This documentary pulls from more than a dozen of Muhammad Ali's appearances on the Emmy winning Dick Cavett Show between 1968 and 1979. At one time, Dick Cavett said Ali was his best friend; their affinity barrels through the screen.
Cavett's respectful, sophisticated, witty and honest conversations about life, race, religion, and political injustice with Ali highlight the goodheartedness and intelligence of his guest. Ali's entertaining boosting and light and serious poetry give us a glimpse of the remarkable conscientious objector who embodied his moral code.
"There are probably no great compliments that I can pay my next guest that he hasn't already paid himself but I happily join him and millions of others. He is without a doubt one of the greatest sports figures the world has ever known. Just in case he can hear me, he is the greatest sports figure-charming, good looking and a heck of a nice guy." Dick Cavett introducing Ali.
"They seemed to go to the edge of the racial debate in this country," recalls Reverend Al Sharpton of the interviews.
Extraordinary footage of Ali in and out of the ring, having sleepovers with Dick Cavett, and speaking at events, gives a powerful snapshot of his life. Ali, said by some to be a mouthpiece for the Nation of Islam, challenged the U.S. government's attempt to draft him. In June 1967, Ali was convicted of violating the Selective Service Act and was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $100,000 for objecting to fighting in the Vietnam War.
"I ain't got nothing against them Vietcong." ~ Muhammad Ali
After he won his gold medal, Ali went to a diner in his hometown and was denied service. After that, he spoke up potently, insistently, and often poetically for civil rights. Ali told Cavett how much Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X meant to him.
Cavett, concerned about the government claims against him for objecting to be drafted, asked if Ali was ready to go prison; he was.
President Johnson's three member Presidential Draft Board ruled Ali's objection to be invalid and that he was not entitled to conscientious objector status as a minister of the Islamic religion. In April 1966 Ali wrote his local draft board protesting that two years of military service would cause him serious financial loss in being unable to pursue his livelihood as a boxer.
He was stripped of his boxing license by the State of New York and title by the World Boxing Association when he converted to Islam. The World Boxing Council, however, recognized him as champ throughout his battle with the Government.
When, trembling from Parkinson's disease, he carried the Olympic torch at the 1996 games in Atlanta, Ali, a legend, represented strength in hard times and a beacon of light who stood for his convictions of freedom and equality.
"But I think it almost had nothing to do with boxing. It had to do with him. He was this beautiful, charismatic, dynamic person who could've done anything." Cavett on Ali
Cassius Clay, who took boxing lessons after a bully stole his bicycle as a kid, was 29 and 0 when they took his title away. Nobody ever hit him or knocked him down. When he came back after over three years away in his prime, his fight with Joe Frazier was dubbed "The Fight of the Century." Frazier won in fifteen rounds. Ali ended his career being 56 - 5, but still the greatest.
Some quotes by Ali ~
"You can't hit what you can't see; I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!"
"The hype was part of my job, like skipping rope."
"Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it, and I didn't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name, and I insist people using it when speaking to me and of me."
Mohammad Ali received the Otto Yamaoka peace medal for his "life-long engagement in the American civil rights movement and the global cultural emancipation of blacks, as well as his work as a UN Goodwill ambassador."
Well deserved. I already respected Muhammad Ali, but came away from this film with the highest admiration of the man. I highly recommend this movie.
