User Reviews

I have read and watched almost everything published about Cassius Marcellus Jr. Clay, and while in his early 20's later accepting the Islam name, Muhummad Ali. I can never read or see enough film about Ali's early life and trajectory to become not only a sports hero but a legend for mankind.

Ali has been photographed and interviewed more than any other man/woman in the past century. It may sound strange but I don't think of Muhummad Ali as a famous and successful.three (3) times Heavyweight Boxing Champion. I will always remember his speech when he was asked why he refuses to go to Vietnam and if he was prepared to go to jail if he continues to refuse to go to war and fight for his country. Over the next several decades Ali maintained steadfastly his religious beliefs and used his fame to the betterment of not only African Americans but to all children, men and women around the world.

This documentary series provides an excellent insight into not only the man Muhummad Alli, but also insight into the many people who were close to him and influenced him both as a father, friend, fighter and as a political and civil rights leader.

This is a must see documentary series narrated with perfection by actor Keith David that I will need to purchase when it becomes available.

I give the series a perfect 10 out of 10 IMDB rating.

In the first of the three parts, the titles not represented here, we basically see a calculated move for amateur boxer to the heavyweight champion of the world. This incredible documentary shows us a man of enormous talent as a boxer, using tenuous methods to psyche his opponents, including the continual baiting of Sonny Liston, a heavy favorite to defeat hm. We are shown his movement toward Islam and his connections to Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammed. Also, his embracing of the pageantry of the sport. I will add more to this review after seeing the second part.

Having seen the second part we can see what can make for an ugly country. Granted, Ali was abrasive. But he was true to himself and formidable. This episode involves his confrontation with the draft during the Vietnam War. He refused to recognize the draft and paid dearly for it. He was stripped of his license to fight and had his title taken away from him for his personal and religious beliefs. Even though, as a celebrity, he would never have seen combat. He held fast to his religion. We are shown the small mindedness that would allow over a hundred white fighters with felony convictions to keep their licenses (murderers, armed robbers, etc.) while he was taken apart by politicians and law officers. It also shows his achieving the heavyweight championship and all the twists and turns he needed to fight his way back. More in the third part.

Now we have the most intense part of this series. It involves, first of all, Ali's having to deal with the five year sentence for avoiding the draft. But, the most interesting is his battle with Joe Frazier, whom he hated for some reason. Here we see Ali at his worst, abusing this man, making fun of his looks and his speech, and saying he is stupid. It went beyond his usual promotion of a fight. We all know what happens when they meet for the first time. This is a turning point. Ali wants a rematch but Frazier goofs it all up when he meets George Foreman. Ali also has bumps along the way and is starting to lose those youthful advantages. Episode 4 is on its way.

This was difficult to watch. When Ali fought George Foreman and wins, he gained a new sense of invulnerability. Because he had thrown so much money away or showed kindness to people, he felt he needed to keep going and he continued to fight way too frequently. After losing to Leon Spinks, he gets a rematch, defeats him, and gets his title back for the third time. The perfect time to quit. But then we see the decline of his health and his efforts to foolishly fight while ill and aging. This is a terrific documentary and it gives us a balance view of a man who was vile sometimes, loving most of the time, and never deterred. Excellent.

We all know how fantastic his life was and yet it's like a kid begging a parent to re-read the bedtime story over and over. The kid never gets tired of it and neither do I.

Could there be a more perfect athletic specimen than Ali at his blazing best?

He was witty, he was smart and he was genuinely likeable even as a braggart because you half knew he was doing it to sell tickets.

Remember? We used to watch his fights on 21 inch screens and be mesmerized , now we get to watch this documentary on giant screens with HDTV and it is even more amazing.

The speed with which he threw combinations and uppercuts, the way he dodged backwards to avoid haymakers by a fraction of a fraction, still has me gasping at the sheer impossibility of what he did. A heavyweight who fought like a welterweight, who was as fast as if not faster than, Sugar Ray Leonard, while weighing in 80lbs heavier.

Inside of this faster than light person was a flawed but honest individual, truly dedicated to his religious beliefs but giving in to the relentless adoration he received from females everywhere he went. Who else in his position wouldn't?

