Muhammad Ali

Older than I Ali always popped up. This documentary is a fitting tribute to an athlete who I can measure my life with. A must watch.

There is a lot of video that has been recorded of Ali over his lifetime and, because he was so loquacious, a lot of audio that accompanies it. Those are the best parts of this doco and always make for captivating entertainment. The bits about backgrounds to the fights are quite good but we do have to wonder how balanced the story telling is. The background on Ali's life seems very light with all sorts of women, houses, events popping up with little to explain any motivation about how Ali came to find himself in such situations.

A fascinating story of boxing and an average story of the boxer.

It's difficult to measure Ali's importance as a boxer and leader in the civil rights movement. But it was definitely huge. He is in my opinion one of the greatest athletes of all time.

This might be the best sports-documentary, I've ever seen. And I've seen them all.

Of the over a dozen documentaries on the life of Ali -- which this reviewer has seen -- this is the best, the sharpest, the most nuanced. It deals albeit indirectly with the unspoken issue of whether Ali really was the best boxer ever (even at his peak) or whether it is what the Japanese call his "fighting spirit" which put him over the top. Fighting spirit may well be what kept this incredible man in the minds and hearts of the public for so many years. A similar story will hopefully be told one day about Elvis, also at one time the greatest in his chosen vocation, who similarly was forced by circumstances to give up his throne too early, and take a very different direction. (Eg., search "Dentons Benton 2011")

I've seen every documentary ever made on Ali. And I will say this is by far the best ever made. Ken Burns was born to make documentaries and he absolutely knocked this one out. It has more footage, more insightful information and behind the scene footage that has ever been shown in one show. Man this was so good. Keith David is probably the best narrator around today and he just is the icing on the cake. Any show that has Keith David narrating it I'm gonna watch. And Even if you don't like boxing, this series is so worth watching. No question this is the greatest Ali documentary of all time.