I sat in my seat, there's very little I can tell you. Largely because a whole lot is shown on screen, but very little actually happened. To make a film-sized version of someone's life means you have to structure a story around something that doesn't have a simple beginning, middle and end. And so they chose a period in his life that had the most talking points. His refusal to go to Vietnam, his marriage break-ups and his winning, losing and then regaining the world title.

Flawed

But none of these incidents are capable of holding an audience's attention in any other film, so why should they here, just because they are true events?

I did find some of this fascinating and really enjoyed seeing Ali as a normal person doing normal things. But it is flawed. There are hints toward the political effect of Ali, and lots of whispering government officials and bad guys in the shadows, but you never actually know what's being whispered. I wonder if Mann knows, anymore than the next man.

Then there's his personal life. You see him meet a bird in a party and, by the next scene, they're married, then a couple of scenes later they are divorced. You're not really told why. This is fair enough if they're avoiding talking about his marriages but they're not. They're treated with import but brushed aside to tell another part of his story.

Noble

And usually the next part feels brushed aside too. More importantly, every time he gets divorced he comes out looking remarkably noble. He's had three failed marriages but is still presented as flawless.

What I resented - and I mean that - is not knowing who in hell half the characters actually were. It was only Malcolm X's glasses that gave him away. There's at least five or six other people I still couldn't tell you about. Characters just aren't introduced here. Neither is the Muslim thing. I don't know much about Islam and I don't suppose a whole lot of the people in the cinema did either but Mann assumes we do - or decides that, if we don't, we don't deserve to know, so he doesn't bother explaining it.

The running time, incidentally, is a long running time because there's, well, a whole lot of running time. Literally. He runs everywhere and we see every step of his journeys. The running looks good, it's very picturesque and shows him as the people's champ but after a while you're thinking, "Enough with the running already!"

Quality support

The supporting cast is quality. The actors are mostly unknown or unrecognisable, so you take it for granted that these are the real people. I didn't even notice Jon Voight until I saw his name in the credits and slapped my head in surprise. In fact the film is perfectly cast and acted all round. And, come to think of it, the direction is classy and engaging. The script is also very sharp and slips in dozens of Ali-isms.

So where did it go wrong? Ironically it's the subject matter that let it down. Or at least the writers' version of it. The refusal to go in depth on anything that may or may not be controversial makes the film suffer. It's odd because Ali apparently advised them on-set. Maybe he asked them to take it easy on him. I liked Ali, but I wanted to like it more.

Rich
Unit 2 Reception
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