Ken Burns once again produces a masterpiece, even though there's not much new we find out about our hero.

I especially like the words from a poet in the final episode that describes Ali as a sorcerer, 'cos that's what he was; A skipping, shuffling sorcerer who could conjure up magic in the ring. He could destroy challengers and have us all laughing about the brutality afterwards.

But sadly , like all boxers.. he stayed at it too long. I don't care what they want to call it medically but in the end he was a punch drunk fighter. So hard to look at and so tragic a figure.

There will never be anyone who comes close to Muhammad Ali as an athlete or a personality and I am thankful that Ken Burns treated this story so well.

The ecstasy and the agony flow together like two rivers and if you're a fan of the person himself you'll find yourself tearing up on more than few occasions.

Well done Ken.

It's difficult to measure Ali's importance as a boxer and leader in the civil rights movement. But it was definitely huge. He is in my opinion one of the greatest athletes of all time.

This might be the best sports-documentary, I've ever seen. And I've seen them all.

I've seen every documentary ever made on Ali. And I will say this is by far the best ever made. Ken Burns was born to make documentaries and he absolutely knocked this one out. It has more footage, more insightful information and behind the scene footage that has ever been shown in one show. Man this was so good. Keith David is probably the best narrator around today and he just is the icing on the cake. Any show that has Keith David narrating it I'm gonna watch. And Even if you don't like boxing, this series is so worth watching. No question this is the greatest Ali documentary of all time.

There is a lot of video that has been recorded of Ali over his lifetime and, because he was so loquacious, a lot of audio that accompanies it. Those are the best parts of this doco and always make for captivating entertainment. The bits about backgrounds to the fights are quite good but we do have to wonder how balanced the story telling is. The background on Ali's life seems very light with all sorts of women, houses, events popping up with little to explain any motivation about how Ali came to find himself in such situations.

A fascinating story of boxing and an average story of the boxer.

Older than I Ali always popped up. This documentary is a fitting tribute to an athlete who I can measure my life with. A must watch.

Wow, what a triumph this documentary is! Ken Burns is to documentaries what Muhammad Ali was to boxing, the Greatest!

I must admit when I heard this series was in four 2 hour parts, I wondered what more can possibly be said about Muhammad Ali. But trust me there is not one boring second in this documentary. I have seen all the Muhammad Ali ones and outside of When We Were Kings, which focuses on his trip and fight with Foreman in Africa, this Ken Burns one is the definitive one and if you were going to see only one, this is it. Muhammad Ali is known by sound bites and excepts but here we see better the contexts where his words were spoken. The footage restoration is amazing! Malcolm X has never looked more magnificent on film. This is one for the ages, after Civil War, Jazz and more Ken Burns does it again. I hope he gets decorated for telling American history honestly.

Ken Burns does it again ! The Ali documentary is not only Burn's best, it is the best documentary of all time.

Watch it and be mesmerized. Everything from the editing to the directiin, to the sound is perfect.

It transports you back to the 60s , 70s, and 80s and makes you a part of Ali's journey.

It is riveting and engrossing.

Ken Burns has crafted a masterpiece.

Of the over a dozen documentaries on the life of Ali -- which this reviewer has seen -- this is the best, the sharpest, the most nuanced. It deals albeit indirectly with the unspoken issue of whether Ali really was the best boxer ever (even at his peak) or whether it is what the Japanese call his "fighting spirit" which put him over the top. Fighting spirit may well be what kept this incredible man in the minds and hearts of the public for so many years. A similar story will hopefully be told one day about Elvis, also at one time the greatest in his chosen vocation, who similarly was forced by circumstances to give up his throne too early, and take a very different direction. (Eg., search "Dentons Benton 2011")

This gripped me from start to finish. Superbly done. A compelling documentary on a fascinating man who lived through such a turbulent time and held his head high. His boxing chapter alone is the stuff of legend. A story so good that if it was movie you'd think it far-fetched. A man not without flaws but with a beautiful heart, who evolved. So inherently human, to make mistakes but to transcend them. I wish he had quit after the Foreman fight, it was so sad to see him with his speech slurred as a walking punchbag. The hangers on have were parasites. But even with the adversity of Parkinson's disease, he fought on and had his good days. Rest in peace Champ the world could do with another like you.

