Ken Burns’ documentaries win awards before they’re even screened. They are so meticulous and long that they must be series.
Burns explained the American Civil War in a way that brought tears to the eyes of collectors of tin soldiers. He explained the Second World War using the example of four American cities and the letters that soldiers wrote home. The Vietnam War is understood through Burns’ documentary “Vietnam”.
Burns and authors Sarah Burns and David McMahon need eight hours to complete Muhammad Ali, appropriately divided into four “rounds”. Using the Ali film as an example, one can study why Burns is the best historiographer and the best documentary filmmaker.
He tells the story from the beginning: Little Cassius Clay has his bicycle stolen in Louisville. He’s looking for a cop. He ends up in a basement where the police are boxing. Cassius also wants to box. He is not very talented, but strong willed. Eight years later he is Olympic champion, twelve years later world champion.
Lots of unreliable narrators
We see Cassius. We see his brother. We see the building. We see the police boxing trainer. We see the bike. We see the man who built the bike. Then we hear the first wife of the man who later called himself Muhammad Ali. We hear his brother. We hear his daughter. These narrators are unreliable.
Then we hear sports reporters, writers and boxers. They’re also unreliable, but they’re not all on Ali’s side. One boxer says that in the 1964 world championship match, Sonny Liston, after a barely recognizable punch (which Ali later coined an “anchor shot”), fell to the ground with strange force and rolled sideways theatrically. The most famous photo of Ali was taken after this fall.
More columns by Arne Willander
Black and white observers alike have labeled Ali’s diatribes against Joe Frazier and George Foreman (“Uncle Tom,” “Ugly”) as “cruel” and “racist.” That Ali dropped his friend Malcolm X is not obscured.
In short, Ken Burns and his authors present everything from different perspectives and interpretations. Charly Hübner reads the fact-packed German off-narrative. And Muhammad Ali is not getting any smaller. But not on the contrary either.