Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes (2018)
The life and times of Muhammed Ali shown through the lens of his numerous appearances on The Dick Cavett Show. The film features new interviews with Dick Cavett, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Larry Merchant, as well as archival material from the Cavett Show.
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Excellent, Without a doubt!!
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Ali & Cavett was enthusiastically welcomed in its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. The film was introduced by film critic Leonard Maltin who interviewed Dick Cavett afterwards. The documentary was made with recovered footage of more than a dozen appearances that Muhammad Ali made on Dick Cavett's talk show. Ali was electrifying. When he was at his height his speech was mesmerizing and he was really a force of nature. The film beautifully captures Ali as a sports figure, but more importantly as a cultural figure who broke barriers to challenge barriers of race and religion. He challenged the U.S. government's attempt to draft him and although he won, he paid a very heavy price. It shows him with his friend Dick Cavett and brings the politics and social conflict around Ali into clear focus. These tapes are a lost treasure. The director skillfully edits the tapes with other footage to provide a mini-biography of "The Greatest." The film would fit together well with the Oscar-winning documentary "When We Were Kings" about the Ali- 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" with George Foreman. I hope that the film gets distribution, because it can help bring this larger than life figure a new generation that came of age when he was well past his prime. Highly Recommended.