What can any filmmaker reveal about Muhammad Ali that hasn't been examined before? Ali was hardly a shrinking violet in the sports world, and the charismatic boxing icon was not only arguably the greatest Heavyweight champion of all time, but is the undisputed king of self-promotion. ESPN and various sporting retrospectives have so frequently rebroadcast Ali's fights over the years and played clips of his weigh-ins, post-fight press events, and other public appearances that he still remains one of the most recognizable personalities on the world stage. Add to that the marvelous 1996 documentary When We Were Kings and Michael Mann's biopic Ali, and the idea of another documentary about the boxing legend seems like overkill.

Yet Facets Video released William Klein's Muhammad Ali, the Greatest on January 14, 2002, mimicking the Champ's promotional style by declaring it to be the "best and truest film on Muhammad Ali." In reality, Klein's film falls short of these bodacious claims, but the raw and uneven film certainly contains historical value with scenes never publicly viewed before that will have boxing aficionados, sports memorabilia collectors, and Ali fans scurrying for personal copies.

Although the film purports to chronicle Ali's boxing career from the first 1964 Sonny Liston fight to the classic 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" with George Forman, it contains very little actual fight footage (substituting well known still photos of those fights) and covers only the two Liston bouts and Forman fight with a passing reference to Ali's refusal to be drafted into the Army in 1967. No one has covered this controversial period in any depth, nor is likely to beyond Ali's public statements that he was refusing due to religious conviction and that he had nothing against the Vietnamese: "No Vietnamese ever called me nigger." Klein's documentary doesn't carry that well known conference live, but an impromptu interview on his motel balcony following the first Liston fight records a panned speech often delivered by the champ about how Americans equate goodness with whiteness and assign evil to blackness.

Muhammad Ali: The Greatest doesn't play like a planned film at all, but slapping archive footage of Muhammad Ali together in a semi chronological collage still becomes entertaining, and when it's unique footage that we've not seen before, it's mesmerizing. Ali is just that charismatic! It's fun to watch him clown around on the bus with his trusted entourage—he and one of his supporters have a set rhythmical routine for his famous "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" slogan to psyche himself up that surfaces during the first match and ten years later in Zaire. Another shot never shown on ESPN, shows Ali sneaking close to the Forman camp to stick out his tongue at the reigning heavyweight champion—and back then George wasn't the hugable "Teddy Bear" persona that evolved later.

The media and the public didn't know what to make of Cassius Clay when he poetically bragged about finishing off his opponents and became even more intimidated by him when he converted to the black Muslims, but Klein's documentary plainly points out that the more private Ali conducted himself admirably—one follower really should cause his detractors to pause and ponder. Did you ever hear Ali curse? Smoke or drink? Engage in violence (outside the ring)?

One of the best moments comes very early in the documentary with virtual mug shots of the Louisville syndicate, a group of business heavies that early on sponsored young Cassius Clay. Most are tycoons in tobacco and oil, but they claim to be simple farmers, and one outrageously claims that he wasn't in this for the money—you can see one of his partners practically snicker at that lie. This is the only time you'll ever see this group together, for they became a dim memory of Ali's professional boxing beginnings.

Muhammad Ali, the Greatest pales in comparison to When We Were Kings as far as telling a coherent narrative; however, the value of the rare footage is sufficient to recommend checking it out. It's hardly definitive, but like Kane's "rosebud" it contains some invaluable puzzle pieces to one of the most enigmatic and complex sports figures of all time—footage that you will see no where else.