Johan Croneman: Muhammad Ali What's my name? echoed far beyond the pr-trick

I don't know how many documentaries and longer story you've seen about Muhammad Ali, his life, work, boxing, religion, and politics. There will always be a to – and I find that I can never get enough.

the Last in the row is Antoine Fuquas ”Whats my name: Muhammad Ali”, a film in two parts on HBO, spanning his entire life and career, chronologically, simple, incessantly entertaining, fun, educational.

The first half of his life is the most interesting, his early years, his awakening, his radicalisation.

Antoine Fuqua is an established Hollywood director, on his RESUME are films such as ”Training day”, ”The Equalizer” and ”The Magnificent seven, all with Denzel Washington in the lead role, and despite his as said relatively traditional way to tell, he takes his spelfilmskänsla up in the documentary, not least when it comes to drama and excitement.

from the young and a decent ”custom” Golden Gloves winner and OLYMPIC gold medallist Cassius Clay to the radical, revolutionäre värnpliktsvägraren and political and islamistiske activist Muhammad Ali is the stride gigantic, and it requires, indeed, a special kind of man to both have the courage to go up in that match, and win, the – Muhammad Ali goes from being spat upon, hated, patterned the "freakish", booed, ostracized, turned off, circumscribed and ostracized, to truly become The Greatest, all categories – the world's most famous and beloved athlete, ever.

And still raises his life, his statements, his career amazingly a lot of emotion. I myself grew up with the first Cassius Clay, then Muhammad Ali. He is a part of my own history.

as I said, the strongest during its first half of the year, here are both the pictures and interviews I had never seen or heard, they have really drilled down in the tv archives, here are both the ”new” boxningsbilder (from very early in her career), and many both funny and factually interesting interviews.

Of particular boxningsbilderna (the early), you realise what a magnificent boxers he was already during his amateur career, he struck while the world afire when he was pitted against a ruthless and undeniable master, yes, the monster, Sonny Liston in their first world CUP match – but for those who really taken a look at him previously, and knew something of boxing, have already early on been right of course, he was an almost deadly threat to any opponent. He was blazing fast, he was moving better than any other boxer in history, he had a cut-throat plunger to the vänsterjabb that just came and came and came again, he landed it with precision and followed up with a högerkrok that we rarely even had time to perceive.

Pang, was Sonny Liston there, and never found the legs again.

and political hiking devotes Antoine Fuqua at least as much time as the actual boxing, how Cassius Clay approaching Elijah Muhammad, leader of Nation of Islam in the 60's, how he at the same time, radicalized by Malcolm X, change the name, and frighten the half strokes on white America.

As the title already tells us: Only this fight he must engage for the right to own their proper name. Many refused to call him anything other than Cassius, and when to and with his black brothers, who, although he boxed against, refused to take his muslim name in his mouth, then lit the he seriously. Both before and during the match against Ernie Terrell in 1967, when Terrell insisted on calling him Cassius Clay; it is not a foregone conclusion förpostfäktande pr-trick when the smokes together with his fists already at the press conference before the match (in the day commonplace...), and during the match both see and hear how Muhammad Ali on several occasions, asking Ernie Terrell: ”Whats my name? Whats my name”.

that the end is tragic, Muhammad Ali's severe Parkinson's, how he increasingly loses himself in his disorder and eventually disappears completely – but without really any time to lose its dignity, its magic, both in its internal and external beauty. He is a mythical figure, already during his life. And he is the greatest, the greatest of them all. And his name was Muhammad Ali.