ALI’S LIFE ALWAYS PACKED A PUNCH
Ken Burns says his film on the legendary champ ‘resonates at the moment’
Filmmaker Ken Burns has taken on the Civil War, World War II, America’s pastime and Prohibition, but never has the award-winning documentarian worked on a project that felt as relevant to him at its completion as his latest feature, “Muhammad Ali.”
“I’ve never done a film in which I paid attention to what is going on now,” he told the Daily News. “Pay attention to the road and don’t text, right?”
But considering the nation’s current state of affairs, particularly with regards to civil rights and voting restrictions, the 68-yearold Brooklyn native says Ali — the movie and the man — may be more relevant than ever five years after the boxing icon’s death.
“I know from experience, now of almost 50 years, that when I lift my head up, this film is resonating in the moment,” he said.
Burns’ eight-hour look at the former champion’s storied life begins Sunday on PBS. It examines Ali’s life “warts and all,” which draws from the boxer’s wins, losses, infidelities and sometimes painfully personal moments. One of Burns’ biggest challenges was saying something fresh about one of the most-documented people ever.
“We have in our culture a conventional understanding of him,” Burns said. “We [collectively] kind of draw from the smorgasbord that is Ali from what’s on the table.”
With that in mind, Burns and his team, which includes his daughter Sarah and her husband David McMahon, started from scratch.
“We went into the kitchen and we went back to the farm,” he said. “We’ve been working on this for 7½ years and have stuff that is so deep, it hasn’t been seen since it was originally recorded.”
Some of that raw footage brought tears to the eyes of Ali’s daughter Rasheda, Burns said. She told the Daily News that Burns’ film “captured the essence” of her larger than life dad.
“He was imperfect, but was a sincere son, brother, husband, father and friend and was always evolving into a better man,” she said.
She hopes Burns’ film introduces Ali to “a generation of brave people” whose dedication to traits like “charity, conviction, love and spirituality” will again change the world.
“This film highlighted all of the things that my dad cherished — his faith, his family and love for others,” she added.
Rasheda said her dad carried the weight of those who couldn’t fight for themselves, and that is his salvation.
Burns’ team also spoke to another of Ali’s daughters, two of his four wives, his brother, members of the Nation of Islam and fight game figures such as former heavyweight champion Larry Holmes to tell the story of the man who called himself “The Greatest.”
All of Ali’s achievements as a cultural icon — protesting the war in Vietnam, marching for racial equality and challenging religious boundaries — were of course made possible by his conquests in the ring. Burns is hardpressed to name the most important of those 61 fights, but his short list starts with Ali’s stunning underdog win against Sonny Liston. Burns calls that 1964 brawl a “Shakespearean drama of great proportions.”
The surprise victory was a sort of coming-out party for the brash new champ, Burns said. Weeks after vanquishing the seemingly invincible Liston, the 22-year-old fighter who entered the ring named Cassius Clay would forever be known by his Muslim name.
“In relation to the general U.S. public, including some Black people, he was scary,” Burns said of Ali. “He came out and did what athletes aren’t supposed to do: He’s bragging, he’s confident, he’s naming the round in which his opponents fall.”
Burns adds that all three of Ali’s fights with Joe Frazier have to be in that conversation, too.
“The first because he loses and he’s unbelievably poised and dignified about that loss, even though he led up to it with irresponsible behavior, calling Joe Frazier what a white racist would call a Black person,” Burns said.
Ali avenged that 1971 loss with a victory in their tightly contested 1974 rematch at Madison Square Garden. In 1975, Ali closed out the trilogy with a big win known as “The Thrilla in Manila.”
“The third one is the epic one,” Burns said. “I don’t think Shakespearean. It’s almost Olympian. Ali himself said it’s the closest to death he’s ever come. For Frazier and Ali, they left nothing behind.”
In terms of “sheer boxing pleasure,” Burns said it’s tough to beat “the Rumble in the Jungle,” where Ali, an underdog once more, knocked out George Foreman.
“That was, of course, a masterpiece,” Burns said.
Ali’s life and times had so many subplots that Burns can’t imagine a work of fiction that could match it. Even in Ali’s later years, after Parkinson’s disease took his voice, the three-time heavyweight champ packed a punch.
“When he is silenced, he’s speaking even
more,” Burns said.
The director believes one of Ali’s most poignant moments came 25 years ago this summer when, “hands shaking,” he lit the Olympic torch in Atlanta.
“That had to do with his evolution not as a boxer, but as a human being,” Burns said. “You can’t make this up.”
Seriously slowed by his condition, Ali teamed up with actor and fellow Parkinson’s battler Michael J. Fox to raise awareness of the ailment in the years that followed. In 2016, Ali’s journey came to an end in an Arizona hospital. Burns said that throughout his life, Ali knew what he meant to people all around the world.
“That’s why when he dies, he dies the most beloved person on the planet,” Burns said.
Before rolling the credits on Ali’s legacy, Burns acknowledged the champ’s story could live on through his grandson Nico Ali Walsh, who won his pro boxing debut in August.
“It’s interesting because he’s the son of Rasheda, and Rasheda carries a lot of Muhammad Ali’s DNA,” Burns said. “I wouldn’t bet against him.”