I pay no attention to boxing. It exists at the corner of my eye in advertisements and feeds, but I\u2019m never tempted to look its way. Clearly there are plenty of people who do, and plenty of money changes hands in and around it.<\/p>\n
Neither am I a fan of biopics, though I watch them professionally, which tend to squeeze the nuance out of a life in pursuit of entertainment. But here again, they often prove to be quite popular. Audiences eat them up. Actors like the \u201cchallenge\u201d of inhabiting a person famous enough to be the subject of one, and they often scoop up awards when that season rolls around.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to \u201cThe Greatest<\/a>,\u201d a series premiering Wednesday on Prime Video, and by \u201cthe greatest,\u201d even a person with no affinity for the sweet science, as it\u2019s strangely called, should understand we\u2019re talking about Muhammad Ali<\/a>, who gave himself the nickname and repeated it until everyone else, on solid evidence, agreed. (It follows Will Smith\u2018s 2001 \u201cAli\u201d and a 1977 oddity, also called \u201cThe Greatest,\u201d in which the champ played himself.) Ali, of course, was more than a boxer, he was a phenomenon, globally identifiable like Charlie Chaplin or Mickey Mouse. Even paying no attention to his sport, I seem to know a lot about him, but I would consider much of his life basic cultural knowledge.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s very good! Created and partly directed by Ben Watkins (\u201cCross<\/a>\u201d), with Ali\u2019s widow Lonnie Ali as an executive producer, it benefits from a relatively short timeline spread out over eight episodes, giving it room to breathe between the set pieces and fights and sundry historical landmarks. It begins in 1960, after Ali (then, and through the series, called Cassius Clay) has won the light heavyweight gold medal at the Rome Summer Olympics; it finishes in 1964, after \u2014 to the surprise and disappointment of many, the boxer being far from universally loved \u2014 he beats Sonny Liston in Miami for the world heavyweight title and unveils his new forever name to the public. Presumably reserved for subsequent seasons are his refusal to fight in Vietnam, activism, absences and comebacks, the Thrilla in Manila<\/a>, the Rumble in the Jungle<\/a>, Parkinson\u2019s \u2014 though this is a good place to stop, arc-wise and art-wise.<\/p>\n As Cassius, Jaalen Best \u2014 whose previous work consists of Hot Guy in an episode of \u201cAmerican Horror Stories,\u201d Teammate No. 1 in an episode of \u201cMagnum P.I.\u201d and three episodes of \u201cAll American: Homecoming\u201d \u2014 has the voice and enough of the look, the ego, impatience and self-importance, but also the softness and seriousness and occasional moments of doubt. It\u2019s good to remember that the fighter was just 22 when he won the heavyweight belt and announced his allegiance to the Nation of Islam. He was not merely baby-faced \u2014 he was obsessed with his prettiness \u2014 but still forming. (Much of the conflict has to do with who does or doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s ready to meet Liston; Ali himself was in a rush to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history.)<\/p>\n The production is relatively modest, but well-appointed in terms of period dress and furnishings and signage; the focus is on the actors, who, notwithstanding a few invented utilitarian minor characters, give dimension to their real-world analogs, in such a way that one wants to learn more about the person behind the character. This is especially true of Amin Joseph\u2019s Sonny Liston, a delicate portrayal of a figure easily reduced to a pair of big, powerful fists; for much of the time \u201cThe Greatest\u201d is as much his story as Ali\u2019s, as the focus shifts between the two on their way to the ring. There is a lot of shouting, too, mostly by Clay, but the tenor of the piece is on balance kindly (though not uncritical).<\/p>\n Giovanni Ribisi plays trainer Angelo Dundee, telling Clay\u2019s family that \u201cCassius isn\u2019t a fighter, he\u2019s an artist; and you don\u2019t teach Michelangelo how to paint, you give him a paintbrush and you get out of the way.\u201d Reno Wilson is cornerman Drew Bundini Brown; Michael Ealy is Malcolm X; and wrestler Chris Jericho is Gorgeous George, the mouthy TV wrestler who inspired Clay\u2019s braggadocio. The invaluable Dana Gourrier plays Clay\u2019s mother Odessa, called Bird, with whom, in this picture anyway, he appears to have had a close relationship. There is a wonderful offhand quality to their scenes together. As Cassius Clay Sr., called Cash, Omari Hardwick draws a character familiar from family dramas (womanizer, sometimes violent drunk, sure he knows how to run his son\u2019s business), but handles the assignment well.<\/p>\n There are the usual customizations in the name of drama, and, of course, many invented conversations; there are speeches whose corniness the actors manage to mask. The accuracy of some events may be disputed. The songs chosen for the soundtrack are generally intrusive and often chronologically inappropriate, though scenes in which bands are onscreen playing bop and R&B get it right. There are some tricky visual effects to represent dreams, visions and memories that don\u2019t fit well with the casual naturalism of the bulk of the series. But none of this is unusual or fatal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I pay no attention to boxing. 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