It has been over 30 years since boxer – and living legend – Muhammad Ali first entered a boxing ring, but the immense frisson of excitement that greets his name has never waned. I personally have been a fan of the boxer (and the man) since I was a small child, encouraged by a boxing-mad dad who coincidentally was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at around the same time as Ali. I have never failed to follow his every move, but tonight’s documentary THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI uncovered another side of the man for me altogether.

The fascinating film covers what has been called Ali's toughest bout outside the ring in the form of his battle to overturn the five-year prison sentence he received for refusing to complete U.S. military service. This era kicks off in 1967 when, at the pinnacle of his profession as a boxer, he was drafted by the U.S. Army to fight in Vietnam. It was an order that he immediately rejected on the basis that he was a conscientious objector and that the war was a mere extension of the oppression that he had faced throughout his life as a young black man in the USA. At the time he said he felt he had more in common with the people he was being asked to kill rather than those doing the asking - as he most famously put it, "No Viet Cong ever called me 'n****r”.

It’s no surprise whatsoever that this attitude outraged pretty much all in sundry, and when his conscientious objector status was very publically denied, he was convicted of evading the draft and had his boxing titles and status revoked. This outrageous act (which seemed perfectly justified at the time, clearly) lead to a long legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court before Ali was finally vindicated in 1971 and able to re-establish his career.

Having said that, the mighty Ali had been a provocative figure long before that draft notice arrived. After slaying the opposition at the 1960 Olympics, the man formerly known as Cassius Clay worked his way up the ranks while boasting of his power in ways that definitely bothered the people who felt that athletes should be humble in public yet aggressive in the ring. Annoyingly for the aforementioned people, Ali was able to back up his verbal dexterity in the ring too.

In 1964, he also made the controversial decision to covert to Islam. He was even more of a hero to many in the black community following the move, but it served to further alienate him from others who felt that Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad was dangerous and divisive. Later in life after the passing of the latter however, Ali mellowed his views and the likelihood of hearing him publicly call white people "devils” dropped dramatically.

So, what of the film itself? Well all of this information can be found in any number of biographies and the like, but most previous films on Ali's life have tended to give this time a quick once in favour of a focus on his incredible success in the ring. I love that THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI is no conventional sports documentary, but rather an insightful look at the personal and professional sacrifices that the man made in order to stand up for what he believed in.