The Best of Michael Mann — Vol 3.
Originally written as part of the much larger career catalogue and opus blog article on the directorial history of Michael Mann linked immediately below, I penned this appreciation in a slightly different way as to focus on the film’s incredible beginning and its iconic ending. An immediate firm favourite on release, Ali is now over two decades old and charts as my third all time film from the Chicago born filmmaking master, Michael Mann.
Michael Mann and 9 films for your delectation!
The Keep, Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, Ali, Collateral, Miami Vice and Public Enemies.medium.com
“But I ain’t going no ten thousand miles to help murder and kill other poor people”.
Opening Scene: February 24th 1964
Over basic opening credits and to the strains of a brilliant version of Sam Cooke’s “Bring it on home to me”, we’re introduced to “Cassius Clay” aka “Muhammad Ali” (Will Smith) for the first time on an early morning training run. Anonymous in grey white sweatpants and top, with a passing police car and policeman asking “what are you running from, son?” the angles are all acute, both on Sam Cooke and Cassius Clay, shot from behind, underneath, with Cooke particularly obscured and purposely so as he sings live on a stage to an enthralled and baying crowd. The opening two minutes are a juxtaposition between the two, a singing and soulful Cooke in front of his adoring crowd, Clay anonymous on yet another early morning training run.
Training run over, the action cuts to a montage of Clay training on his speed ball in the gym, inter cut with images of his next opponent “Sonny Liston” (real life ex boxer Michael Bentt) and Clay’s early life of “Coloureds Only” bus trips and of being with his Father “Cassius Clay Senior” (Giancarlo Esposito) as a young child, watching the painting of an image of Jesus Christ in a church and quickly edited to a teenage Cassius Clay, standing at the back of a church whilst “Malcolm X” (Mario van Peebles) preaches to his community, a young Cassius Clay enthralled and transfixed. The camera here never moves from Smith and is one of the quietest and perfectly placed scenes of the entire film. Throughout all of this early exposition, the segments themselves have been brief but effective, and always backed by an inter cut back to Sam Cooke and his adoring crowd. During the speed ball training particularly and the inter cut imagery, Clay is wide eyed and staring straight ahead, one camera directly on Smith, only cut away for either the back story imagery or his reflection in a nearby mirror as he trains, before a close up zoom brings his speed ball training to an end.
With Sam Cooke’s rendition (still inter cut as we go) coming to a rousing finale’ we join Clay again in the gym, and very brief introductions to his long time trainer “Angelo Dundee” (Ron Silver), “Howard Bingham” (Jeffrey Wright) and “Bundini” (Jamie Foxx) with his immortal early line “Can I be in your corner, young man?”. But it’s Smith as the young Cassius Clay who really excels now, with pitch perfect replicas of Clay’s punching style, sounds and mannerisms, all with trademark wide eyed stare all with the nodding approval of his back up team.
The opening scene closes with three brilliant merging segments, a slow motion captured car ride to his pre fight weigh in with his team of Angelo Dundee, Bundini and Howard Bingham, to Clay (anonymous white robe) and team marching along an arena corridor toward the weigh in, and as Sam Cooke’s rendition closes in dramatic fashion, so Clay bursts through the door to the weigh in with Smith on imperious form as he rattles off some of Clay’s early immortal lines
“You ain’t no Champ, You’re a Chump!” “Float like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee” “Rumble young man Rumble” “You want to lose all your money — Bet on Sonny” “He knows I’m great, he’ll fall in eight” and forever taunting Sonny Liston with “Come on you big ugly bear, I’ll whup you right now”.
This breathless opening scene closes with the first of many gentle, teasing inter plays with legendary boxing commentary and journalist “Howard Cosell” (John Voight).
This opening scene lasts a breathless 11 minutes, 30 seconds.
I love this opening so much, despite it being a little over the top and the throwing together of too many main characters so early in the film. But it’s a joy nonetheless, and backed by a sublime cameo from David Elliott as “Sam Cooke” it’s utterly brilliant and sets the stage for a staggering film.
Closing Scene: October 30th 1974
With a slowly moving camera behind, we follow a white robed Muhammad Ali all the way as he marches through the stadium’s last corridor and out into the cacophony of noise that is the Mai 20 Stadium, Kinshasha, Zaire for his “Rumble in the Jungle” heavyweight showdown with George Foreman. Brilliantly depicted by Mann and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the camera finally spins full circle around Ali as he takes in the sight that greets his arrival. With the frenzied crowd shouting his name, Ali enters the ring and shadow boxes as he awaits the arrival of the Champion, George Foreman. With quick editing and obscure shots of Ali’s boots and shots from between the ring ropes and from above we quickly cut to the arrival of the red robed Foreman.
It has to be said and noted that the fight itself is impeccably brought to life and recreated in every respect and has clearly been choreographed, planned and meticulously shot to the nth degree by Mann. Both boxers mannerisms are again perfect, Foreman’s heavy set style and punching power is expertly portrayed, as is Smith’s Ali, ducking and weaving, his stout upright hands in defence, the pushing away of Foreman’s advances and especially Ali’s trademark wide eyed stare. All brilliantly portrayed and I’d recommend watching the actual fight again on Youtube should you get the opportunity to contrast and compare, and to appreciate the human feats these champions aspired to.
Beginning with the stand off/stare down before the opening bell and Ali’s parting shot of “You should never have come to Africa” to the thorough albeit brief, round by round depiction is supreme film making. The fight itself is brutal, filmed up close with numerous zooms and edits as Foreman gives Ali a fearful pounding, round after round. Ali, adopting his “rope a dope” style of taking Foreman’s best punches on his arms and body to tire his opponent are brilliantly shown and Smith rightly takes centre stage as the film draws to it’s conclusion. Occasionally cutting away to his corner men, wife in the baying crowd or to Howard Cosell commentating at ring side, the film always cuts back to Smith as Ali, his mid round stares at his opponent, or his mid round orchestrating of the crowd as they sing repeatedly “Ali — Bumaye!” (“Ali — Kill Him!”).
Despite the fearful pounding, Ali taunts Foreman with “Is that all you got?” “Punching like a sissy, George” and “Running out of gas, big fella?” before his iconic (and brilliantly recreated) beating of Foreman to end the fight. The re-creation of the fight doesn’t stop there as (being the geeky fan I am) Ali’s antipathy towards Don King is brilliantly shown, as is Ali’s exhaustion as he sits on the canvas of the ring, to his trainer Angelo Dundee punching the air in delight, which always raises a smile in me!
This closing scene lasts a brilliant 16 minutes.
For a biased Muhammad Ali fan like me, the film depicts ten years of an incredible life, his religion, his refusal to join the USA Army, his marriages, his faults and his absolute majesty. Michael Mann clearly made this film out of love for Ali as it drips through the film and rightly so. The accompanying musical score throughout from Pieter Bourke and Lisa Gerrard is a joy too, leaning heavily on Sam Cooke tracks such as “Twisting the Night Away” and “It’s All Right” amongst many, many others. The soundtrack is highly recommended as a stand alone CD in it’s own right with numerous further tracks including Moby, Bob Dylan, Alicia Keys and wonderful original music from Bourke and Gerrard.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 200 blog articles (with 400+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“Punch Drunk Love (2002)
“Think you can be a pervert and not pay for it?”medium.com
“Dunkirk” (2017)
The Best of Christopher Nolan — Vol 4.medium.com
“Gone Girl” (2014)
The Best of David Fincher — Vol 4.medium.com