IMDb RATING
5.9/10
1.6K
YOUR RATING
Muhammad Ali plays himself in a reconstruction of the events that brought him to fame.Muhammad Ali plays himself in a reconstruction of the events that brought him to fame.Muhammad Ali plays himself in a reconstruction of the events that brought him to fame.
- Awards
- 2 wins
Teddy Wilson
- John the Gardener
- (as Theodore R. Wilson)
Chip McAllister
- Cassius Clay - Aged 18
- (as Phillip 'Chip' McAllister)
Drew Bundini Brown
- Drew 'Bundini' Brown
- (as Drew 'Bundini' Brown)
- Directors
- Tom Gries
- Monte Hellman(uncredited)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSharon Stone met Muhammad Ali when she was 17. She was in the Miss Pennsylvania pageant and Ali was in Hershey, Pennsylvania, when Stone was there and she met him. And then Ali called her father and offered her a part in his film that he was making (The Greatest). The late boxing champ predicted movie stardom while her father was skeptical. Sharon Stone's father said, ''She is not going to be in film.'' Ali told her father, ''You may think that she is not, but she is. You cannot hide that girl under a bushel basket. Her light is too bright.".
- GoofsAli is shown fighting Joe Bugner during the montage of bouts that took place between the first Frazier fight in 1971 and the first Norton fight in 1973.
However the footage is actually taken from the second fight with Bugner in 1975 instead of their first fight in 1973. Not only is this out of sequence for the montage but the second Bugner fight occurred after the Ali vs Foreman fight in 1974 which is the climax of the film.
- Quotes
Drew 'Bundini' Brown: Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. You can't hit what you can't see.
- SoundtracksThe Greatest Love of All
(main title song)
Sung by George Benson
Music by Michael Masser
Lyrics by Linda Creed
Featured review
The greatest plays the greatest
I said several months ago that no one could play Ali except Ali. I was right. Muhammad Ali does a magnificent job playing himself in this movie. Maybe he's no actor, but in this case he accomplished what he set out to do, and he had several really effective scenes, such as when he explained why he didn't want to go to Vietnam, and the scene where Clay demanded that he no longer be called by that slave name.
This was the third film (as opposed to documentary) that I saw on the life of the great boxer. David Ramsey did an okay job in the first one, and Will Smith tried his best but didn't quite capture the champ as only the champ could. Smith may have been the best actor out of the three, and certainly his film was the best.
Chip McAllister made young Cassius Clay too much of a clown. He was okay, I guess, but the portrayal of the character improved dramatically at one point, and I also noticed the actor looked so much more like Clay. That's when I remembered: Ali himself was playing the character.
Ernest Borgnine did a capable job as Ali's trainer, but this was not one of his best performances. James Earl Jones did a fine job as Malcolm X, brief as the performance was.
I learned a few new details about Ali's life I didn't know before. I also found out that 'The Greatest Love of All' was written long before Whitney Houston made it a hit.
The main reason for watching this movie was Ali himself. He was the greatest.
This was the third film (as opposed to documentary) that I saw on the life of the great boxer. David Ramsey did an okay job in the first one, and Will Smith tried his best but didn't quite capture the champ as only the champ could. Smith may have been the best actor out of the three, and certainly his film was the best.
Chip McAllister made young Cassius Clay too much of a clown. He was okay, I guess, but the portrayal of the character improved dramatically at one point, and I also noticed the actor looked so much more like Clay. That's when I remembered: Ali himself was playing the character.
Ernest Borgnine did a capable job as Ali's trainer, but this was not one of his best performances. James Earl Jones did a fine job as Malcolm X, brief as the performance was.
I learned a few new details about Ali's life I didn't know before. I also found out that 'The Greatest Love of All' was written long before Whitney Houston made it a hit.
The main reason for watching this movie was Ali himself. He was the greatest.
helpful•166
- vchimpanzee
- Jul 7, 2005
- How long is The Greatest?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Ich bin der Grösste
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $8,284,000
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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