The Greatest

Director: Tom Gries (1977)

Cast: Muhammad Ali, Ernest Borgnine, John Marley

The best thing that can be said about The Greatest is Muhummad Ali is IN the movie  himself. It is sort of a corny account of his life up to 1977. He still had his faculties. It was a year later he would lose his championship to Leon Spinks. Ali had fought a hard road to get to the point of regaining that lost championship from his stance on Vietnam, etc. The fact that he is the co-writer along with his manager Herbert Muhammad and was mostly written by Ring Lardner Jr. makes it hard to believe this rose-colored glasses version of the great Ali’s life.

Quick synopsis: The story of Cassius Clay, who became Muhammad Ali and the most charismatic heavyweight champion of our time. Tracing his meteoric rise from his Olympic gold medal as a light-heavyweight at Rome in 1960, his conversion to Islam, his refusal to serve in the Vietnam war, to his triumphant return to the ring. The Michael Mann version of Ali’s story gives a truer depiction of Ali’s life, but this is worth a look.

Fun Facts:

The movie DID produce a hit song “The Greatest Love Of All” first sung by George Benson, then later a #1 hit for Whitney Houston.

Director Tom Gries passed away over four months before the movie's May 1977 release.