Review of Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013) by Richard D — 07 Dec 2016

An HBO film about the Supreme Court decision that overturned Ali's conviction for draft evasion. The film focuses primarily on the interaction of the judges as an initial 5/3 decision against Ali turns into a unanimous decision in his favour, mostly due to conservative justice John Harlan's (played by Christopher Plummer) reversal after agreeing to write the majority opinion against Ali.

Ali himself is not depicted except through archival footage. It's an interesting flick that deals with the particulars of the arguments for and against, but it's not a particularly good film. Despite a great cast that includes Frank Langella, Ed Begley, Jr.

, Barry Levinson, Fritz Weaver and Danny Glover, it's very much a TV movie in every sense of the term.