The Walker pays tribute to Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) with two special screenings of William Klein’s 1974 film Muhammad Ali: The Greatest.
Klein’s extraordinary, incendiary film provides a probing look at the legendary Ali, following his career from his breakthrough 1964 bout with Sonny Liston to the epic “Rumble in the Jungle” with George Foreman in Zaire a decade later. With unprecedented access, the film traces the boxer’s transformation from the clean-cut, loud-mouthed Cassius Clay to the outspoken antiwar revolutionary/Black Muslim Muhammad Ali to a seasoned, wily pugilist and international idol. 1974, 35mm transferred to digital, b/w and color, 120 minutes.
Muhammad Ali, The Greatest, part of the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection, will remain available via self-selection in the Walker Mediatheque during gallery hours. The Mediatheque will be closed for renovation beginning August 2016.
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