WHEN WE WERE KINGS (Gast, 1996)
Criterion Collection, Blu-ray, Release Date Oct 22, 2019
Review by Christopher S. Long
You've probably heard some variant of
the claim that movies are primarily made in the editing room. Orson
Welles, for example, said, “(F)or my vision of cinema, the editing
is not one aspect, it is THE aspect.” You won't find many more
illustrative examples of this maxim than the documentary “When We
Were Kings” (1996).
Director Leon Gast was hired to shoot a
documentary about Zaire 74, the music festival scheduled to accompany
the massively hyped Rumble in the Jungle, the heavyweight fight
between champion George Foreman and a scrappy little underdog named
Muhammad Ali in Zaire (today The Democratic Republic of the Congo).
The concert would feature an all-world lineup mostly headlined by
African and African-American artists, including Miriam Makeba, James
Brown, B.B. King, The Spinners, and many more.
A lineup like that couldn't possible
miss, but when the Rumble was delayed because of a sparring injury
suffered by Foreman, the show still had to go on, to a largely empty
stadium since it was no longer attached to the biggest fight ever
(free admission helped pack the stands on the final day, at least).
After this major setback, Gast struggled to find funding to complete
his project and hundreds of hours of footage would sit unused for
many years.
In the late-1980s, Gast continued to
shop his footage around and found a new booster in the form of lawyer
and music manager David Sonenberg who became a producer on the new
film-to-be. But was there really demand for a movie about the
ill-starred Zaire 74, no matter how great the music was? Maybe, but
in transferring and revisiting the old footage, Gast and Sonenberg
(perhaps others were involved in the decision – I don't know)
realized they were sitting on a trove of crackerjack material of
Foreman and, especially, the photogenic and always media-available
Ali, as they prepared to rumble. There would certainly be demand for
a documentary about Muhammad Ali and the fight of the century.
Thus was born “When We Were Kings”,
a documentary released twenty years after its main subject, which the
filmmaker wasn't even directly pursuing at the time. It turned out to
be a commercial hit and even an Oscar winner.
“When We Were Kings” still plays a
bit like a concert film, and not because of the snippets of
performances from James Brown, B.B. King, and others still in the
movie. Ali, today described by some as the original rapper, entrances
audiences of all kinds – groups of admiring children in Zaire,
gaggles of giddy reporters, the filmmakers themselves – with his
perfectly polished rhythms and cleverly scripted rhymes. “If you
think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait til I kick
Foreman's behind.” And “(I) injured a stone, hospitalized a
brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick.”
Ali doesn't just bust rhymes (or
skulls), of course. The film poignantly evokes the thrill Ali gets
from being in Africa – in one of the most memorable scenes, he can
barely contain the pride and joy he feels when flying on a plane
staffed entirely by a black crew. Fans from Zaire were every bit as
proud of Ali, who arrived as a legend and left as a demi-god (I'm
understating the matter here). It's actually tough not to feel bad
for the young Foreman whose chief sin was not being Muhammad Ali, and
thus being identified by many as the evil American imperialist. “Ali,
bomaye!” the crowds chanted. “Ali, kill him!”
The fight itself only takes up a few
minutes running time in the documentary, but it remains a mesmerizing
spectacle today, even for those who can't stand boxing. Ali's winning
rope-a-dope strategy has been much discussed, but watching it in
action provides a reminder that the Greatest's plan relied on two
keystones. Step One – letting Foreman tire himself out by throwing
flurries of punches while Ali leaned against the ropes - makes
perfect sense. However, Step Two involves Ali resting up and
conserving his energy by letting George Foreman beat the hell out of
him for several rounds. I guess it works if you're Muhammad Ali.
The film also incorporates some
newly-shot interviews which consist primarily of way too much Norman
Mailer, not nearly enough Spike Lee, and just the right amount of
George Plimpton. Their retrospective views are useful (just about
everyone thought Ali would lose, Plimpton feared he might be killed),
but the stars of the documentary are Ali and the people of Zaire.
They truly loved Ali and, at least judging from what we see on
screen, Ali loved them. The film captures that dynamic quite
touchingly, which makes this something more memorable than just
another boxing documentary.
Video:
The film is presented in a 1.78:1
aspect ratio. From Criterion, “This new digital transfer was
created in 4K resolution... from a 35 mm interpositive and restored
at Deluxe in Hollywood.” The 16 mm archival footage looks
surprisingly sharp in this high-def transfer, at least as sharp as
you could expect given the source material.
Audio:
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix isn't
called on to do much with most of the interviews and archival
footage, but the film includes some brief snippets of great music
from the Zaire 74 concert as well as the title song for the film. The
lossless audio treats the music quite well. Optional English
subtitles support the audio.
Extras:
The first extra on this Criterion
release is a 1997 interview with director Leon Gast which only runs 4
minutes. The interview doesn't reveal much except the degree to which
Ali was quite media savvy and helped set up some of those great
“spontaneous” shots.
We also get a new 2019 interview (16
min.) with David Sonenberg, the producer who proved so pivotal in
getting “When We Were Kings” made and released nearly two decades
after Gast originally shot the footage. He speaks in detail about the
unlikely and complicated process of converting an old concert movie
into a fight documentary (though, of course, it's much more than
that).
The star attraction in the Extras
collection is “Soul Power” (2009, 92 min.), the concert movie
also made from the footage shot in 1974. This film is directed by
Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte (one of the editors on “When We Were Kings”)
and showcases numerous great acts from Miriam Makeba to James Brown
and so much more. It's a real blast and further proof of the degree
to which a film is made in the editing room, though of course it
helps to have music superstars to work with in the first place.
The slim, fold-out insert booklet
includes an essay by writer Kelefa Sanneh.
Final Thoughts:
There's a whole subindustry of Muhammad
Ali documentaries, but none are better than “When We Were Kings.”
And if you already own it on DVD, there's still a good reason to
upgrade in the form of the extra documentary “Soul Power.”
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