The Greatest (1977)

Chip McAllister: Cassius Clay - Aged 18

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Cassius Clay Aged 18 : [being greeted by a crowd at the Louisville airport after winning the Olympic gold medal]  How Cassius Took Rome, by Cassius Clay Jr.: To make America the greatest is my goal! So I beat the Russian, and I beat the Pole. And for the United States won the medal of gold! Italia says you're greater than the Cassius of old. We like your name; we like your game - so come make Rome your home, if you will. I said: I appreciate your kind hospitality, but the United States of America's my country still. 'Cause they're waitin' to welcome me in Louisville!

• Cassius Clay Aged 18 : It depends on how you move. How you move, makes you a good fighter.

• Odessa Clay : I'm so proud of you, baby. You know, but, I just don't feel right about it - you turnin' yourself over to that white lady. What she got beside a lot of money?

  Cassius Clay Aged 18 : What she got? She got plenty! She got the right complexion, the right connections, to give your boy the right protection.

• Mr. Harry : Do you know where you are, boy?

  Cassius Clay Aged 18 : Yes, sir.

  Mr. Harry : Well the road's that-a-way. John, do you know this here nigger?

  John the Gardener : Yessir, Mr. Harry, I know who he is. Mrs. Fairlie told him to come. He gonna work here. Yes, sir, this here's the boxing boy.

• Cassius Clay Aged 18 : Man, this thing is phony, gold-plated, and it ain't worth a damn.

  [throws his gold medal in the Ohio River] 

• Cassius Clay Aged 18 : Never been a fighter with such a pretty face! And I owe it to my public to keep it that way.