Ali: forebears but no heirs.

• Author: McKissack, Fred, Jr.
• Position: In the Mix

The great b-baller Charles Barkley once told the world that he wasn't a role model, so stop asking him to be one.

Fair enough. However, Barkley, who grew up in Alabama, made his declaration in the early '90s, when black folks could eat in any restaurant, live in the suburbs, and star on Southeastern Conference basketball teams such as Auburn, his alma mater.

Barkley could afford not to be a role model. However, could Muhammad Ali?

Michael Mann's film Ali explores the complexities of life in a Lagrangian point, with forces pulling him between champion boxer and cultural icon. Yes, Ali had a choice to be a talented boxer with a big mouth and nothing to say, but sometimes you are compelled--drafted, if you will--to move beyond the easy expectations.

Forget what critics have said: Ali is one of the best films in a year of disappointing work. Biopics are difficult to pull off, especially when the subject is alive and well remembered. The film--which follows Ali from the 1964 fight with Sonny Liston to the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" with George Foreman--features brutal fight scenes, tense dialogue, good politics, and plenty of uncomfortable moments.

Will Smith stars as Ali, and proves once again, as was the case in Six Degrees of Separation, that he is an actor with depth. Smith delivers both physically and spiritually in transforming himself from Fresh Prince to the Greatest of All Time. And Smith takes on Ali's arrogance and tenderness in a way that draws more compassion out of a viewer than ambivalence. If you don't like Ali, the film will not lead to a change of heart.

But the greatest challenge in offering Ali to the audience is correctly placing his cultural significance in the turbulent years between 1964 and 1974. The movie does this quite well.

Let's face it, the elite in this country were not ready for a loud, sometimes obnoxious black male delivering crushing blows to the body politic. Sure, it's not as though Malcolm X or Stokely Carmichael weren't making enough noise with pro-black, anti-government rhetoric. But, whether we like it or not, athletic heroes have far more cultural power than they often want to assume. And for black fighters, their prowess in the ring has generally been seen as a threat.

Check out the 1910 fight between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries, the Great White Hope. The story begins in late December of 1908, as Johnson crushes Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, to win the world heavyweight title. Burns had earlier claimed that black fighters had neither the heart...