What’s your biggest

movie disappointment?

I tend not to have many bad cinematic experiences. By the time I make it to the theatre I generally know enough about a movie to guess what my response is going to be and I raise or lower my expectations accordingly. Occasionally I might find myself shocked by how much I loved a movie I assumed I was merely going to like, but it’s pretty rare for me to walk out hating a movie I assumed I was going to love.

In fact, I can only name a handful of films that managed to do that to me, but the first one that always comes to my mind is Michael Mann’s 2001 biopic Ali.

As soon as I read it was going to be made, I knew I was going to love it. Michael Mann was a genius–the man whose last three films were Last of the Mohicans, Heat and The Insider. And he was going to follow this amazing trifecta by telling one the greatest stories of the 20th century–the rise and fall and rise and fall of The Greatest.

From the beginning everyone had doubts. Will Smith–the Fresh Prince–had been cast in the title role and many felt he was too much of a glib lightweight to play such an iconic part. I knew this was utter bullshit. You couldn’t cast some unknown as Muhammad Ali! He was the biggest superstar of his era. I mean is there anything more annoying than watching a TV show where all of the characters go crazy for a “famous superstar” and they cast some nobody and you spend all of your time thinking, “If this guy is so great, why is this the first time I’ve ever seen him in anything?”

No, to play a superstar you NEED a superstar and in 2001 Will Smith was the only person in the world who could stand toe to toe with the legend of Ali.

So, I was happy.

Until I saw the film.

Smith was great. I don’t think he’s ever been better. I’ve heard people criticize his performance, but invariably they are basing this on the baggage they’re bringing to the movie and nothing that’s actually happening on screen. The problem was everything surrounding it.

Mann was given one of the most compelling and important life stories of all time and he did the impossible–he made it boring.

Have you ever seen When We Were Kings? It’s one of the greatest movies of all time and it happened pretty much by accident. Leon Gast had been hired to film the musical acts Don King had flown over to Zaire to perform before Ali’s epic comeback battle against the then-current heavyweight champ, a terrifying mass of muscle named George Foreman. Instead Gast filmed everything and then pretty much forgot about it–until a few decades passed and he came across the footage and realized there was a movie there.

And it won the Oscar, because it clearly and concisely told the most thrilling David & Goliath story since the future king picked up his slingshot. A story about a man who couldn’t win, except he did–not because he was stronger, but because he was smarter and refused to go down. A story about a man whose strategy was insane–let the hardest puncher in the world punch me until he’s so tired he can’t even lift his arms anymore.

AND IT WORKED!

IT GODDAMN FUCKING WORKED!

When Ali knocks down Foreman in When We Were Kings I weep, because it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. I’m weeping now just writing about it.

And Michael Mann turned it into nothing. Because his film was too cool to be great–too artistic to give in to something as silly as emotion.

So I left that theatre feeling as though I had been robbed of the story I dreamed of seeing–an experience I had imagined would be transcendent.

And 13 years later, I’m still a bit mad, but I shouldn’t be, because I still have When We Were Kings.

It turned out I didn’t even need Ali anyway.

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