Ken Burns portrays the multitudes of Muhammad Ali
A new PBS documentary shows how religion can be a machinery for improvement. Read the article from Religion News Service here.
The Dalai Lama (left), spiritual leader of Tibet, speaks with former boxing champion Muhammed Ali (center) at the dedication of an interfaith temple called the Chamtse Ling, located on the grounds of the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington, Ind., on Sept. 7, 2003. An unidentified security guard looks on. See RNS-DALAI-LAMA, transmitted Sept. 8, 2003. Photo by Dennis P. O'Connor.
There are rare individuals whose lives are so vast and extraordinary that they reveal a nation to itself, who are at once a mirror to America and who are themselves America in miniature. The 19th century gave America Walt Whitman. The 20th, Muhammad Ali.
Ali, like Whitman, contained multitudes. He was cocky and cruel, full of deep principles and flagrant hypocrisy, lightning quick to make decisions, too obstinate to change them and reflective enough to speak openly of his regrets years later.
The epic eight-hour documentary by Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband, David McMahon, airing now on PBS, is worthy of the man. Don’t miss a minute of it. In fact, take a full day and watch it straight through. The pacing, the photos, the music, the fight scenes, the expert interviews amount to a work of art; the raw, brutal and beautiful honesty in which it deals with a raw, brutal and beautiful human being.