“Ali” — Read Along
“Can I be in your corner young man?”.
Michael Mann’s 7th all time film (of 12) is my 3rd favourite in his illustrious cinematic career now stretching into its 43rd year. “Ali” is undoubtedly an incredible piece of film-making yet only third in my affections behind 1995’s “Heat” and “The Insider” four years later. Coming full circle and veering slightly off course here, I can’t possibly recommend 2004’s Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx starring “Collateral” highly enough, would suggest you avoid the terrible adaptation of “Miami Vice” and the mess that is “Blackhat” (but heartily recommend the Johnny Depp masterclass in “Public Enemies” in between) before just last year, Mann was back to full throttle and in blistering form with “Ferrari”.
But back to “Ali” and for what I hope you will appreciate as a rather passionate love-in appraisal of a fantastic film whereby my excited reading of my review in the Youtube/Rumble videos below runs well with my written review, the first half of which is reproduced below. The fuller spoiler free review is linked below, together with my reading of this review to camera hence, please allow me to welcome you to another in my “Read Along” series of articles on favourite films of yesteryear.
Here is the beginning of my review originally penned and published in a blog site and galaxy far, far away:
“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 towards 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.
"Ali" (2001) Directed by Michael Mann
"Michael Mann and 9 films for your delectation"
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" - Vol.1
My reading of "Ali" - Youtube version
My reading of "Ali" - Rumble version
So now dear reader you have a choice: You can either
(a) Read my entire review of this film via the first link above
(b) Then read my opus blog article on the films of Michael Mann
(c) Watch either of my Youtube or Rumble channel videos of my reading of my own review of Ali, hence the “Read Along” moniker.
or (d) Treat yourself to any combination of the above or even (e) disappear to pastures new within our collective electrical Matrix.
Oh, and (f) There’s a link above to Volume 1 of my exhaustive 7 volumes of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” packaged in my e-book and Kindle series on Amazon and where you’ll find my review of Ali. All free to read if you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
Bless you for reading.
Thanks for reading. If you like the premise of this absurd idea of “Read Along”, then you might also enjoy:
"Kill List" (2011) - Read Along