History Film / Ali

* AMinorKidroduction: Albeit a brief one. In the opening montage, we see Ali as a boy on a bus in Louisville reading an article about the lynching of Emmitt Till, and also watching his father paint a portrait of Jesus.

* PowerWalk: Ali and entourage walking down a long corridor to the weigh-in for the first Sonny Liston fight.

* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Bundini Brown. He gets off sone good one-liners, at least, but otherwise his usefulness to Ali isn't immediately clear.

* YourCheatingHeart: In Africa, Ali starts stepping out on his second wife with the woman who became his third wife.

* TrainingMontage: The opening sequence of Ali training for the Liston fight, intercut with a scene of Sam Cooke in concert and scenes from Ali's early life.

** Ali's wife Belinda flies out to Zaire prior to the Foreman fight (The Rumble in the Jungle) to confront him about his affair with Veronica Porsche. In fact, this incident happened before the third fight with Frazier in Manila a year later.
** Ken Norton, one of Ali's great rivals who faced him in three epic bouts and handed him his second defeat, is downgraded to a minor role.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Some of the more negative aspects of Ali's life and personality are downplayed or ignored:
** Ali's views on race and religion are toned down significantly, views which, in real life, caused a great deal of controversy even amongst people who otherwise held him out as a hero. Notably his denunciation of integrationist policies and the Civil Rights Act is absent, as are the episodes of him preaching of America's imminent destruction (per Nation of Islam theology).
** His association with the Nation of Islam ([[HistoricalVillainUpgrade who are on the opposite end of this trope]]) is downplayed and portrayed as much more antagonistic than it was in real life.
** The movie downplays Ali's significant mean streak when it came to his opponents. In addition to taking some delight in humiliating opponents he didn't like personally (Floyd Patterson and Ernie Terell being the most infamous examples), his pre-fight insults often degenerated into cheap shots and stereotyping (such as calling George Foreman "a white, flag-waving bitch" and Joe Fraizer "an ugly, dumb gorilla").

For more about the "Rumble in the Jungle", see 1996 documentary "When We Were Kings".

''Ali'' is a 2001 {{Biopic}} about the life of UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli. It chronicles Ali's life from the first Sonny Liston fight in 1964, through his opposition to the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar which resulted in a long legal fight with the U.S. government, through his 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" showdown fight with George Foreman. It was directed by Creator/MichaelMann and stars Creator/WillSmith as Ali.

* MononymousBiopicTitlr

* ProtagonistTitle

* TheSeventies: Takes up the third act, from Ali's reinstatement to his fight with George Foreman. The end of the Vietnam War and the winding down of the 60's counterculture are the backdrop.
* TheSixties: Takes up the first and second act where the Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X's assassination and the Vietnam war provide the setting.

* YourCheatingHeart: In Africa Ali starts stepping out on his second wife with the woman who became his third wife.

** Ali's views on race and religion are toned down significantly,views which, in real life, caused a great deal of controversy even amongst people who otherwise held him out as a hero. Notably his denunciation of integrationist policies and the Civil Rights Act is absent, as are the episodes of him preaching of America's imminent destruction (per Nation of Islam theology).
** His association with the Nation of Islam [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade (who are on the opposite end of this trope)]] is downplayed and portrayed as much more antagonistic than it was in real life.

** At one point, Ali give a walking interview with the press that is just a mish-mash of famous quotes lifted from various interviews and the above-mentioned speaking tour regarding his refusal to go to Vietnam. At least one ("I ain't got no quarrel with the Viet-Cong") is misquoted.
** Ali's falling out with Malcolm X is exaggerated. While the two were on opposite sides of Malcolm's suspension by the Nation of Islam, the two were on good terms until Malcolm X's assassination, and Ali never explicitly rejects him like he does in the film.

* {{Biopic}}

** Ali's views on race and religion are toned down significantly,views which, in real life, caused a great deal of controversy even amongst people who otherwise held him out as a hero. Notably his denunciation of integrationist policies and the Civil Rights Act is absent, as are the episodes of him preaching of America's imminent downfall (per Nation of Islam theology).

** The movie underplays the times Ali crossed the line in his pre-fight verbal jousting with opponents and descended into crude race-baiting; in particular his belittling of Joe Frazier as an "ugly, dumb gorilla" and an Uncle Tom, Floyd Patterson ("a white man's Negro") and George Foreman ("a white, flag-waving bitch").

* TheSeventies
* TheSixties

** Ali's views on race and religion are toned down significantly,[[note]]As late as 1974, he was advocating the killing of interracial couples.[[/note]] views which, in real life, caused a great deal of controversy even amongst people who otherwise held him out as a hero.

* TheCameo: Several. Levar Burton has a non-speaking part as Martin Luther King. "LA Times" sports reporter Bill Plashke plays a sports reporter.

** Ali's views on race and religion are toned down significantly, views which, in real life, caused a great deal of controversy even amongst people who otherwise held him out as a hero.

** There were times when Ali crossed the line in his pre-fight verbal jousting with opponents and descended into crude race-baiting; in particular his belittling of Joe Frazier as an "ugly, dumb gorilla" and an Uncle Tom, Floyd Patterson ("a white man's Negro") and George Foreman ("a white, flag-waving bitch").