True Stories: Thriller In Manila (Truely shocking Stories)

[Allamagan]

OMG, I've just finished watching a documentry film about the greatest fights of all time Muhamed Ali Vs Joe Friesier on More 4. What a shocking and heartrending story to watch about the rivalry between the two great boxers. "Once you know Frazier's story, though, you may never look at Ali "The Greatest" in the same light again. After all, this is the man who racially taunted Frazier at the pre-match press conference by calling him a "gorilla" " Ali was BAD always racially abusing his opponent by calling him Gorilla, ignorant, with no brain, a whiteman in black skin... all sorts of humilations. Watching this you feel nothing but sorry for this poor guy, you feel like the whole world was agaisnt him even the media.... he has been robbed never given the respect that he deserved or been honered for his great contribution to this sport. After all this man was a great boxer.

 

Ali officially apologized in 2001 in an interview with NYT. However, b4 watching this doc it wasn't that hard for me to tell where my sympathies lied but tonight that had changed and I have great respect for Joe Frazier.

 

In 1975, legendary boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought their third and final contest in the Philippines.

 

The bout is now considered the greatest ever boxing match in history, with an ending so dramatic it continues to provoke controversy.

 

Featuring archive footage and exclusive interviews with Frazier, his son Marvin and Muhammed Ali, True Stories documents a bitter and intense rivalry, fuelled by race and religion.

 

Muhammad Ali's life has been well documented, but this is the story of the other man in Manila. A man unable to let go of the most bitter and intense sporting rivalry the world has ever seen.

 

It's quite a shock to see a 70-year-old Joe Frazier, still living above his Philadelphia gym,

bitterly explaining how he feels Ali's health problems are payment for his past behaviour, cruelly saying: "I'm talking, I'm walking and still having fun."

 

But it's even more of a shock to see that sporting hero Ali wasn't an innocent party in the conflict between the two men.

 

Eight years previously, Ali and Frazier had been friends.

Frazier publicly and personally supported Ali when he had been stripped of his boxing licence for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, going so far as to lend his competitor money.

 

But once Ali was back in the ring, their friendship turned into a vicious feud, entwined with the racial politics of America in the 1970s. Ali became involved in the black militant organisation Nation Of Islam and

portrayed Frazier as a traitor to the black community.

 

Ali saw Frazier as inferior in every way, and used his relationship with the press to taunt his opponent:

"It will be a killa and a chilla and a thrilla, when I get the gorilla in Manila."

 

By the time the men met in the ring for their third bout, the feud had reached boiling point and their extraordinary personal battle led to a fight that was a near-death experience for both of them.

 

With this documentary, True Stories provides an interesting insight into one of boxing's most iconic fights from a previously unexplored perspective.

[Allamagan]

It's quite a shock to see a 70-year-old Joe Frazier, still living above his Philadelphia gym, bitterly explaining how he feels

Ali's health problems are payment for his past behaviour, cruelly saying: "I'm talking, I'm walking and still having fun."

Thats cruel!! is he right?

[Queen Arawello]

I'm going to watch the repeat on more 4 in a few minutes inshallah.

[Allamagan]

"It will be a killa and a chilla and a thrilla, when I get the gorilla in Manila." By Mohamed Ali

... yep it is on on More 4 again, Bella, enjoy the story of the "other" man.

[Koora-Tuunshe]

I do think this documentary is based on Mark Kram's book, "Ghosts in Manila" --an attack book of Ali's boxing records with false and misleading information. Here is an author review. I think i read the book like 4 years ago but was reminded by your post. Some even called Mark Kram as extremely racist and one who is bent on creating irreversible social or class division within the black communities: pure blacks vs bi-racials.

 

By Jason Brent

 

This is my first book review ever for Amazon. I felt that I had to say something about this horrible book.

 

For one thing, there is the relentless, mean-spirited deconstruction of Ali's character and intelligence. His main aim seems to show that Ali is treated with too much respect these days, and that he, Mark Kram, will treat him with NO respect so that everyone can see that it's doable. His words are clearly calculated to paint a picture of Ali as an ***** with no mental capabilities whatsoever. Ali's initial tests for the US military, for example, placed him at the "near moronic" level. "Near moronic?" This is a writer on a mission to cut the mighty down.

 

Such examples abound in the book. He seems to want nothing more than to expose Ali as the exact OPPOSITE of what he believes Ali's public perception is.

 

But the worst part about the book is this: as a writer, Mark Kram is absolutely unreadable. In a pompous, pretentious manner, he seems to want to use as many "hard" words as he possibly can, showing off incessantly with obscure vocabulary and stunted grammar, with cringe-worthy figures of speech thrown in for good measure. I have never, ever read a writer who uses words like "adumbrate" and "caterwaul" for NO GOOD REASON. He uses the words "ineluctable" and "mythopoeic" in the SAME SENTENCE. What is this, the S.A.T.'s? There are hundreds of examples of words like these. Words that would get a person's a** kicked if he were ever to actually SAY them in public.

 

But the book wasn't written for the general public; that's for sure. He's not writing for the reader's benefit, he's writing for his OWN benefit, to get his deep-seated resentment of Muhammad Ali off his chest, and to amuse himself with his awesome command of the English thesaurus.

 

Look, I'm not saying there isn't some truth in there. There is. The real Ali is somewhere in between the legend and the retard Kram portrays in this book. There are some decent descriptions of a couple of fights (using lots of "unabridged dictionary" words). But the bottom line is, if you like reading thoroughly biased tracts written with stunted language by pretentious authors, "Ghosts of Manila" is for you.

 

Source: Amazon Reviews

[STOIC]

Seems like a good documentary, but only five minute long.Any more links of this documentary?