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If you've only ever seen Muhammad Ali's famous television interview with Michael Parkinson, William Klein's fly-on-the-wall documentary about the rise of the boxer from obscurity to world fame is guaranteed to open your eyes. Covering the period from 1964 to 1974, "Muhammad Ali: The Greatest" offers a rare glimpse of America's greatest fighter before he became a legend.
Capturing Ali in his most open moments (on the tour bus, in the changing rooms, and talking to fans and supporters), Klein's film offers a portrait of Ali as a spectacular showman.
With an array of talking heads, the film builds up a historical picture of Ali's influence. Yet it also confirms that he was as much a PR genius as a brilliant pugilist. As one university professor notes, Ali was the first ever spin doctor, a man who "fulfilled Madison Avenue at its best - or worst".
Whether claiming "nothing is as great as me ", or getting the whole of Zaire to chant "Ali Boma Ye!" ("Ali Kill Him!") during his fight with George Foreman, this was one boxer who knew how to work the crowd. Even as early as 1964, he was declaring "I'm the Champ!" and, on the basis of Klein's film, he wasn't at all wrong.
Klein's decision to leave out fight footage - check out Leon Gast's "When We Were Kings" for that - is the only disappointment in this otherwise superb look at one of America's greatest heroes. And whereas Michael Mann's "Ali" is obsessed with recreating the fights that made Ali's name as a boxer, Klein's film tries to get behind the myth to discover the real man.
As the film maker learns, Ali was one of those rare individuals for whom the myth was actually a reality.
