Facing Ali

Facing Ali

Directed by Pete McCormack

(Documentary)

A very good interview/film portrait of 10 of Muhammed Ali's former rivals; each man pays tribute to the great man, inter-cut with archive fight footage from each of the fights; Joe Frazier, Henry Cooper, George Foreman to name a few.

I was surprised that all these boxers were still alive; they all looked healthy and discussed with great detail the fights from thirty, forty years ago. It was fascinating to listen to these old fighters analyze and break down the fights in retrospect; the wins and defeats against the 3 time world champion Ali. Watching the film and seeing all these healthy old fighters makes it harder to accept that Muhammed Ali is stricken with Parkinson's Syndrome. He would be an active healthy man in the prime of his life; his legend will always remain intact long after he is gone.

The film is a fitting tribute to Ali, 'the greatest' and the archive footage offers a well compiled historical list of the fights, along with lots of other historical footage including Ali w/ Malcolm X. For any fan of boxing, this is well worth owning on DVD.