Film

The Greatest

Name: The Greatest
Genre: Drama
Released: 1977
Cast: Muhammad Ali, Ernest Borgnine, John Marley, Lloyd Haynes, Malachi Throne

Other titles called The Greatest: the 2026 series (Prime Video).

Biopic

Muhammad Ali plays himself in this 1977 biopic spanning his rise from Olympic champion Cassius Clay through his conversion to Islam, his principled draft refusal, and the devastating stripping of his title. It's a document of defiance and spiritual transformation, earnest and occasionally stiff, but invaluable for Ali's own presence and the historical stakes it takes seriously. Essential viewing for anyone interested in sport, conscience, or twentieth-century America.

TMDb rating

2.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a sports biopic built around a fighter's public stubbornness and his sparring with the men who managed him, and you don't mind a sincere, slightly old-fashioned telling.

Skip it if you're after a tight, dramatised story with real momentum, since this is a broad, episodic overview that rushes through the years and admires its hero more than it examines him.

What it asks of you: It is a brisk, episodic ride through fights, arguments and years of headlines, asking you to keep pace across a 102-minute run rather than settle into any single moment.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Raging Bull1980

Scorsese's savage portrait of boxer Jake LaMotta uses the ring as metaphor for rage and self-destruction. A masterpiece about a man at war with himself, with the fighting itself rendered as pure cinema.

But Black-and-white cinematography and a protagonist you may actively dislike for two hours. It's punishing by design.

Rocky1976

The underdog story that rewrote Hollywood. Stallone's fighter chasing legitimacy and respect resonates as powerfully as the Philadelphia locations and Burgess Meredith's gravelly wisdom.

But The sequels drowned its legacy. It's easy to dismiss as schmaltzy, though the original is far leaner and stranger than memory suggests.

Hoop Dreams1994

A documentary following two brilliant basketball players from Chicago through high school and college. You watch their talent, their dreams, and the machinery that exploits them with unflinching clarity.

But At three hours, it demands patience. The outcome is not triumphant, and that's precisely the point.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Greatest

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Free Solo2018

Both films track a solitary figure wrestling with danger and conviction, refusing to compromise or back down, indifferent to conventional safety.

Documentary about Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan without ropes. It shares The Greatest's obsession with a man testing himself against impossible odds, faith sustaining him where safety nets fail. Pure stakes, pure nerve.

But Vertiginous and genuinely frightening. If heights terrify you, this is torture.

The Boxer1997

Daniel Day-Lewis as an Irish fighter returning from prison, caught between boxing and the IRA. Quiet and morally intricate, with choreography that speaks louder than dialogue.

But Glacially paced and emotionally restrained. If you need a plot to move, this will feel like watching paint dry in a gym.

Cinderella Man2005

Russell Crowe as Depression-era boxer Jim Braddock, fighting to feed his family. Earnest, handsomely made, with a working-class heart and real stakes attached to the ring work.

But Straightforward and sentimental. It hits the expected beats with competence but little surprise or edge.

Million Dollar Baby2004

Eastwood directs and stars opposite Hilary Swank as a female fighter he reluctantly trains. Tender and devastating, about dignity, choice, and the cost of ambition.

But The third act pivots into territory some find exploitative. It also won too many Oscars, which makes liking it feel like joining a crowd.

Southpaw2015

Jake Gyllenhaal as a light-middleweight unraveling after tragedy. Visceral fight choreography and a committed performance in a film that understands boxing's addiction and its toll.

But Melodramatic and occasionally oversimplified. The emotional beats land hard, which some read as manipulation.

The Harder They Fall2021

A Western starring Jonathan Majors and Idris Elba, built around a real Black boxer from the 1800s. Visually spectacular, angry, and rarely seen: the first major studio film centring a Black boxer's autonomy.

But Stylised to the point of artifice. If you prefer realism to visual statement, the constant colour-grading and composed frames may feel overwrought.

Champion1949

Kirk Douglas as a ruthless fighter clawing upward through corruption and cruelty. A noir-touched masterpiece about ambition's moral cost, made when boxing films could be genuinely dark.

But The protagonist is contemptible, and the film doesn't soften him. Some find it unpleasant rather than bracing.

Four Rooms1995

Both are films by and about outsiders on their own terms: Ali refusing assimilation, Four Rooms refusing conventional narrative shape. Both say no when the industry said be quiet.

A real oddity: a chamber piece set in a single hotel on New Year's Eve, directed by four people (Tarantino, Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez). It's theatrical, weird, and structurally fearless in ways 1977 cinema wasn't permitted.

But Chaotic and uneven. Some segments soar; others crash. The whole thing feels like a dare that mostly works but occasionally doesn't.

La Haine1995

Both are about refusing the role a system assigns you. Ali said no to the draft and his erasure; La Haine says no to invisibility and acceptance of brutality. Both centre dignity as a form of resistance.

A French film in black-and-white following three young men in the Paris suburbs after police brutality. It's about defiance, injustice, and the boxing match between a person and the state. Visually brilliant, morally uncompromising.

But No comfort offered. It's angry and occasionally ponderous, and ends not in victory but in reckoning.