12-31-01

The Greatest Outside of the Ring

By George E. Curry


From time to time, Hollywood tries to capture on the big screen the majesty of larger-than-life personalities who cannot be compressed into less than a 3-hour time frame-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Ghandi, Malcolm X and, more recently, Muhammad Ali.

When I went to see the movie "Ali," I was skeptical that Will Smith, the former "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" -even with a couple major movies under his belt-could do Ali justice. I didn't know whether to expect a performance on the level of Denzel Washington's excellent portrayal of boxer "Hurricane" Carter or a one-man version of "The Original Kings of Comedy."

In the end, "Ali" was neither. Will Smith had clearly studied many of Muhammad Ali's moves in the ring and was in character with the Louisville Lip's attention-getting antics. Yet, when I left the movie, there was something missing. And it wasn't because Will Smith had been a failure - the only person who can really play Ali is Ali. Perhaps it was because that in covering so much ground in 157 minutes, there was no way to capture the quintessence of Muhammad Ali's courage.

Though many sportswriters are quick to praise Ali now, except for Howard Cosell and a few others, most White-and some Black-sportswriters castigated Ali when he converted to Islam and expressed opposition to the Vietnam War.

Today, there is far more tolerance for Islam than in the 1960s when Ali converted. Islam is now the fastest-growing religion in the country and indeed the world. Then, it was not just a matter of Muhammad Ali becoming a Muslim, he was becoming a "Black Muslim." And anything attached to the word "Black" was considered by definition to be bad.

While Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam (NOI) and Malcolm X were vital to the development of Muhammad Ali outside of the ring, given the time constraints of movie-making, I felt too much time was spent on that aspect of his life. At times, I thought I was watching a dramatization of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" rather than "Ali."

Even with all that time devoted to the NOI, the movie graphically recreated Malcolm's bloody assassination, even down to the ruckus in the audience designed to draw attention away from him shortly before the fatal shots were fired. But providing that scene in isolation did not disclose the complicity of the New York City Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who knew in advance that an attempt would be made on Malcolm's life. If a movie about Muhammad Ali is going to spend an inordinate amount of time on the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X, it should not let law enforcement officials off the hook. 

In stating his objection to fighting in Vietnam, Will Smith repeats, "Ain't no Viet Cong ever called me nigger." That's quotable but it doesn't come close to relaying the depth of Ali's objection to the War in Vietnam or shedding any light on the repercussions of taking an unpopular stand even against an unpopular war.

By no stretch of the imagination am I in the league of Muhammad Ali, but I do know first-hand what it's like to take an unpopular stand. In 1968, when I was a student at Knoxville College in Tennessee, I was one of about 250 college editors and student body presidents who signed a statement vowing not to serve in Vietnam under any circumstances. Of that number, about 12 were invited to Washington, D.C., by the National Student Association to hold a press conference. Of the 12, two of us were invited to appear on The Today Show.

My position was that the war in Vietnam was an unjust war and it should be opposed. Furthermore, as one who had grown up in segregated Alabama, I saw no reason to travel  thousands of miles to fight when the war for equality had not been won at home. I said publicly that I would refuse induction, that I would take whatever punishment handed out and that I would not flee to Canada, as many others had, to protest the war.

I received many letters after my Today Show appearance. Many of them were supportive; many others were critical, filled with the usual "love it or leave it" suggestion. My draft board moved quickly to induct me but was unable to for medical reasons. If memory serves me correctly, it was because I have an enlarged lymph node. My family was quite worried about me during this period, especially my mother. One of my sisters, Chris, who was 12, sent me a note saying don't go to Vietnam-join the Dodge generation, a play on a popular automobile commercial at the time. Thank God, I didn't have to.

In Ali's case, he took a stand that cost him millions of dollars, deprived him of a chance to again be heavyweight champion of the world and could have sent him to jail for five years. Although the U.S. Supreme Court eventually exonerated him, he lost three prime fighting years. Still, Ali came back and reigned victorious. But the victory was greater outside the ring than it ever was inside.


George E. Curry, editor-in-chief of NNPA News Service and BlackPressUSA.com, is the former editor of Emerge: Black America's Newsmagazine.