Muhammad Ali: In His Own Words

This cursory nod to the greatest fighter of all time (and I'm not just quoting Ali here), is--in a word--lightweight. It appears the filmmakers had access to some fairly dated footage of the champ, which they cobbled together in somewhat spotty chronological order, and then packaged on video for hungry sports fans. The resulting program is overloaded with early interview footage of Ali saying "I'm in training and I'm ready to fight (fill in the blank), but that spark of insanity that put high-rolling butts in ring-side seats barely flickers here. Remarkably, there's little in the way of fight footage here (I guess archival film rope-a-doping with boy-toys Liston, Patterson, Foreman, Frazier, or Spinks just wasn't available at a good price), so viewers must make do with static photos. We learn about Ali's convictions, both religious (Nation of Islam) and actual (for refusing to enter the armed forces). Curiously, there's almost no mention of his personal life, his wives or children; amazingly, nothing about Don King and--most glaring in my book--not one word about Ali's love-hate-love relationship with Howard Cosell. Ali was not only a genius at self-promotion with a keen instinct for building the gates and selling tickets, but he single-handedly put the WBA and boxing on the map; unfortunately, this stuff just isn't captured here. We do learn that this tender humanitarian was instrumental in the release of American hostages in Iran in 1984, has traveled extensively into many Third World countries and is presently fighting a fight of a different kind as advanced Parkinson's disease continues to ravage his body. Unfortunately the tear-fest he created at the 1996 Summer Olympics during the lighting of the ceremonial torch, perfectly characterizing his tenacity as a world class winner, is here only briefly shown in three still photos. Overall, a fairly mediocre bio-doc about an extraordinary man. Muhammad Ali in his own words? Hardly. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (N. Plympton)