Written by Linda
December 26, 2008
A solid enough documentary, Muhammad Ali: Through the Eyes of the World is literally that.: The film features interviews with ex-boxers that fought Ali, as well as family members, historians, and a curious selection of celebrities, all reminiscing on the boxer who was referred to as The Greatest. This is good and all, but I almost half expected Ali to say at the end (à la Monty Python): "I'm not dead yet!"
Muhammad Ali has been elevated to some sort of godliness in the face of his physical debilitation from Parkinson's disease (which, it is widely agreed-upon, was brought on partly from getting punched in the head for so many years). And there is something that I sense about his character, that he is happily taking all of this worship in stride. Since the famed motormouth can't verbally promote himself anymore, this documentary has taken it upon itself to have random celebrities like Billy Crystal and Rod Steiger stumble all over themselves to outdo each other in praise of the boxer.
But the filmmakers were smart enough to show more than one side of the story. They don't hedge over glossed-over facts, such as Ali's famed womanizing, his debatable status as a "hero", and his controversial conversion to the Muslim faith.
The DVD also has a nice selection of original fight footage, and pretty much covers his whole career from his start as an exceptional teenage boxer, to his current status as one of the most famous American athletes ever.
But this collection is pretty much for fans only. It doesn't quite have the crossover appeal of the excellent documentary When We Were Kings, which focused exclusively on the much ballyhooed "Rumble in the Jungle" fight between Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1974. That film showed much more depth of character, and gave the viewers more of a look into the captivating and charismatic persona of the man who knew how to work the media.
What I'd really like to see is a complete collection of all that crazy original interview footage of Ali, where he spoke with such great spontaneous poetry ("float like a butterfly, sting like a bee"). Call it Muhammad Ali: Through the Eyes of Muhammad Ali, compile it with this DVD and When We Were Kings, and then you would have a great, well-rounded documentation of the man they called The Greatest.
