{"id":4532,"date":"2009-05-18T23:36:45","date_gmt":"2009-05-19T07:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=4532"},"modified":"2009-05-22T17:16:02","modified_gmt":"2009-05-23T01:16:02","slug":"thrilla-in-manila-john-dower-2009-usa-sports-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=4532","title":{"rendered":"Thrilla In Manila (John Dower, 2009): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Max Dean<\/a>. Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"Thrilla in Manila<\/a><\/em> is a documentary that looks at the epic rivalry between Joe Frasier and Muhammad Ali. <\/span>It all began when Muhammad Ali refused his induction into the Armed Forces. Ali refused entry to the services, and refused to partake in the Vietnam War. He refused this entry because of his religious beliefs (he was an active member of the all black Nation of Islam). This caused Ali to lose his boxing license and to be kept out of the ring. At this time, the humble \u201cSmokin\u201d Joe Frazier befriended Ali and gave him money in order to get his boxing license back. Ali took the money, but their friendship took a dramatic turn for the worse. <\/span>The two men were friends in the first fight of three. After the first fight, Ali began slandering Frazier in unimaginable ways. Ali began calling him racist names like \u201cUncle Tom\u201d and \u201cThe white man\u2019s champion.\u201d By the third fight, both men were driven to fight because of their bitter hatred for each other. <\/span>The third fight was titled the \u201cThrilla in Manila\u201d because it was held in the Metro Manila in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

The film was written and directed by John Dower, who uses interviews, highlights from the fight and older video footage to take a very interesting look into one of sport\u2019s most memorable fights. Dower helps to tell the story from Frazier\u2019s side. Although it is told from Joe Frazier\u2019s perspective, Ali clearly hurt many people with the things he did and said. Ali was an open racist, in an older interview shown in the film, when speaking on Joe Frazier to a white show host Ali says \u201cHe is worse than you to me!\u201d implying that Joe Frazier is worse than a white person to him. <\/span>Ali\u2019s rejecting of the war, and openly spoken ideas made him an icon for people of the 1960\u2019s. Anyone who was liberal or against the war was a fan of Ali, while conservatives were typically fans of Frazier.<\/p>\n

The rivalry between Ali and Frazier was so epic that every person in America and almost around the world was pumped for the third fight. Ali took every chance he could to hype up the fight. The media followed the two men closely as the time until the fight began ticking away.<\/p>\n

This documentary is an excellent portrayal of two magnificent men who participated in what some call \u201cThe greatest fight of all time.\u201d The fight was very built up, and until this documentary was seen, in many different ways. Although this was the story from Joe Frazier\u2019s side, I noticed that Frazier would not do the immoral things that Ali would do. For example, Ali would use racist , rude remarks and say things about Joe Frazier that made many people hate him. Frazier would never say such bad things; he is just a stand up guy. Ali did say he regrets saying many of the things he said. \u00a0It is too bad Ali is not here today to stand up for himself and tell his side. However, the film definitely puts a damper on Ali\u2019s image as \u201cThe Greatest.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Max Dean. Viewed on DVD. Thrilla in Manila is a documentary that looks at the epic rivalry between Joe Frasier and Muhammad Ali. It all began when Muhammad Ali refused his induction into the Armed Forces. Ali refused entry to the services, and refused to partake in the Vietnam War. He refused this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}