When We Were Kings (1996)
Grade: 67
The 1974 heavyweight championship fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali is the subject of this film, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. A pair of famous journalists who attended the fight, George Plimpton and Norman Mailer, provide reminiscenses. Their commentary is fronted with archival footage of Ali, Foreman, fight promoter Don King, performers at a concert organized by King, dictator Mobuto, and Zaire itself, where the fight was held. There is also narration by Spike Lee and Thomas Hauser.
Ali's brash, charismatic personality comes across in numerous press conferences and interviews. He was not only a great champion, but highly entertaining as well. Africans were quick to embrace him over the menacing, sullen Foreman, the reigning champion who had seemed invincible after quick knockouts of Joe Frazier and Ken Norton. The press loved and respected Ali as well, not only for his good-natured banter and boasting, but for the values he represented and his apt observations. In those days, Foreman had no resemblance to the amiable, loquacious person that he would later become.
Promoter Don King is described as brilliant and hard-working but 'completely amoral'. Mobuto is labelled as a murderous dictator, and is compared to Joseph Stalin for his cult of personality. Norman Mailer makes the from-left-field observation that all dictators are ugly.
Before the fight, there was a major concert in Zaire. James Brown, B. B. King and The Spinners were among the performers. Footage from this concert also makes it into the documentary.
The documentary succeeds in recreating the atmosphere of the Ali-Foreman fighter. It does seem padded, however, and the series of film clips sometimes lack a cohesion which is only partly provided by the Plimpton-Mailer narration.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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