A Glean movie guide
The Legend of Muhammad Ali
The Greatest of All Time
Definitive multi-part series, documentaries, and dramas chronicling the Champ's life.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Muhammad Ali
Ken Burns' comprehensive multi-part documentary explores every facet of the boxing legend's extraordinary life.
From a chance meeting to a tragic fallout, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali's extraordinary bond cracks under the weight of distrust and shifting ideals.
- 02
What's My Name: Muhammad Ali
Antoine Fuqua's two-part feature tells Ali's story using rare primary footage and his own narration.
- 03
Ali
Will Smith delivers an Oscar-nominated performance chronicling a turbulent decade in the fighter's career.
In 1964, a brash, new pro boxer, fresh from his Olympic gold medal victory, explodes onto the scene: Cassius Clay. Bold and outspoken, he cuts an entirely new image for African Americans in sport with his proud public self-confidence and his unapologetic belief that he is the greatest boxer of all time. Yet at the top of his game, both Ali's personal and professional lives face the ultimate test.
- 04
When We Were Kings
This Academy Award-winning film captures the electrifying atmosphere of the historic 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle'.
It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.
- 05
Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali
An insightful look into the profound bond and eventual falling-out between two towering historical figures.
From a chance meeting to a tragic fallout, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali's extraordinary bond cracks under the weight of distrust and shifting ideals.
- 06
The Trials of Muhammad Ali
A compelling look at Ali's courageous exile from boxing due to his refusal of the Vietnam War draft.
Brash boxer Cassius Clay burst into the American consciousness in the early 1960s, just ahead of the Civil Rights movement. His transformation into the spiritually enlightened heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali is legendary, but this religious awakening also led to a bitter legal battle with the U.S. government after he refused to serve in the Vietnam War. This film reveals the perfect storm of race, religion and politics that shaped one of the most recognizable figures in sports history.
- 07
I Am Ali
Intimate audio archives and family interviews offer a rare, personal window into the man behind the persona.
Unprecedented access to Muhammad Ali's personal archive of "audio journals" as well as interviews and testimonials from his inner circle of family and friends are used to tell the legend's life story.
- 08
One Night in Miami...
A fictionalized yet grounded exploration of a pivotal 1964 night shared by a young Cassius Clay and his peers.
In the aftermath of Cassius Clay's defeat of Sonny Liston in 1964, the boxer meets with Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown to change the course of history in the segregated South.