Muhammad Ali Documentary

[alkeiper]

The new one by Ken Burns. Anyone else seen it yet? I liked the first two parts. Parts three and four dragged a bit. Decent analysis of early fights and the Foreman and Frazier fights. They practically ignored the third Ken Norton fight and mentioned nothing about Antonio Inoki. A review I read said the problem with the documentary is that every subject has been covered in depth elsewhere. I feel like that was spot on. A good documentary, but not great IMO.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

i was gonna check it out since its ken burns but it doesnt sound too exciting

 

[King Kamala]

A review I read said the problem with the documentary is that every subject has been covered in depth elsewhere. I feel like that was spot on. A good documentary, but not great IMO.

Jonathan Eig biography of Ali from 2017 that I mentioned in @BruiserBrody 's thread did a really, really good job of presenting Ali in a different, rawer manner and talking in depth about how shitty he was in his early days in Nation of Islam (IE turning his back on/if not kind of stabbing Malcom X in the back), being a serial philanderer and possible abuser. While still managing to celebrate his positive impacts and not being one of those awful, conservative reactionary "Well ACTUALLY, Ali was a bad person and liberals are stupid for worshipping some dumb punch drunk boxer." type story.

I haven't started watching yet but feel like a Ken Burns Ali documentary should have gotten more buzz which kind of indicates its one of his lesser works. I just don't get the sense that Ken Burns has the same zest towards uncovering the untold stories of Ali that he did with baseball, country, or jazz music.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Only watched part one so far. Since it has so much time compared to the other 200 Ali documentaries, it does flesh out the story of his youth more. Plus there's a large section on how the Nation of Islam came to prominence, etc.
They also do just a touch more depth on his lesser opponents, giving you an idea of Ali's climb up the mountain to Liston.
Gorgeous George gets a shout out as an Ali influence, and somewhere Meltzer probably mumbled something about Freddie Blaisse.

 

[King Kamala]

Gorgeous George has to be only direct early inspiration for both Muhammad Ali and Bob Dylan.

 

[alkeiper]

Apologies for missing Brody's thread.

Jonathan Eig was a prominent talking head in this and reading Kamala's synopsis of the book it feels like direct source material for this documentary. Heavy on Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. Elijah probably gets as much attention as any non-Ali figure in the documentary.

 

[King Kamala]

As he should. Ali's conversion to Islam as much as the draft dodging is what turned him into one of the most hated athletes of all time then conversion to Sunni Islam in late '70s is what helped transform him into most beloved athlete of all time.

He not only became more moderate but I think he became somewhat of a conservative in the '80s. He endorsed Reagan in '84.