What's My Name: Muhammad Ali

One's enjoyment of "What's My Name" can, I think, be anticipated with a simple question: how much do you already know about Ali? If little, you'll love this. If much, you'll be entertained but likely not put it in the upper echelon of Ali docs.

I fall into the latter camp of that previous question, having read multiple books on Ali and pretty much seen all the relevant docs. When I saw the title of this HBO production, I thought that it would delve more into the social/political side of Ali, but instead it proved to be pretty much a straight bio of his career both inside and outside the boxing ring.

Because it is HBO at the wheel, the production value could not be higher and it does pull out some photos/videos I had never seen before. However, as a seasoned Ali scholar, I couldn't help but be slightly disappointed that "What's My Name" didn't "pick a lane, so to speak", and try to examine one issue of his life instead of tackling the whole ball of wax. Because I this, I have to rate 2009's "Facing Ali" and 2014's "I Am Ali" as better docs overall.

All of that being said, if this is perhaps the first Ali doc a viewer has ever watched, it will make quite an impression, as it does hit all the relevant points in his life and contains great music and interviews. It's long--nearly three hours--but never feels boring or slow.

So, ultimately, one's appreciation of "What's My Name" will almost certainly be determined by what they've seen of him before. Anyone can enjoy this, but Ali "scholars" may struggle with the lack of any new angle.

"What's My Name: Muhammad Ali" (2019 release; 2 parts; 162 min.) is a two part TC documentary about Muhammad Ali's illustrious career, both in boxing and outside of that. As Part 1 opens, we hear Ali getting ready for a fight, as told in his own words. We are "March 8, 1971" at Madison Square Garden, for the "fight of the century". We then go back in time, to then-Cassius Clay's early days growing up in Louisville, and quickly establishing himself as a strong boxing presence, leading up to the 1960 Olympic Games, where he obtains the gold medal. At this point we are 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this documentary is directed by none other than Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day"), and executive-produced by LeBron James, among others. Very early in his career Cassius Clay earned the nickname "Bigmouth" from the Cubans when he was training in Miami Beach right after the 1960 Olympics, and that nickname was meant as a gesture of respect and/or admiration, and it made the task of the film makers immensely easier as frankly all they needed to do was to collect audio and video clips of Clay's/Ali's many, many, MANY public appearances over the decades, and he'll tell the story himself. Which is exactly what this documentary does: it's mostly Ali's own telling. Some of these clips are well known, others not so much. Watch for the many astute racial commentaries that Ali makes, using clever wordsmithing (at one point Ali comments about the use of the word "blackmail", and why is isn't "whitemail"). Even at a running time of over 2 1/2 hrs., this clips by in no time, as we get to witness one of the most iconic sport stories ever, along with a good dose of social and civil rights history. Part 1 (which runs through March 8, 1971) is clearly the better half of the documentary, mixing the sports and social/civil rights aspects brilliantly. Part 2 focuses mainly on the last decade of his boxing career, almost to the exclusion of everything else, and finishing up with a career record of 56-5. Just think of how many more wins Ali would've surely racked up had he not been banned from boxing for three years (1967-70) just as he was in the very peak of his boxing career! This documentary is enjoyable from start to finish, even if there are few if any "new" revelations of course some of this has already been covered before (see for example "Ali & Cavett: The Tale Of the Tapes" from earlier this year).

"What's My Name" Muhammad Ali" premiered last year on HBO. In the current COVID-19 pandemic I've been catching up on various TV shows and documentaries that I somehow missed when they originally aired. I just watched this on HBO On Demand the other night. So glad that I found this documentary. If you have any interest in Muhammad Ali and/or the social and civil rights environment of this country in the 60s and 70s, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

A year or so before The Last Dance looked back at Michael Jordan and the Bulls, a lot of people were also praising this sports documentary which I missed at the time. There is a loose comparison to be made between the two because they do both focus on an icon of their sport/time, are delivered with plenty of input from the subject, and generally show how their subject was great, but also how they were flawed in some ways. Unlike Last Dance, which uses contributors looking back, What's My Name is built entirely of archive footage - with even the 'contributions' over the top of archive footage being taken from archive footage/recordings.

Although it is almost 3 hours long, it is engaging throughout, as it follows Ali from the start of his career through to the end and into the later stages of his life. There is plenty of good sports action, and the film chooses these wisely; for example it spends very little time on the Rumble in the Jungle fight, I assume because anyone watching this has almost certainly seen When We Were Kings, which focuses heavily on that fight. The footage selected generally is very well picked and edited. I'd not seen a lot of the material in this film, and I read that some has never been seen before. The editing is hugely impressive, not just the task of selecting material, but the feat of putting it together in a way that has such good flow and consistency - it works really well. Where it works is that it tells and shows a story of the man - very much warts and all. His elevation of racism, and his ability to talk about it in forums where it normally would not have been are well shown, but so too is the way he weaponised it inwards - against Joe Frazier in particular, one example being suggesting Frazier won on points due to him being a "good boy" (the 2008 film Thrilla in Manila is a good one to see the impact on Frazier of this type of assault. There is plenty like this in here and it shows his cruelty.

The aging process is really clearly shown too; it is almost hard in the second part to watch Ali slow down so much, and continue fighting after his prime and as it must have been doing significant damage to him. His motivations and political work were clear, but still. So overall more than the celebration / retrospective that I had expected it to be. It has a lot more edge in its presentation, making it a better film, and doing so on top of a great feat of footage selection and use.

This documentary explained and showed things I did not know about the greatest boxer of all time and I am a HUGE Muhammad Ali fan. In and out of the ring he was the greatest from boxing to his humanitarian work, this documentary covered it all. I literally had a lump in my throat towards the end. Great job and thank you.

It is hard to be balanced when it comes to Ali, he's either a flawed racist loudmouth who belittled his opponents or he's a self-marketing genius, strategist, humanitarian, rebel, champion of the poor who did what he did consciously and purposely in order to elevate himself and his people. The truth of course is somewhere in the middle. Quite frankly it's refreshing to know that Ali was all too human at times and prone to the odd slip up just like the next man, be that in his personal affairs or in the realm of boxing, where he certainly did cross the line more than a few times. But bearing in mind what he went through in such times of great social and political upheaval, it is not difficult to be able to overlook his flaws. This documentary does not take any particular angle on the Ali story, it shows most sides of him, not so much of his family life, which he probably managed to keep more off limits. What it does show is some great fight footage, interviews and rare archive material which I had never seen before, even though i have watched literally every documentary about the man. What is left to say? I mean he passed away but his legend does truly live large and strong, this is such an inspiring film, not so much the film, but the man, so unbelievably great, so inspiring, it is hard to imagine a human being who could be more uplifting, more intoxicating. He literally grabs you by the throat and dares you to get off your ass and do something with your life. A priceless genius, I loved watching this documentary and no doubt if i am ever having a bad week, i will come back to it. Ali is the greatest, period. Study his life and learn, that's all there is to do.