Week 4 Day 5: Undiluted Truth / Monologue – ALI

[Susan]

Ali – Undiluted Truth Monologue

Watch 1st time for:

The quality of this monologue. The level of emotion and the character’s truth.
I’m not sure what you mean by quality so I’m guessing you mean a few things like true to the facts for the person Muhammed Ali, placed well in the film so it is really a representation of what happened – a breakthrough for him and for the country at the time and therefore for the audience, and well written. It is definitely a true representation of Muhammed Ali and his feelings about the situation as I watched him on television going through all this at the time and saw the persecution he was under as well as his reactions. I can’t find him saying this actual speech, but the speech is true in the sense that more than one group of people were not given their civil rights or their religious rights in this country at the time. Religious persecution has actually gotten worse over time and many religious groups are not being given their religious rights in this country even now. This includes Christians and Jews. Although I did not, and do not agree with the Nation of Islam teachings for Black people to have a separate nation, and their other tactics and beliefs, the pressure that the Civil Rights Movement from other quarters put the country under at the time was necessary and profound. The speech is also true on another level. It was not only the boxing commission and the government, and the press who were refusing to support Ali – it was also a huge portion of the country who did not believe in conscientious objection to fighting in a war. The government prosecuted Ali more than anyone for this to make an example of him because he was well known and outspoken, as they obviously didn’t want him being able to go free to encourage other conscientious objectors to follow in his footsteps. There was huge dissent against the Vietnam War by the very people who were being drafted to fight in it. Ali took on the government, and public opinion in the US and the World doing what he did. The monologue shows him as being clear in his beliefs, strong, decisive, extremely disappointed, angry but not hateful. This is important. The emotional level is extremely high during this monologue. Ali is going through many feelings at once, and expresses them clearly and intensely in a way that almost anyone could understand including those who did not agree with him.

Watch 2nd time for:

What drama is this scene built around?
The drama is built around Ali being asked for an apology to go against everything he believes in. He is confronted by the press who have not been supporting him.

What profile items (right character, traits, secret, wound, future) showed up in this character’s words and actions?
Right Character: At the time Ali was the right high profile person to bring conscientious objection to the draft all the way to the Supreme Court. He was high profile, expressed his feelings well and with relative calm, in order to be understood.
Traits: Hurt, Disappointed, Clear, Strong, Decisive, Determined
Secret: ?
Wound: Ali is deeply disappointed in those who should be supporting him.
Future: The scene/monologue show how the fight is going to continue.

Daily Focus – Searching for Breakthroughs:

What makes this character great from a writing perspective.
The strength of the person’s beliefs and how he has to fight for them make him a good choice to write.
Rethink or create a scene for your script using your new insights and rewrite that scene/character.
I’m not working on anything now where any of my characters in under this type of pressure. In IPCT I might be able to have GG do a monologue talking to the pets about how he is misunderstood by everyone, including them.