WHEN WE WERE KINGS
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
If ever a film deserved the commendation of "It packs a powerful punch," this documentary about the great heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali (nee Cassius Clay) is it. This is one great film. Well-told, dramatic, exciting and with wonderful picturesque descriptions by such knowledgeable celebrities as Spike Lee, George Plimpton.and especially. Norman Mailer. Mailer's description of what is going on in the ring is a classic and should be carved in stone.
Except peripherally, the film does not cover much of Ali's early life; the focus here being the "Rumble In The Jungle" of Africa in 1974 when Ali, believed to be over the hill at age 32, had signed to fight the most formidable fighter of his day, George ForEman. The two had been brought together in Africa to let the black Africans see their heroes in action and Ali gave them that and more amid shouts of "ALI! ALI!"
Having lived through the years when Ali was in his prime, I should have known more about him . . . but did not. I had seen him on TV talk shows but this film was a revelation for me. It made me check out more about his life, learning that when he refused to register for our ill-conceived (to say the least) Viet Nam War, he gave as his reason "No Vietnamese ever called me "nigger.'" That really tells it all. That really shows the strength in the man. For standing up tall, his title was taken away.
Ali was handsome, had a boyish smile, had wit and charm . . . all revealed in the film. His battle with Forman, why it was fought, what others thought about his taking on the champ, are all brilliantly shown. Do not tell me you do not like documentaries. This one is a must-see! You've heard of "edge of the seat movies?" This one will pull the seat right out from under you. Go, man, go!
Directed by Leon Cast
4 BIG Bytes
4 Bytes = Superb 3 Bytes = Too good to miss 2 Bytes = Average 1 Byte = Save your money
Ben Hoffman
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews