Michael Mann is never quite finished with his movies. “Thief,” “Manhunter,” and “The Last Of The Mohicans” have all been issued in director’s cuts, and last year, Mann overhauled “Blackhat” and presented a significantly changed new edit at BAM Rose Cinemas (there’s still no word on if this version will ever see the light of day on home video or streaming). And then there’s “Ali,” which Mann already released in a director’s cut in 2004, and recut again for television later on.
“I did a re-edit of ‘Ali’ for television that I really liked and I’d like to put out a Blu-ray of that edit,” he told Collider in 2015. “That was a significant re-edit. It happens to move better and it’s longer….it’s a little bit longer. It’s more complete and moves better. Much more dramatic.”
But get ready, because yet another version of “Ali” is now available. Wait, what? That’s right, with almost zero fanfare, Sony has released “Ali: Commemorative Edition.” On this edition, the film runs 151 minutes (via Blu-ray), which is actually shorter than the running times of both the theatrical (157 minutes) and previously issued director’s cut (165 minutes). And Mann reveals why fifteen years on, he’s still futzing with the boxing biopic.
“With the hindsight of history, I felt the drama didn’t get all the way there. It wasn’t as strong as it should have been. I don’t think I changed anything on a movie like ‘Heat,’ but here, the proportion and how it made you feel, wasn’t quite right. I always knew how I wanted you to feel but I wasn’t sure that you were actually getting it. And then it occurred to me, what to do to make it be there,” he told Deadline.
While Mann says there are some extra scenes, but it seems the biggest change was removing some sequences. “I don’t know that it is any longer [than the original film], because I took out Ali’s fight against Cleveland Williams, which is maybe where you saw the prime that Ali lost when he was banned from boxing. I took it out because it felt like it was getting episodic,” he explained.
Talking with the Village Voice, Mann reveals he also cut the fight with Ernie Terrell, but he added more political and cultural context from the time.
“I wanted to make that tangible. In the earlier visit to Africa, when Ali bumps into Malcolm [X], there was a lot of work done there to really connect the dots and make associations play in a much clearer way. And to show the death of [Prime Minister Patrice] Lumumba — even though it’s a historical shift, because Lumumba got killed I think in ‘61. I wonder if people get it that the general who, after Lumumba is killed, walks into that room full of other military guys and says, ‘It’s done. C’est fait. It’s done.’ I wonder if they get that that’s Mobutu,” Mann said.
While Mann isn’t quite George Lucas when it comes to revisiting his past work, there is an obsessiveness that feels a bit extreme, and there is something to be said for locking a movie and moving on. But hey, if he’s able to keep playing in the editing room, why not, and it’s clear Mann enjoys on some level trying to make the best movie possible, even after they’ve long come and gone in cinemas.
Will you be picking up “Ali”? Let us know in the comments section.