Cassius X: Becoming Ali

Another year, another film about Muhammad Ali. That’s not a problem – there’s still plenty of mileage in the subject, and plenty of pleasure to be gained from watching the star’s graceful work in the ring. in the search for fresh angles, writer and former Channel 4 executive Stuart Cosgrove has chose to focus on one of the less commonly explored topics in the boxer's life: the religious conversion which was taking place behind the scenes during his rise to fame. Its political implications would shake the US sporting establishment to its core and make his life significantly more difficult, so why did he do it? What did Islam mean to him, and what’s in a name?

If you’re African American like director Muta’Alii Muhammad, some of what’s discussed here is likely to be obvious to you, but then again, there are always people – especially young people – who haven’t yet given much thought to their own ancestry and how it shapes their lives. That was certainly the case for the young Cassius Clay, who, when asked about his name, would answer proudly that it was his grandfather’s name, thinking no further back than that. It had not occurred to him that the name came originally from a man who claimed ownership of his family members as enslaved people, or what it meant for Black people in his own time to carry such names onwards.

Set over five years, from his emergence on the national boxing scene in 1959 until the first Sonny Liston fight in 1964, this film tracks key events in his career in relation to his developing political and spiritual consciousness, highlighting important moments like the occasion when, turning on Black radio to listen to some tunes in a Florida hotel room, he first heard the voice of Elijah Muhammad, discovering something of the politics of the Nation of Islam and Black separatism – or his first encounter with Abdul Rahman, who was selling papers on the street. It paints a picture of a young man eager to understand himself better and, in the process, opening his eyes to the scale of the injustices around him.

Even outside the racial context, boxers have a tendency to be objectified. Ali attracted investment from wealthy white patrons as if he were a prize horse. To a kid, that looks like free money, but growing up and wising up even a little changes one’s perspective. White America wanted the young star to be a good guy, a clean cut kid, a well behaved pet. It wasn’t just his sporting prowess which frightened those in power, but his natural charm and his gift for publicity. There is ample video and audio material here to remind us of that - and that he wasn't afraid to use it. Following booing and hostility at the Doug Jones fight, we hear his undaunted response: “Do whatever you want. Boo, scream, throw peanuts. But whatever you do, pay to get in.”

There’s a wealth of photographs here too. A peek into the meeting in a café where he first encountered Malcolm X, whose daughter Attallah Shabazz shares her memories of their friendship. A casual snap from a coffee shop where he went to drum up publicity during a newspaper strike. A shot of him smiling outside UN headquarters where he went to discuss human rights, on the same trip where he dropped the X and received, with delight, his new name.

Comment comes from Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times, biographer Thomas Hauser and one time girlfriend Dee Dee Sharp. Boxing commentator Jim Lampley reflects on how he washed cars and mowed lawns and saved up so he could get to the Miami Beach fight, and his enthusiastic presence reminds us that Ali’s outspoken politics struck a chord with young people of all races. The film never loses sight of the significance of race in the US, however, and hinges on an understanding of how identities are formed and controlled, or what it means to take away or bestow a name. Muhammad Ali did not name himself, but he chose who did, and though that may seem like a small thing, its implications are still felt today.

Cassius X: Becoming Ali screened as part of the 2023 Glasgow Film Festival.