“Especially now, because we’re in the time of activist athletes,” said Louis Moore, a history professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. The recent intersections of sports and social issues make Ali, always a popular subject for authors and filmmakers, particularly appealing. Ali’s stand against the Vietnam War, which triggered the suspension of his boxing license and a three-year absence from the ring, echoes the stand taken by the pro athletes who marched with protesters last year after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Burns said the release dates for the other Ali-based films did not affect the timetable for his project.īut it is not an accident. The timing of the projects is a coincidence. In December, Amazon Prime released “One Night in Miami,” a dramatic imagining of a real-life meeting between Ali, Malcolm X, football star Jim Brown and soul singer Sam Cooke. “Blood Brothers” is one of two documentaries - the other is “Muhammad Ali,” a PBS film from Ken Burns, his daughter, Sarah, and her husband, David McMahon - to hit screens last month. “Ever since America discovered Muhammad Ali, we’ve been trying to figure out who he really is,” said Johnny Smith, a history professor at Georgia Tech and co-author of the book “Blood Brothers,” which spawned the Netflix film. It also gives viewers a glimpse at the man behind the boxing myth, someone who showed normal human feelings - like pain over a breakup with a friend and annoyance at a reporter’s questions - not often ascribed to larger-than-life figures.Īnd it helped capture why, 57 years after he first became heavyweight champion, Ali remains irresistible to filmmakers, and why audiences are especially drawn to him in 2021, when activism by athletes on social issues is often intertwined with their actions on the field. The brief scene exposes the fault lines running under that phase of Ali’s career - his shattered relationship with Malcolm, and Malcolm’s bitter exit from the Nation of Islam, to which Ali remained loyal. He concedes that Malcolm, who had recently split with the Nation of Islam, was his “brother,” but says he wouldn’t call the civil rights leader a friend. The interviewer asks about Malcolm X’s role in Ali’s joining the Nation of Islam, a Black nationalist organisation, and Ali, wearing a black jacket, a white shirt, a black bow tie and a hint of a scowl, parries the queries.
0 kommentar(er)
