DVD Review: Muhammad Ali - Made In Miami - Page 2

Director Alan Tomlinson and writer Gasper Gonzalez have packed an hour long documentary with a mixture of footage of Ali from the time period, and interviews with people not only involved with Ali's fight career, but people able to provide the historical context for the time. After introducing us to the young Cassius Clay just back from the Rome Olympics, the movie makers take us down to Florida where we are treated to the reminiscences of not only his trainer, Angelo Dundee, but one of his corner men, various press people, and photographer Flip Schulke (responsible for the first photo in this article). For those of us who might have forgotten our history, they also bring in a historian to remind us that this period also marks the time when racial tensions in the southern American states were reaching a boiling point because of the fight for civil rights.

We are also given a history of the black community in Miami, specifically the area known as Overtown which was said to have rivaled Harlem in New York City as a centre for black culture. While not as bad as other cities in the South, Miami was still segregated. Flip Shulke recounts being on assignment from Life Magazine to photograph Ali, and unthinkingly taking him into a department store in downtown Miami because there was a sale on. Ali is asked to leave because black people aren't allowed to try on clothes in the store - the implication being that no self-respecting white person is going to want to buy something after a black person has worn it.

So even as he's learning his trade as a boxer, he can't help but be politicized at the same time. It would have been difficult for any young black person to avoid. For someone like Ali, who was developing a reputation as a fighter and becoming famous for the force of his personality, a slight like that must have been particularly galling. For it was around this time that Ali was also starting to develop the brashness that he became famous for; predicting the round in which he'd knock out his opponent, proclaiming his greatness in rhyme for all to hear, and refusing to march to the beat of any drummer but his own. Yet he still couldn't try on a shirt in a department store.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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