When We Were Kings

Starring: Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Don King, James Brown, B.B. King, Mobutu Sese Seko, Spike Lee, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, Thomas Hauser
Directed by: Leon Gast
Rating: PG
Genre: Documentary, Sport
1996

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary:
Follows Muhammad Ali and George Foreman as they prepare for the 1974 Heavyweight Championship, the "Rumble in the Jungle".

Review:

Tim: When We Were Kings is a fascinating documentary that shows multiple viewpoints leading up to the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing championship. I knew the broad particulars, but I didn't have the insight into the event that Leon Gast provides with this documentary. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and believe it gets awfully close (but ultimately, not quite) to greatness. It's well worth seeing, as evidenced by its Academy Award Win for Best Documentary.

What I found most intriguing was the lead up to the famous boxing match. The documentary explains how this fight came to be, but so much of the focus is on the competitors leading up to the bout. It's fascinating to see how different these two men were, in their focus and preparation, their personalities, how they dealt with adversity. While we get to know Foreman here, this documentary is clearly about Muhammad Ali, so we get most of the time with him. This makes sense because he was such an entertaining individual. Long stretches of this film are just Ali posturing and talking, putting Foreman down, psyching himself up. He did it with a twinkle in his eye, as if to let you know that he recognized so much of what he was saying was show. He had this combination of jesting and yet being deadly serious at the same time. Those scenes were mesmerizing and I could have watched hours of them. Most of my favorite moments involve just watching Ali talk. It felt like I understood who he was much better after seeing this. I can't quite claim the same for Foreman. I certainly understood him better, but he's best known to me as a grill salesman. It was intriguing to see him in his prime.

One thing I never knew was that Foreman was injured during training and they had to delay the fight six weeks. That meant Ali, Foreman, and everyone involved in the fight had to just hang out in Zaire for six additional weeks. That was incredible to me. I wish the movie dug a little bit deeper into this, although it does touch on it, at least. That allows us to understand Zaire a bit better.

One issue I had with the film is that it feels like the actual fight doesn't get as much time as the lead-up. I wish the ratio was slightly different, a bit more analysis and discussion of Ali's improbable victory. It feels like that goes by fairly quickly. So, we spend the bulk of the movie watching people talking about the fight, the concerts, and then the fight itself goes by fairly quickly. I wanted to know more. In hindsight, some of the musical scenes should probably have been cut to allow more focus on the fight. I'm not saying I didn't love seeing James Brown perform, but it could have been clipped a bit.

Another criticism I have (and this might be influenced by my 2020 eyes, not seeing this as I would have in 1996), but there's a lot of time spent interviewing white people. I'm not suggesting Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, or Thomas Hauser didn't have great insights, but it would be nice to have cut some of their time and let Spike Lee or others speak more about what this fight meant to them.

I actually loved the beginning of this movie. Seeing and hearing Ali was mesmerizing- I loved it. The ending of the film might have been too short, but seeing the Rumble in the Jungle and hearing commentary on it was fascinating. The middle of the movie gets bogged down a little. It's as if the six week weight impacts the movie, too. It shows footage sure, but it's just kind of waiting around for the fight. That prevents this movie from achieving greatness. At a certain point in the middle, we've heard and seen enough. I loved the footage of Ali, but I heard "Ali bomaye!" enough times. I got it. I got Ali, Foreman, the waiting around, James Brown and Don King. Gast needed a slightly stronger middle and this would have been a truly great documentary.

As is, though, I want to stress how much I enjoyed When We Were Kings. It's a fascinating movie and a thoroughly enjoyable one. It gave me even greater appreciation for Muhammad Ali and what he meant- not just for the sporting world, but for the world. He was one of a kind and I'm so thankful I got to see this detailed look at one of his most famous fights.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7.5



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