When you make a movie with Michael Mann, you're likely going to become an expert in your character's field of expertise. James Caan had to study safecracking to a level where he could actually pull off a job. The cops and crooks in "Heat" went through such rigorous firearms training, Val Kilmer's on-the-fly reload mid-shootout has been singled out as textbook by military instructors. So when Will Smith got cast as Muhammad Ali, the preternaturally skilled heavyweight champion, Mann had him bulk up and get in the ring with prominent boxing contenders.
Though Mann's "Ali" was generally well-received when it was released in 2001, critics complained that it essentially told the same "Rumble in the Jungle" story as Leon Gast's Oscar-winning 1996 documentary, "When We Were Kings." In doing so, they overlooked what is easily the most technically detailed and accurate dramatization of "the sweet science" ever put to film.
Though Mann's "Ali" was generally well-received when it was released in 2001, critics complained that it essentially told the same "Rumble in the Jungle" story as Leon Gast's Oscar-winning 1996 documentary, "When We Were Kings." In doing so, they overlooked what is easily the most technically detailed and accurate dramatization of "the sweet science" ever put to film.
- 9/27/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
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