Any film on Muhammad Ali is going to be entertaining. But when you have such a magnificent subject to profile and you make a film that's this shallow, well, you are doing him a disservice. This documentary misses the point on so many levels, it's just not very good. Ali was a showman of superb talent but the filmmakers here just don't get it. They deliberately portray his clowning as sincere when most of it was just a way to sell tickets and any adult could see it then and can certainly see it now. Why? How would it hurt his legacy to admit that he hyped his fights by putting on an act? There's no danger that anyone will assume that the fights were "acts" too. Ali was a great athlete trapped in a gruesome and evil game. He and Joe Frazier were not such great enemies. Why should they have been? They were great competitors. Can black men make the ultimate sacrifice for honor alone-- or is that reserved for lighter skinned people while the "darker" ones are always assumed to be fighting from rage or instinct. This film gets away with a lot because it addresses "hot" topics like race and religion. But the filmmakers need to go back to school and learn what "hot" topics really are. Ali triumphed despite boxing, not because of it. Now THAT would make a good film!

Not easy to make an historic video biography documentary that match the Greatest of all time. This one did. I can remember a few Athletes in their own rights that also are Athletes of the century. But not with the impact that Ali the Greatest did. So much bigger than life itself. And this Documentary reflects why.

Muhammad Ali was arguably the most iconic sportman of the 20th century, and one of its most extraordinary, and conflicted, figures. A brilliant boxer who didn't fight like a heavyweight was supposed to; a deeply religious man, associated with a crank cult, whose personal behaviour was far from saintly; a political figure, once hated then loved; a fallen champion who came back from defeat; a campaigner for racial justice who insulted his opponents in language that resembled that of the racists he denounced; an eloquent individual reduced to incapacity by the injuries he sustained. Ken Burns's documentary is mostly reverential in tone, pointing out the contradictions but mostly reinforcing the legend. But Ali's was such an incredible story, and even to those of us who hate boxing, it remains a compelling one, fully able to fill eight episodes. Today, boxing no longer atttacts the attention it once did; indeed, in our age of fragemented audiences, perhaps no-one will ever have the opportunity to play the type of role that Ali did. In technical terms, his claim to have been the greatest may be disputable; but there might never be another sportman with the same impact on the world.

This isn't about Muhammad Ali the boxer. He was much much more than that. This is about Muhammad Ali the man. I am halfway through at the moment and I find nothing to complain about. It's objective, it's thorough, it's well designed and well narrated and above all it's very fair. The man was a great man. And he had his flaws, he had his mistakes, and he realized them all and overcame them all. The man was the greatest not just in boxing but in activism. In freedom fighting. I know in a short while we will see how some kept trying to use him for their own gains when he got older. And these people went down in history as the worst in history. The 4th episode is hard to watch but it is true to his legacy. He remained and remains the greatest. I highly recommend watching this mini series. In fact I recommend it to young people in particular as he was a true role model. He was very intelligent. He knew what he was doing and he did it all very well. It is also objective in portraying Malcolm X. To my absolute surprise their is no political propaganda or sneaky injection of propaganda in the series. Imho this is a 10/10 show. Nothing to complain about whatsoever. Some negative review aren't happy that it wasn't a 100% boxing show. Disregard these, u can watch boxing matches anytime u want. But if u want to know the man that was more than a boxer then watch this show. U will not regret it. It showed the times of Ali in all their aspects and all their sides, it showed a man with a heart of literal gold. And joe Frazier as well had an amazing heart and he managed to get Ali to truly respect him for his heart more than his boxing skills. They became friends as with Foreman. N am just so glad Tyson came and punished Holmes properly. He took advantage with Herbert and King of Ali's Parkinson's. And that's what they'll forever be known for. Awesome work by everyone revolved. Rest in peace Ali n Malcolm X. May Allah forgive any transgressions and as I've failed to meet u in this life, may we all be United in heaven in the afterlife. Peace be to all who read this as well.