Tomorrow night (April 11 at 8 pm ET/10pm PT), HBO will premiere the Thrilla in Manilla, a documentary covering the third and final fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. The documentary “tells the story of two great fighters forever linked by three epic bouts, and looks at their final fight, considered the most brutal, from Frazier’s perspective for the first time.” Check out the trailer:

Martin Johnson reviews the film.

Thrilla in Manila tells the story with alarming detail and hilarious commentary. The film is much less observational than Leon Gast’s superb When We Were Kings which captured the scene in Kinshasa for the Ali-Foreman fight in 1974. Instead, Dower arrays a cast of talking heads between them so that a dialogue emerges from the commentary. Ali’s cornerman, Ferdie Pacheco, is almost as brash and outspoken as his fighter was. Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines, is a charming curiosity. Frazier’s son, Marvis, is calm and insightful. “I like to have a Robert Altmanesque ensemble,” said Dower of his motley crew of commentators.

The film will rub hard-core fans of Ali the wrong way, but Dower says it wasn’t his intent to tear down the great heavyweight. “I came to this with no agenda about Muhammad Ali at all,” he said at a post-screening press conference in New York this week. “It’s just that in telling this story you keep butting into the myth of Ali.”

Ali takes a few on the chin, but he has only himself to blame for some of it. Dower and his crew unearthed footage of Ali boasting about his agreements with the Ku Klux Klan on camera from the early ‘70s. And during his stay in Manila, he is caught womanizing.

However, Thrilla in Manila is far more effective as a portrait than a rebuttal or a diatribe. Frazier is the quiet focus of the film. He is shown in his gym, and he’s coaxed into watching the third fight for the first time. “I lost the fight. What would I have learned from watching it again?” he asked without the slightest hint of wistfulness.

Frazier, both in the movie and in person, seems like a man stuck in the wrong era. His humility and background were easily confused in the ‘70s for subservience, a time when outspokenness was the norm. He wasn’t media savvy in a moment when his opponent was charismatic and savagely sarcastic.

Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami documents how and why most of the world knows Ali as the greatest boxer of all time. Going back to a time of severe racial tension, filmmakers Gaspar Gonzalez and Alan Tomlinson explore the beginning and rise of Ali – and the town where only a man like Ali could be believed in.

The film incorporates interviews from some of the most fascinating people that knew Ali personally. Unique characters themselves, anecdotes from ringside doctor Pacheco, trainer Angelo Dundee, and others provide vivid recollections of Ali’s lifestyle and fights. In addition, narrations from biographers provide context and a sense of the African-American experience during the 1960’s, a time when even young Ali returning home with the gold medal from the 1960 Olympics is refused from “whites only” restaurants.

In the words of Pacheco, Miami’s Fifth Street Gym was the island of democracy. With this gym Ali found his identity. Fifth Street gym becomes the backdrop where Ali’s trainer, Dundee encouraged his unorthodox boxing style, which has influenced not just boxers, but all kinds of athletes to this day. Throughout the film, original footage of Ali’s dramatic stage presence shows how he captivated both sports writers and audiences, forcing them to either love him or hate him.

This film also includes Ali’s relationship with Malcom X, membership to the Nation of Islam, and refusal to join the United States Army to fight in the Vietnam War. Also, his first championship fight against Sonny Liston is revisited, and it still carries its sense of suspense. Watching the fight again, it is evident why Ali proved his self-proclaimed title of “the greatest.” For the time, his inventive style was unorthodox and appeared clumsy; however, his motions blended beautifully with fierce counter jabs that knocked unsuspecting fighters to the floor.

Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami shows how Ali is truly more than a boxer. He has done what few athletes have been able to do; he transcended the sport and became a symbol for inspiration. Seamlessly, this film extends its exploration of Ali with the culture and perspective of the time period in which he lived. Audiences can now understand the forces that shaped the great American icon.

Also, be sure to check out our interview with the creators of the documentary.