Facing Ali (2009)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

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

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

The movie set out to tell the story of Mohammed Ali through the eyes of 10 of his more noteworthy opponents and did a commendable job at that. Ali's story is well documented, however, and there's not much info we don't already know from a historical perspective. The unexpected (and perhaps unintended) beauty of this movie is in the honesty, humor, wisdom, sadness and humility of the 10 boxers who tell the story. Particularly compelling parts include: George Chuvalo discussing what it was like to lose 2 sons to drug ODs and a wife so distraught over it that she committed suicide; Joe Frazier finally breaking down and being moved to tears over Ali's current condition; Ernie Shaver's outright admiration for Ali and confessing that Ali truly did win their fight (he originally claimed he was robbed); Ken Norton's personal revelations about being down and out before the fight and the new lease on life his fight w/Ali gave him; and Ron Lyle's sage wisdom on not letting what many claimed to be a BS stoppage that denied him the HW title make him bitter and instead embracing the celebrity and opportunity his fight w/Ali provided him for the rest of his life. These are just a few but there are many more. I found myself compelled by the stories these 10 great fighters told (except for Ernie Terrell)and the movie left me with a new found respect and admiration for all of them. Even my wife, who is no kind of sports fan, absolutely loved it.I can't imagine any boxing fan who sees this film not putting it at or near the tippy top of their favorite boxing movie list

Watching mixed martial artist Georges St. Pierre hammer out a one-sided win over wrestler Josh Koscheck the other night reminded me just how much I love the sport of boxing. I grew up during what I call The Golden Age of Boxing- the Ali Era(s)- and he was a hero of mine; still is, for reasons that have nothing to do with boxing- but it was his unrivaled ring career that captivated me as a kid. He was poetry in perpetual motion- passive aggression personified, if you will- and he singlehandedly cleaned out the heavyweight division during his career (during two of his three tenures as champ), and this documentary points up that fact: the men who talk about him here were all top-ten contenders, and he faced and beat them all. Their leather-worn faces are a road map of Ali's career and if George Foreman was the Einstein of Punching, then certainly Ali was the Einstein of BOXING. If I have one gripe about this documentary, it's the sparsity of the fight footage: to this day, it's nigh impossible to lay hands on copies of the fights mentioned. One can find almost ANY mixed martial arts bout on DVD; not so most of the greatest fistfights of all time.

I have seen boxing documentaries before but was never touched emotionally by one till I rented and watched Facing Ali tonight . The documentary looks at Ali through the eyes of 10 men who fought him, some of whom beat him: George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers, Leon Spinks and Ernie Terrell.The documentary besides giving some inside revelations on the fights of those 10 men with Ali also gives some insight into the boxing careers and lives of the 10 boxers who are commenting on Ali. Some of their personal stories are pretty sad.The documentary also covers what I found surprising statements from George Chuvalo concerning "mob" influenced events that led to the Chuvalo/Ali fight. I was also surprised by one of the fighters who was viciously verbally taunted by Ali in the days leading up to their fight come very close in the documentary to breaking down crying over Ali's present day condition.The 10 men express some frank views on Ali and their fights with him but with the passage of a lot of time and events between now and when they actually fought Ali, there is no question that the documentary makes clear that they all deeply respect him now no matter what they may have thought of him in the past.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this film. I had not heard anything about it and when I was able to get a copy I figured it would be a puff piece, but it is much much more than that. Interviews with several opponents of Muhammad Ali reveal a lot about both the interviewees themselves, and their lives, and their almost unanimous love for Ali. Footage of each fighter's bouts with Ali is plentiful and exciting, and watching it will make you cry when you realize how much he has lost over the years. Something else that will make you cry is what one of his greatest opponents--I won't say who it is---cries openly for Ali and calls him "a great guy...and I hope he gets to live the way we all live...he's earned it." This film just knocked "Tyson" out of the top spot in my best sports documentaries of the year list.