IF ONE HAS ever been around boxers very much and gotten to know a little about how they form a sort of mini-society or sub-culture of their own, you already know what to expect from this documentary. As competitive, brutal and even 'barbaric' a bout is, the participants seem to have overwhelmingly become a sort of very exclusive fraternity.
THERE ARE ALWAYS exceptions to any rule, but by and large, the guys who boxed at the professional level are respectful, modest and quite unaffected by their prowess. They never speak badly of other 'pugs' and prove to be 'just reg'lar guys to the public at large. They have no need to prove their toughness outside of the prize ring.
SO IT IS to this exclusive world of former fighters that the production transports us to look back on the career of one Cassius Clay/Mohammed Ali. The story is traced from the earliest days as a young promising kid in Louisville, through his amateur successes; which culminated with his victory at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. There he won the Olympic Light Heavyweight title. This left no worlds to conquer in the Simon Pure, amateur boxing. So........
IT WAS WITH great anticipation that his entry into the Pros was met. He had already made for himself and the career in the Heavyweight ranks proved to be a meteoric rise toward the top.
IT IS THIS ringside observers' recollections that are captured with the extended narrative provided by names like: Joe Frazier, Ernie Terrell, (Sir) Henry Cooper, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, George Chuvalo, Ernie Shavers and Ken Norton. There are many references to his 2 bouts with the late Sonny Liston and many now deceased fighters, such as Jerry Quarry and Floyd Patterson, appear in archival footage.
IN THE FINAL analysis, FACING ALI gives us the history of the Clay/Ali career in fisticuffs, told by both opponents and associates who were there as real and true eyeball witnesses. All is revealed to us set against the backdrop of a 1960-70s America which was going through some growing pains with the Civil Rights movement and the very unpopular Vietnam War being waged in micro-managed fashion by the Johnson Administration.
WHEN WE ARRIVE at film's end, we feel that we know Ali/Clay just a little bit better and he emerges a much more sympathetic character than our recollections of his earlier legal battles with Uncle Sam & the Selective Service System (Draft Board) than our collective memories had stored up.
NOTE: AS SORT OF a sidebar to the story, we recall having heard Ali speak of how he got the idea of being so highly braggadocios about his skills in the ring. He said that he was a guest on a noontime soft news & talk show in LA. Along with him as guest was Pro Wrestler, Gorgeous George; who wasted no time in using the airwaves hype his upcoming match that night. Cassius said that George did such a fine and entertaining a job that even he bought a ticket and was in attendance on that particular evening.
