Thriller in Manila

On October 1, 1975, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali was in the ring with his archrival Joe Frazier for the third time. This fight in the Philippines, which has been nicknamed "Thrilla in Manila," is considered one of the most dramatic boxing matches in history -- in the words of the voice-over, "They hated each other." With the help of archive material and eyewitness accounts (including Imelda Marcos), this documentary not only reconstructs the match, but shows us what was happening behind the scenes as well. After fourteen\super \nosupersub rounds of beating one another to a pulp, Ali won the fight with a technical knockout and is a superstar to this day. Frazier was forgotten, and now lives in a poor neighborhood of Philadelphia above a boxing gym. He comes across as bitter, but is also happy that he can still enjoy life, unlike the Parkinson-ridden Ali. In \i Thriller in Manila\i0 , John Dower tells "the story of the other guy" and thoroughly explains how the rivalry between the two men became an issue mostly thanks to Ali. Even though both boxers were black, images of burning Ku Klux Klan crosses emphasize that a racial card was openly being played here.