Citizen Ashe

"Citizen Ashe” is a fascinating portrait that weaves together his on- and off-court life seamlessly.

Ultimately, if Miller and Pollard don’t paint a particularly warts-and-all portrait of Ashe, they don’t set him up as some sort of saint either: just a certain man of a certain era with an amazing talent. It’s a fitting tribute.

Ashe’s story certainly has moments of great drama and high tension, but, as a sports figure, he inspired decidedly undramatic sobriquets like “the gentle warrior.” This documentary shows you a truer, sharper picture.

At its best — when the flow of voices, archival clips (co-director Pollard being a master at the textural impact of found footage), and nicely blended-in recreations made to look archival, is thematically strongest — "Citizen Ashe" becomes a documentary about how experience becomes voice becomes action.

The filmmaking is not as distinctive as what Pollard achieved with “MLK/FBI.” Perhaps that’s because this is not a confrontational piece. It follows Ashe’s lead of cool, calm and collected. Yet sometimes it needed more oomph to reflect what Ashe was concerned about; racism and equity. He might have been mild-mannered, but he was not shy. This documentary is so agreeable; it can quickly fade away from memory.

Although Citizen Ashe covers the highlights of a life and career that has drifted from the public consciousness in the nearly 30 years since his death, it doesn’t get all that close to its subject.

The issues involved here might have been discussed a little more extensively and the provenance and context of the TV interview archive material could have been labelled more clearly. But this is a decent film.