by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
In the musical Hamilton, two scenes at the end really struck a chord. The first is with Aaron Burr, just after he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, lamenting about how, “Now I’m the villain in your history, I was too blind to see, I should’ve known, I should’ve known the world was big enough for Hamilton and me.” Burr knows history will not look kindly to him due to this one act, wiping out the prospective good he did. When I was in college, we called those “oh crap” moments, especially in Greek life. All the good graces you attained, and it only takes one moment for you to lose it all.
I sat after watching the documentary Blood Brothers: Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali thinking about this scene from Hamilton also having similar feelings.
Blood Brothers outlines the relationship between former Nation of Islam minister Malcolm X and former heavyweight boxing champion of the world Muhammad Ali. They became friends/brothers through both of their prominent rises in the African American community through activism, sports, and Islam. They bonded together and developed a close personal relationship with one another until their friendship ultimate came to an end due to X’s falling out with the Nation of Islam leader, Elijah Muhammad. Ali, in turn, severs his personal relationship with X, which ultimately never was resolved until X’s tragic assassination in 1965.
The documentary itself is beautifully shot, the music is amazing, and the interview subjects offer a variety of different perspectives that help shape the narrative between the two larger-than-life individuals. Family members, journalists, and key leaders all offer their voices, stories, and perspectives to help piece together the puzzle of how these two men’s lives intertwined with one another. I found myself compelled to listen to each one closely and reflect on how X’s and Ali’s stories parallel one another in fascinating ways.
The subject matter is great, too. I had grown up learning about both through history classes and general interest for both. This is my first time watching a documentary about either. Seeing as both men were prominent members of the Islam religion, I never knew (but probably should have figured out) that these two men’s paths would have crossed at one point or another.
The parallels in both men’s lives are evident in the film. Their experiences shaped the men they would become and they influenced one another in profound ways. Ali’s early uprising in Louisville, Kentucky and his experience at the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics shaped his views of American culture in regards to racism and Jim Crow laws in Kentucky. X’s father’s murder, along with his relationship with Elijah Muhammad, shaped his views of America as a land with tragic and dark history of how African Americans are treated.
The fact that these two found each other during a time when the Nation of Islam was a growing influence in the African American community was a bit of a coincidence. Ali grew up Christian and was a boisterous, up-and-coming boxer when he met X. The Nation of Islam that X belonged to did not follow sports or celebrities, so he didn’t even realize who Ali was when they first met. Their meeting grew into friendship that eventually helped shepherd Ali to Islam.
The story of how their friendship became fractured and the aftermath is extremely sad, but understandable. As is the case in religion, politics, and any group with a diverse and devoted following, there’s bound to be different ideas that eventually differ from leadership or conventional beliefs. It’s unfortunate that these diverging beliefs couldn’t find either common ground or their own audience that didn’t end in violence or tragedy. One thing this documentary portrays, though, is that the schism that happened between Ali and X was sadly due to ideological differences within the Nation of Islam. X made some decisions that had consequences. Ali had a decision to make and he ultimately sided with the organization, rather than one of the more well-known members who happened to be a friend. X’s death unfortunately left lingering questions of “What If” for Ali.
These types of stories are fascinating to me. Two friends, two brothers as the film depicts, torn apart by competing influences and consequences of actions. It’s a bit like Professor X and Magneto in the X-Men series (which was influenced by X and Martin Luther King Jr.’s competing philosophies about their place in a world that feared their kind). X is portrayed as the one who gets demonized in the ’60s when this was happening in real time, and then history looks at him differently after his death. This is where the second Hamilton reference comes in: “Let me tell you what I wish I’d known, when I was young and dreamed of glory, you have no control, who lives who dies who tells your story.”
The doc ends with a powerful reminder that people’s histories are often tweaked to fit a specific narrative. This is somewhat the case for the main subjects of this film. Both men, who are prominent African American and Islamic icons, have checkered histories filled with triumphs and mistakes. The world was big enough to have both men coexist. The world just had other plans.
For history and sports buffs, this is a great documentary. For those who want to learn more about cultures that they’re not familiar with, this is definitely worth watching. The balance they give both men was especially great, considering Ali outlived X by over 50 years. Netflix in particular is crushing it with their sports documentaries lately, and this one definitely raises the bar for how sports have a cultural effect beyond the game itself.
Grade: B
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