User Reviews

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.

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.

I have watched many and ANY documentary I can find on Muhammed Ali - including the obvious When We Were Kings. While that one is great, this is the DEFINITIVE movie of Ali. It is a flawless account of the greatest boxer of all time.

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.

I don't want to spoil anything. You don't want to miss this! One of best docs I've ever seen. The film which Muhammed Ali deserved. Not a second wasted. Pure greatness! Go watch it now!

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.

HBO doing wonders as usual with this inspiring and gripping documentary of Muhammad Ali. Perfectly capturing Ali for who he is and what he was about. The impact he had on those around him is clearly evident and you feel a connection with Ali while watching this masterpiece. This would definitely be the first Muhammad Ali documentary I would recommend to anyone if they were interested in learning about Ali.

It was very sad to see Ali end up the way he did. Boxing undoubtedly caused his Parkinson's Disease, I reckon I know the exact fight where it started too, the very 1st fight against Joe Frazier, his speech was slurred after that fight. I don't know why the people around him didn't look after him better. It was obvious for a long time that he had been damaged in the ring. He didn't need the money and he had nothing to prove, just surrounded by people that had more interest in dollars than his health. It's a pity this documentary got made, if it can be used to stop all boxing and the damage it causes, maybe it would have been worthwhile, but that's not likely to happen. People are more aware today of brain injuries in sport, if rugby league players can get their brains scrambled, boxers have got no chance. If Ali had a point to prove after the 1st loss to Frazier, he should have retired when he won the World Title back. He was probably already damaged by then anyway, I'm surprised he lived to be 74.

Great doc but I'll take two stars away for two MASSIVE omissions. One is Howard Cosell's iconic proclamation during the second Frazier fight of, "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!", and secondly, the chant of Zaire children before the Foreman fight of "Ali, boma ye!!" (Ali, kill him!") which was also equally iconic. These two sayings are incomparable benchmarks during his legendary run. A pure icon. The truth.

It was alright. Mainly a puff piece. You wont find any insight into Muhammad Ali or interest in tackling controversy. There's better documentaries out there especially about the rivalry between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.

This is a much watch. Boxing fan or not. A humanitarian civil rights freedom fighter, truly the greatest champion of the world. May he Rest In Peace. If he was the current role model rather than rapping gangsters, the world would've been a much better place.

This is my first review here, and for the greatest sport figure of all time, I must say - It had to be done better! Why? There are many examples, but I will talk on two things: As I said, Ali was and is original G.O.A.T. If you have quality material for someone, that is with him. I mean, cmon, dude participated in two most important sport and especially boxing event in 20th century: Rumble in the Jungle and Thriller in Manila. I will skip Rumble in the Jungle even there was many critics about low explanation, everything presented so fast, but as I say; I will focus on one fight - Thriller in Mania. Brothers and sisters, this fight was not called "Thriller" just like that, and in this documentary it was presented in maybe 1.5min or less. Biggest thiller in boxing history and it is not mentioned or explained, from emotionaly aspect especially, that Fraizer almost got BLIND! Unbelievable!

Second thing: Damn ENDING. On every documentary you are crying at the end because there is presented death and especially peoples reaction because of death of main character; and I cried because that was missing. How is that possible??? I mean, I've cried when Ali died. Children from Africa which doesn't even have TV knew him and cried as well, not to mention public reaction of famous people etc etc. Nothing.

He said that God gave him disease to let him know that he is actualy number one, and it's not mentioned also.

So 7 of 10 just because of Ali, but it had to be done better!

This starts off good while promising to be Clay's story in his own words.

It quickly descends into a straight report of his early wins with with next to nothing about his personal life.

He was an interesting guy. This could have been better. He comes across as a black racist. Nation of Islam, anyone? Once he got money he turned all Richard Pryor.

The show gets rather tedious pretty quickly, It descends into clips and some interviews but really no insight into Clay/Ali. He doesn't believe in war but beats the crap out of his opponents. Hypocrite much?

There is one thing I can say for sure. We'll never see the days of ALi, Frazer and the rest again. the 70's and 80's saw great atheletes in all sports. No more.

I get the feeling this was made by someone who was so fascinated with Ali the person and only somewhat interested in Ali the boxer. Outside of the crisp production and HD highlights, there's very little content here for either the avid boxing fan or for the casual fan wanting to learn more about The Greatest. And the problem is, the creators seem unable to distinguish and adequately portray the great moments of Ali's career.

There is a lot here on Ali's glory days. Here's the thing: Ali is a man of 2 careers. 50% of his greatness comes from how unparalleled he was at his absolute best. The other 50% comes from what he did when he should have been far past his best. I'm of course talking about his win over a prime George Foreman, to this day a widely-considered top 3 win in boxing history. The doc sets a ridiculous tone for Frazier-Foreman, which contrary to what you might come away thinking here, was actually one of the biggest moments in heavyweight history and the birth of one of the baddest men in boxing history, George Foreman. It seems silly to think that the creators of a Muhammad Ali documentary don't have a proper understanding of George Foreman's legacy. But it really comes off that way.

This comprehensive two-part documentary on Muhammad Ali focuses almost entirely on his boxing career with extensive footage of his fights from those as an amateur all the way through to his ill-considered final fights when he was clearly past his best. Indeed, just to make the point, as the film progresses, we are constantly shown his updated career record after his every bout.

Director Antoine Fuqua eschews any kind of narrative voice-over to contextualise time and place although he does insert a few contemporary events to try to place Ali in his era but while the reporting of say, the killings of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and America's involvement in the Vietnam War are obvious staging posts given Ali's stance on Civil Rights and the war, I didn't get the insertions on Watergate and Nixon's resignation or the U. S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics.

I also felt that more coverage could have been given of Ali's siding with the official Nation of Islam rather than its rebellious spokesman Malcolm X and his three-year fight against the Draft even as I appreciate these could themselves be the subjects of separate documentaries. There was also next to nothing on Ali's personal or family life bar the odd appearance-in-passing of his mother, wife and children in background footage.

What there is though is lots of fight action from his earliest fights as an amateur, winning the Olympic gold medal, interestingly as a light-heavyweight, through his climb to the top and momentous fights with Liston, Foreman and of course Frazier although I'd almost forgotten about his titanic series of scraps with Ken Norton for one. Oddly, the film ignores any reference to the controversial, computerised so-called "Super-Fight" with Rocky Marciano.

These sporting clips show a wonderful athlete and pugilist who revolutionised the fight game with his speed and movement. It's a sin and a shame that he was deprived of the chance to fight at his absolute peak for the three years he was instead fighting the Courts, a loss to sports fans I can only equate with the premature retiral of football genius George Best at the age of 26.

It was sad of course to see Ali's physical and mental degeneration as he succumbs to Parkinson's Disease, although he still managed to live to a good age, but the film makes no reference to any possible link between this and his years as a boxer. I was pleased though to be reminded of his charitable and humanitarian works including his part in freeing U. S. hostages in Iraq.

Again though, we don't get to really see those occasions when he went too far in his personal criticisms of his opponents, most notably his arch-nemesis Frazier. Although some might describe these antics as publicity-seeking trash-talk, some of it was offensive and regrettable, in my opinion. I could also have done without the inclusion of Ali mocking the gay community in one TV interview.

Nevertheless, slanted and selective as they were, it was impossible not to come away from these programmes with a heightened appreciation of the sporting legacy of the man voted Athlete of the 20th Century. Perhaps it wasn't the rounded portrait of this particular artist I might have hoped for but it will certainly enhance his legend of that I have no doubt.