The scene is the setting of the 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' world heavyweight fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The event is Zaire '74, a three day music festival in Kinshasa that featured black artists from both America and Africa. To this end we have a selection of soul, R&B, funk and blues mixed in with popular African music of the day. The event attracted a few big name American artists such as James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, The Spinners and The Crusaders. But what added to the overall feel of the event was that it uniquely allowed for the African-American musicians to not only perform to a whole new appreciative audience but to also return to their spiritual African roots.The film is sort of unique because of its historical context where a group of film-makers were paid to professionally document everything but financial red tape resulted in the footage remaining unseen for over thirty years. Not only does this give the material an extra interest factor in itself but it has allowed for a new documentary to be made entirely using old unseen footage. Wisely, the editors have decided to only use footage from the time, with no contemporary interviews of participants looking back at events and reminiscing. This achieves two things in that it makes the material seem more urgent and of the time, while also attempting to finish the project that was abandoned over three decades previously by only using the footage actually shot. It documents events from the pre-concert stages through to the finale of the show. The details surrounding the event, like snippets of the locals, interviews with the participants and behind the scenes details make it a very interesting and rounded historical document. The fight itself is marginalised, although we do hear promoter Don King in full flow and Ali is seen several times letting fly with many of his opinions on race-related issues of the day. The music itself perhaps doesn't get as much of a showcase as it might but I think overall by including all of the periphery details the film-makers have captured a time and place even better.

As around 17 million British TV watcher settled down to watch the dross that was The X Factor (I could spend hours explaining why Simon Cowell and Company are ruining British Pop Music!) some of us more enlightened souls escaped to the cover of our local film club to enjoy some truly talented musicians getting on in Zaire (as the country was known in 1974).This wonderful film tells the story of the three day festival given by Afro American/African musicians that accompanied the famous 'Rumble In The Jungle' World Heavyweight Title fight between Ali and Foreman (for the fight itself you must see 'When We Were Kings', outstanding documentary covering the events surrounding the fight). The film has been pieced together from footage taken at the time and gives a insight as to what happened in the run-up to the 3 day festival, as well as presenting the best of the music performed on stage.Thankfully the pre-festival events are kept to a minimum - just enough to give you a clear idea as to the politics involved - and the bulk of the film is occupied by the music - and what great music it is! BB King, The Spinners (the black soul group, not the British folk one!), many African musicians (whoses names I am ashamed to say have escaped me for the time) etc all on the top of their form, then... The Godfather of Soul, Soul Brother Number One, The Hardest Working Man In Showbiz... MR JAMES BROWN! If you are not blown away by what is shown of his performance then you have no soul! Blistering is hardly the word! Watching him perform reminds you of just what a towering talent the world lost a few Christmases ago when he sadly departed this world - God rest you James, and thanks for the music.One other point that makes this film so worthwhile is the incidental scenes on the streets of Kinshasa where local musicians play for the sheer joy of giving the world music. There is one unnamed band on a street corner with amps, mikes the whole shebang just jamming away - amazing! Normally as the end titles role the audience get up and start to leave - but not this time! Only two people left half way during the end titles, the rest stayed until the screen went blank and the curtains came across, applauding all the time! Never have I witnessed that before, a fitting tribute to a film that deserves to be seen again, and again, and again etc! Forget all the dross that programmes like the X Factor inflict on the world, this is music as it should be, with heart and more soul in one note than in every single record that Simon Cowell has, or ever will, produce!

Soul Power is the story of the legendary concert in which Don King promoted a concert full of African American soul artists. There was also a fight between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman. I walked in expecting a soulful vibe and a fun time. I walked in expecting wrong. The film is just stock footage thrown together with no real story or fun behind it. There are very few good things. One thing is that in the first half they somewhat intrigue us with the question: will this concert actually happen? In the second half, they leave that question, and basically show boring stock footage with a couple of good shots thrown in. You can tell the filmmakers aren't really trying to tell us about the concert as much as throwing stock footage together. It's a film that just leaves the audience bored. Also, I wanted less of the stock footage and more of the back story. It doesn't answer the questions I wanted it to. Muhammed Ali has a couple of good interviews, but I wanted to see more of the back story of the fight and how the fight was connected with the concert. It was just a boring movie that's essentially stock footage thrown together. This can only be described as one thing...boring.

Entertaining. Nice to see Muhammad Ali and James Brown and Celia Cruz and the dance styles of the Crusaders. The other African performers were on top of their acts, too.You will look back on James Brown's bid to give some direction to the black movement as uncomplicated. And it is nice to see that so much as changed in the way of overt discrimination in the U.S.I felt that I wanted to see a 4 hour movie. I wanted to see the entire concert, and that is good. It has a really funny part wherein Muhammad Ali plays with someone. I won't tell you what it is about.James Brown pleads with you to go out on the side walk and tell yourself: "I am somebody".I loved the performance by Cuban artist and Diva Celia Cruz. There were no negatives in the movie except that much of it is hand-held, grainy color. Again, I just wanted it to go on and on.I got my monies worth.