Content area
Full text
Thrilla in Manila. Dir. and prod, by John Dower. H bo Documentary Films, 2009. 90 mins. (hbo Documentary Films, htcp://www .hbo.com/docs/programs/thrillainmanila/ index. html).
An engaging documentary, Thrilla in Manila revisits che famously brutal 1975 prizefight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Ic was their third and final bout against one another - Frazier won the firsc in 1971, Ali cook the 1974 remacch - and both men exhibiced tremendous punching and will power. Despite being exhausted by the heac (ic was nearly 104 degrees in Manila's packed Aranera Coliseum) and Frazier's relenrlessness, AIi won after Frazier's rrainer Eddie Futch stopped the fight before the fifteenth round because his man could no longer see and thus protect himself. Ali retained his world heavyweight championship, even though he could barely stand afcer the fight and had to be escorted from the ring.
Boxing fans, journalists, and historians have long thought of Ali-Frazier III as a classic, "profound human drama of the highest order," according to the sportswriter Richard O'Brien, an exemplar of the sport's virtues: strength, skill, intelligence, courage, and tenacity (? Study in Pain," Sports Illustrated, April 13, 2009, p. 18). "This one," Red Smith of the New York Times wrote che day after the fight, "ranks up there with the most memorable heavyweight matches of our time" ("It Takes Two to Make a Fight," New York Times, Oct. 2, 1975, p. 62).
John Dower's gripping film reveals thac che fight in Manila was more than memorable; it was almost tragic, with each man punishing the other close to death. The film also argues that che fight was more than just two talented, well-conditioned, prideful African American men pummeling each other for che voyeuriscic pleasure of ochers and millions of dollars; it was also about a friendship betrayed and the politics of race at a volatile cultural moment.
Ali has been an almost universally recognized icon for forty years, widely hailed for his athletic accomplishments, charisma, and principled refusal,...