Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami takes what at first blush might seem a rather tenuous hypothesis — that the city helped make the man — and makes diverting enough, micro-biographic hay out of it that one doesn’t hold the lasting credibility of the thesis (only half run up the flagpole to begin with) too much against it. It is what it so obviously is — merely a lens through which this hour-long PBS title can cast backwards glances, and examine one of the more inherently intriguing cultural figures of the 50 years.

In 1960, a young, hungry, Olympic gold medal-winning boxer named Cassius Clay came to Miami, determined to become a professional world heavyweight champion. In the end, he became something more — a towering legend, a figure who transcended his sport. Blending together period piece footage with modern-day interviews, this film chronicles Clay’s life in Overtown — a neighborhood considered “Harlem South” in days gone by — his affiliation with and training at the famed Fifth Street Gym in Miami Beach, and his adoption of the black separatist teachings of the nation of Islam, which of course led to him changing his name to Muhammad Ali. The film also includes a consideration of Ali’s friendship with Malcolm X, his famed encounter with the Beatles, his dramatic victory over heavyweight champion Sonny Liston and his subsequent refusal to fight in the Vietnam War — all episodes that played out, to one degree or another, in this bustling southern Florida city, which Ali enjoyed for its cuisine and weather as much as its gregarious locals.

The talking-head boxing stuff in Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami is fairly old hat, having been well chewed over by all sorts of ESPN and Sports Century retrospectives over the past decade. Even if you know just the broad strokes of the run-up to the Liston fight, the detail here is garnish, additional color that pales next to the colorful banter of Ali in general. Much more interesting is the additional shading provided on Ali’s relationship with Malcolm X, a friendship that was (and is, owing to the fact one was taken from us long ago by an assassin’s bullet, and the other more or less so by disease) widely misunderstood. Ali’s quest for enlightenment and spiritual peace wasn’t some lark, and it’s interesting to ponder what would have developed had the two had an opportunity to remain close.

Housed in a regular Amray case, Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami comes presented in a 1.78:1 widescreen format, enhanced for 16×9 televisions. The English language 2.0 stereo mix more than adequately handles its meager aural demands, and in addition to a preview trailer, there’s also a supplemental featurette — a conversation with the film’s writer-producers, Gaspar Gonzalez and Alan Tomlinson. To purchase the disc via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) C+ (Disc)