There is something of a "Muhammad Ali" documentary genre that, for me, began with When We Were Kings (about the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" between Ali and George Foreman. There have been a number since including the recent I Am Ali in 2014. HBO has recently come out with a two part documentary, What's My Name: Muhammad Ali (2019), directed by Antone Fuqua, who I know best from Training Day. This documentary focuses mainly on Ali's rise to heavy weight champion of the world, but pays special attention to his religious, civil, and political beliefs and how they played out over the years. This mostly concerns his refusal of the Vietnam draft, in which he was banned from professional boxing while his appeals were being held-he was eventually exonerated. Ali does a good job of point out how his taxes help run the military machine and how he is probably more useful as a taxpayer than fodder for the military machine. His connections to the civil rights movement also show a kind of political courage where many other black entertainers and sportsmen stayed out of the limelight and refused to march or publicly support the movement. It was an entertaining and comprehensive look at the life of a very colorful persona.
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