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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
By A Customer
This review is from: Boxing's Best - Muhammad Ali [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Its a rather poor documentary with insufficient fight scenes: There were only photographs of the Ali v. Foreman fight!! A lot of time is spent on interviews - none with Ali - presumably to give the impression that Ali was created by his trainer or that the owner of his first gym was somehow responsible for his greatness. Buy Ali's Greatest Fights instead. It has 3 separate fights - Liston, Foreman, Frazier (3rd) - with excellent commentary.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
An inferior production,
By
This review is from: Boxing's Best - Muhammad Ali [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This was produced for HBO television's series on great heavyweights, a series which includes Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey. Each program runs just under an hour. With such little time alotted for such a significant figure as Muhammad Ali, this production gives a very sketchy outline of his life and career. Significantly less than half of the 59 minutes contains actual fight footage, and the quality of the color footage of the Frazier fights is particularly poor - grainy and runny. The non-fight footage shows host Barry Tompkins interviewing the owner of the Louisville gym where Ali (then Clay) first trained, and interviews with his longtime trainer Angelo Dundee. There are, though, a number of period film footage interviews with Ali, of the pre-fight buildup variety. There is some brief footage of Ali speaking to college students during the time he was stripped of his title for his refusal to be drafted, but there is no attempt in this documentary to explain his religious convictions, and why he was a conscientious objector. There is no insight into his conversion to Islam, to begin with. There is, though, some rare early fight footage, including about 17 seconds of his 1960 Olympic finals victory, and about a half-minute of his first professional bout. The other fight footage contains highlights of his bouts with: Archie Moore (1962), Sonny Liston (both I and II), Cleveland Williams, Zora Folley, Oscar Bonavena, Joe Frazier (I, II and III), Leon Spinks, and Larry Holmes. There is no footage of his 1970 comeback match with Jerry Quarry, and as another reviewer mentioned, no footage of the Foreman fight. My guess is that HBO might not have had the rights to that footage at the time this was produced. Until a better documentary on his life in and out of the ring is produced - one that is both an in-depth character study and that contains more fight footage, and higher quality footage, take my, and the other reviewers suggestion, and buy the videos of the complete first Liston, third Frazier, and Foreman fights. "When We Were Kings" is another excellent video to get.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Butterfly, bee, Clay, Ali,
By
This review is from: Boxing's Best - Muhammad Ali [VHS] (VHS Tape)
"BOXING'S BEST: Muhammad Ali" was originally a free gift offered with a subscription to a popular sports magazine. It's a clean HiFi dub of a 1981 HBO documentary on the boxer that his trainer Angelo Dundee freely admits here to being the greatest heavyweight of all time.
Mostly brief, often low-contrast fight clips are interspersed with commentary or equally short excerpts of training, press conferences and news reports. Little of Muhammad Ali's life beyond the usual anecdotes is revealed. Missing is the thrashing Ali gave former champ Floyd Patterson, who insisted on calling him "Clay." Also no mention of the famous simulated 1969 battle with Rocky Marciano Non-fight CONTENTS: Host Barry Tompkins speaks with Joe Martini, Columbus Gym owner (Louisville) who was first to train 12-year-old Cassius Clay | Angelo Dundee admits to tearing Clay's glove in the Henry Cooper bout | Prefight publicity, Clay vs. Liston | Sonny trains for rematch | Ali's draft status changed after Williams match | Out of boxing 3 yrs. 8 mos., Ali speaks at colleges | Bonavena calls Ali a chicken during mutual news event, Muhammad promises he'll pay | Frazier press conference | Pre-fight comments on Foreman's "dirty" style | Media event, 3rd Frazier bout | Both boxers comment after Spinks wins title | Dundee's closing remarks include "greatest" assessment FIGHT CLIPS: Rome, 1960: defeats Polish boxer for light heavyweight gold medal 10/29/60: First pro fight, decision over Tunney Hunsacker 11/15/62: KO of 48-year-old Archie Moore 2/25/64: TKO of Sonny Liston, who didn't answer 7th round bell (narrator blames Liston's corner), Clay new champ 5/25/65: Self-renamed Ali's "phantom punch" that KO's challenger Liston in Round 1 11/14/66: 3rd round TKO of Cleveland Williams 3/22/67: Zora Folley KOed in 7th round 12/7/70: In his ring comeback, Ali punishes Oscar Bonavena; 3 knockdown TKO in 15th round 3/8/71: First Frazier fight; decision for Joe 3/31/73: 12 round loss to Ken Norton after Ken fractures Ali's jaw 9/10/73: Ali wins Norton rematch by decision 1/28/74: Unanimous decision over Joe Frazier 10/30/74: "Rumble in the jungle" 8th round KO of George Foreman 9/30/75: In "Thrilla in Manila," Joe Frazier's corner stops fight in 14th round 2/15/78: Loses split decision and title to challenger Leon Spinks 9/15/78: Belt regained in unanimous decision over Spinks 10/2/80: 11 round TKO defeat to Larry Holmes, the new champ* *(This is called Ali's swan song, but he fought once more, a 12/11/81 loss to Trevor Berbick.) TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 57 minutes
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