He's been here before. Back in the late Seventies there was a turgid biopic of Mohammed Ali.

Unlike its subject, it floated like a turkey sunk like a brick. Back then, White America was still licking the wounds of Vietnam and civil rights and hadn't had time to reflect on what it had done to or what it had in Ali.

Now with Ali entering his third age, a prisoner inside the body which bought him success, and with America still suffering a body blow from the September 11 attacks, the time has never been so prescient for a major cinematic treatment of unarguably the greatest sportsman of the 20th century.

It would have been all too easy to wander down the sentimental route again to gloss over a life which has been so closely documented.

But director Michael Mann is more interested in the complexities which makes a mere man into an icon rather than an icon who is the man.

Ali's life is documented from 1964, when he beat Sonny Liston and stunned the sporting world to take the heavyweight crown, to 1974 when he became the first boxer to regain the heavyweight title in the famous Rumble in the Jungle with George Foreman in Zaire.

Yes, there is a life to be portrayed before '64(He won Olympic boxing gold as a mere 17 year old) and after '74 ( He won the title for the third time in 1979) not to mention his bravery in the face of Parkinson's disease.

Yet in those ten years Ali's life became so in tune with American history that even if you do not believe that individuals are responsible for shaping history, then you'll reason that they sometimes become the conduit of historical events - literally the body politic.

Mann is also blessed with a charismatic performance from Will Smith in the central role. To all intents and purposes he is Ali.

He spent a year conditioning his body for the role attaining the phisique of a supreme athlete. His mannerisms and demeanour are uncanny, his wit unparalelled. His bravery stunning. He makes you realise that the centrality of the man born Cassius Clay and reborn Mohammed Ali was the fact that he was so ALIVE.

In his darkest hour, stripped of his title, forbidden to leave the United States and virtually penniless, the body and the man refuses to bow down and be beaten.

The man and the body is also prone to temptation. Mann is not afraid to show Ali's roving eye even on the eve of his greatest triumphs, his insular depressive moments, as well as his contentment as a family man.

A great supporting cast including Mario van Pebbles (as Malcolm X), Jon Voight and Ron Silver, weave in and out of Ali's life but it really is Will Smith who deserves the plaudits.

It may not be the greatest story ever told, but it is The Greatest ever told.

lOut now