May 2002 Ali

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by Lorenzo M. Ali "Float like a butterfly sting like a bee!" These were Ali's words back in his heavy weight championship days. Will Smith played the leading role of Ali in this self-titled biographical movie. In depth parts of his life including his relationships with females and the highs and lows surrounding his title and career were depicted. The movie Ali is based on Cassius Clay AKA Muhammad Ali's life as a boxer between 1964 to 1974. This movie starts off showing Ali training in a gym. The movie goes on to the 1964 fight of Ali and Sonny Liston (Michael Bentt) for the heavy weight championship title. Ali later on had this title stripped from him because he would not fight in the Vietnam War. His boxing license was suspended and Ali began to lose money. Ali struggled to get matches just to get by. After struggling to get back in the spot light, Ali came back and refought Sonny Liston to regain his heavy weight championship title. After this he fought George Forman (Charles Shufford) in the"Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire. Throughout all of his career he had so much personal drama on the side. As Ali grew to fame, he became noticed by the Muslim nation because of his powerful influence on the public. Ali met with the Muslim leaders andlater on met Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles). After he became fully involved with him he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. He became a Muslim. Reporters and fans grilled him for doing this but Ali kept his head up and walked proud. He also had three wives during his career, Sonji Clay, Belinda Ali, and Veronica Porche. This movie was great if you like fighting scenes but the three hour length was a lil' too much. Will Smith was an extraordinary actor in this movie. It took him one year of boxing training to prepare for his role. Which was well worth it because in the movie as in real life, Ali put the hands to every opponent he had. Ali is off the chain! Will Smith represented him like none other. But for real this movie would be more entertaining if you rent, because it's very long. Check it out.

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