Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami

The product of a rather unhappy, middle class, Louisville, KY home, champion boxer Muhammad Ali—aka Cassius Clay—took the sports world by storm during the 1960 Olympics. As this PBS documentary from Gaspar González and Alan Tomlinson notes, Cassius Clay was as “close to pure fire as you can get,” a star for the new era of television. In the segregated atmosphere of the early 1960s, Clay wasn't what white America was used to: a proud, handsome, assertive black man (Ali admits that he copied some of his mannerisms and rhyming rant from the antics of pro wrestler “Gorgeous” George Wagner). Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami concentrates on Clay's move to Miami's Overtown community, an island of integration, tolerance, and support. Rare vintage b&w footage captures Clay's training under Angelo Dundee, as well as his classic pre-bout taunts used to unnerve his opponents, with considerable attention paid to the run-up to Clay's historic bout with Sonny Liston, an ex-con portrayed here as a thug and “head breaker.” Almost nobody expected Clay to beat Liston, but Clay was already pondering his next move—a conversion to Islam, and a name change. The documentary looks at Ali's friendship with Malcolm X, Malcolm's assassination, and Ali's guilt over his abandonment of Malcolm after the latter split with Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad. Sports writers, friends, and admirers discuss Ali's importance to boxing and the Civil Rights movement, and his courage in opposing the military draft and the Vietnam War. Ending in the late 1960s, before Ali's glory days (followed by his sad physical decline), this perceptive biographical profile is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)