Over the weekend, I watched the wonderful Oscar-winner for Best Documentary Feature in 1996, ‘When We Were Kings’ by Leon Gast. An excellent film about the famous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ (the boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1974). The film included the history of the fighters, background of the dictatorship of Zaire and a walk through of the fight itself. The film focuses on different elements of the proceedings - Ali, Foreman, Don King, the chaos around the fight etc.
In April 1967, Ali lost the world title because he had refused to go to Vietnam, but he began a comeback in 1970 and in 1971 he had a shot at the title but lost to Joe Frazier in the ‘Fight of the Century’. This is very important to remember as in October 1974; Ali was fighting George Foreman, a person who obliterated Frazier in a couple of rounds. Nobody really thought Ali was going to win this fight, a fact made clear in the documentary. Nobody, from his training staff to the commentators, believed that the former champion could stop 'Big George', no one except the people of Zaire.
Everywhere Ali went, there were cheers of 'Ali, Bomaye!’ which means 'Ali, kill him!' Interestingly, in one interview with Foreman, he states that he wouldn't want people shouting that - a chant encouraged by Ali - but rather that the people would shout 'George Foreman loves Africa!' However in the eyes of the people of Zaire, Foreman represented America, while Ali was their champion.
As well as old archive footage leading up to the match, there was a series of interviews with Norman Mailer, George Plimpton and Spike Lee describing their impressions of Zaire and Ali himself. Lee's contribution is mainly the effect of Ali on the black community at the time - being a positive role model and also showing a different image of Africa. Towards the end of the movie, Lee states:
“These kids, they are missing a whole lot if they don't know the legacy of Muhammad Ali because no matter what era you live in you see very few true heroes”.
The documentary featured the famous ‘rope – a – dope’ move, which caused Foreman to use so much energy that eventually lead to him to an 8th round knockout and the ‘right hand lead’ a punch Foreman was less prepared for, but left Ali open to an attack and widely known as an insulting punch to your opponent. Any kind of Sports movies and documentaries are brilliant to watch, whether it’s small documentaries on the legacy of Celtic’s Tommy Burns to films such as ‘The Natural and Filed of Dreams’. ‘When we were kings’ is no different, it is a really moving documentary that is a real must watch.
