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Powerful

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The Greatest is a movie that can be best appreciated by those who are 18 and older. The movie discusses more than black and white issues. The movie depicts the fighter, Mohammad Ali as truly a unique individual in this biographical sketch of the period of between Cassius Clay returning to America from the Olympics after winning his gold medal through his transformation into Mohammad Ali and his boxing bouts with Frasier and Forman. Mohammad Ali lived true to his convictions. The movie portrays him as a man who knew what was right, knew what he wanted, and most importantly, knew how to get it. The Greatest also tells of his fight with the US Army and his refusal to be inducted into the Armed Forces. The movie requires your full attention. It is unusual that the star of the movie is the man the movie is about. How does one "act" to be oneself. The movie has a decent storyline. The movie requires your full attention and there is no time for popcorn here. Save it for after the movie when discussing the movie with friends.

The original (and nominal) director here, Tom Gries, died of a heart attack while the film was still in production; somewhat perversely, Monte Hellman (who usually had to struggle to set-up his own personal projects) seemed like the go-to-guy in similar situations – since he would be assigned similar 'doctoring' duties on AVALANCHE EXPRESS (1979), whose own viewing preceded this one! While it was most probably green-lit in the wake of the boxing sleeper hit (and surprise Oscar triumph) ROCKY (1976), earlier in the decade another film on a black champ within this particular sporting field had emerged i.e. THE GREAT WHITE HOPE (1970) – in which James Earl Jones had been Oscar-nominated for his turn as Jack Johnson and who, here, turns up briefly as yet another controversial historical figure, Malcolm X (himself the subject of a 1992 film, where he would be interpreted by Oscar contender Denzel Washington).Anyway, it was a rarity to have the protagonist of a biopic played by the man himself; legendary Muhammad Ali – formerly known as Cassius Clay – 'performs' adequately enough under the circumstances (though some disparagingly opined that he was unconvincing!), so much so that he would later star in the made-for-TV American Civil War epic FREEDOM ROAD (1979). For the record, his life-story would also be treated in a number of documentaries, such as a.k.a. CASSIUS CLAY (1970) and the Oscar-winning WHEN WE WERE KINGS (1996) – both of which I own but have yet to check out – as well as Michael Mann's more thorough feature ALI (2001; for which star Will Smith would also be up for a Best Actor Oscar). Incidentally, the name-change was from Clay to Ali occurred when he changed his faith from Christianity (rejecting it for being "the white man's religion 'mandating' that the black man suffer while on Earth and reap his rewards in the afterlife"!) to Muslim (the boxer's association with the revolutionary Malcolm X would be frowned upon by his promoters, while Ali's pacifist views would land him in trouble with the authorities when he refused to be drafted in the Vietnam War, whereupon he was stripped of his titles!).Thankfully, the script (by sports authority Ring Lardner Jr. and an uncredited Bill Gunn, perhaps best-known for his radical take on the vampire theme with GANJA & HESS {1973}) does not whitewash its subjects, depicting Ali as misogynistic (liberally seducing white women and dominating those of his own color) and brash (openly aggravating his opponents in order to throw them off-balance) and Malcolm himself as delusional. The heavyweight bouts themselves are presented briefly via stock footage, with more time allotted to the 1974 "Rumble In The Jungle" with Ali making a spectacular comeback facing George Foreman (actually exclusively dealt with in the afore-mentioned WHEN WE WERE KINGS – by which time the protagonist would have become afflicted with Parkinson's Disease, though he did turn up unannounced at the awards ceremony!) and which ends THE GREATEST itself on a high note. Such powerful moments are intermittently felt throughout, but the end result does not really prove the compelling portrayal that was clearly intended! In fact, among its deficiencies, one has to include the movie's soundtrack – composed of equal parts sappy songs by George Benson (notably "The Greatest Love Of All") and a pulsating score (during the ROCKY-type training sessions) that are very evocative of its era, that is to say, feel dated at this juncture! Nor is the film helped in any noticeable way by the star-studded supporting cast – highlighting Ernest Borgnine (as Ali's trainer), John Marley (his doctor), Robert Duvall (the afore-mentioned flustered promoter), Ben Johnson (as an early supporter), a thinned-down Paul Winfield (as his defence counsel) and Roger E. Mosley (as Sonny Liston, the heavyweight champ he first lost to and then triumphed over).

In 1977 Mohammad Ali wasn't only a boxing champion, he was a personality. His confidence and poetic rants made people smile, sometimes in disbelief. So they decided to, instead of creating a documentary, allow him to star, as himself, in a film covering his lean hungry youth - when he went by the name Cassius Clay - to his rise as "the greatest boxer in the world".Another somewhat dependable actor plays a teenage Ali but then we switch to the real thing much too soon. When this was shot, Ali was a man who seemed mellow and tired: at the end of his game. An iconic millionaire playing a hungry climber is not only misplaced, but at times downright embarrassing. While he does have a graceful, laid-back charm, and it's fun seeing him interact with real actors like Ernest Borgnine and Robert Duvall, the film's cutting from excerpts of actual fights back to the movie-at-hand is preposterously contrived.This Ali's personal propaganda for his Muslim faith and the hardships against the white man, all played out like something you'd see on television but without a lean young actor, much needed to capture the intensity attempted herein.And the last fifteen minutes, as Ali jogs to a Bill Conti-like score before the final bout, it's obvious that without Sly Stallone's blockbuster the year before, this probably would never have been made: at least not in this fashion.

The saddest thing about this film is that the script simply didn't have a feel for Ali's poetry or style...what results is a low-energy, plodding plot with remarkably bad switches from fight scenes to scripted bits. A good movie to break in your fast forward button from fight scene to fight scene. Also look for a forty-something Ferdie Pacheco played by a 70+ year-old actor...remarkable.