They say that there are only a handful of characters who are instantly recognizable the world over; they mention characters like Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan and Superman- but Holmes and Lord Greystoke and Kal-El are all make-believe. Muhammad Ali wasn't. Last night, around Midnight, I heard the news that he'd Moved On. For me, Muhammad Ali filled a gaping void in my life; he was a Role Model I could look up to (unlike my alcoholic father)- a man who Practiced what he Preached. Along with the likes of Charlton Heston and Bruce Lee and writers like Richard Matheson and Harlan Ellison and dozens of comic book writers and artists, Muhammad Ali taught me what it was to be a Man. He brought the posturing of professional wrestling to the all-too-real world of professional Boxing and made it work. He even fought and beat The Man of Steel, Superman, in an illustrated story rendered by none other than Neal Adams himself (who I came to think of as "the Muhammad Ali of comics"). Something VITAL has been Lost in this World, and we're never going to see his Like again. I remember seeing an interview with Ali, who was watching footage of himself as a young man: in the clips, he was announcing his Greatness to the World at the top of his lungs- and backing up his braggadocio against some of the most dangerous fighters in Heavyweight Boxing history (surely no God ever faced such Monsters!). "I sure was somethin', wasn't I?" he mused. Indeed.

Fascinating episode of cultural history - authoritarian Mobutu Sese Seko hosts the fight in order to put a sheen on his public image. The contrast between the talismanic, inspirational, irrepressible Ali who most Zaireans backed, and on the other hand, the quieter, almost mythic Foreman also makes a fascinating aspect of this movie. Foreman was heavily favored against Ali after he had destroyed Frazier and Norton and knowledgeable boxing observers expected the worst for Ali. Ali's bluster, perhaps to entertain, perhaps to provoke Foreman, perhaps to make things interesting, also made the film amazing. Ali's ease with the media made him the more sympathetic boxer to Zaireans, but so too did his humor and commitment to justice. Another fascinating feature of the film was the role of Don King in promoting the fight. While King was a great promoter, commentators like Norman Mailer and George Plimpton rightly look askance at King's jarring amorality. It's probably not surprising that King was able to come to terms with Mobutu on the hosting of the fight. For all his well-known negatives though, King put on a landmark event by also booking some of the biggest musical acts of the day, from The Spinners, James Brown, from B.B. King to Miriam Makeda. We are the beneficiaries as we get to hear some fantastic live performances.The direction and editing are great too. Commentary from Norman Mailer and George Plimpton give us context to understand the events better and the use of lots of archival footage make it that much better. The way it is framed are credits to the editor and director.All that said though, Ali is the star of this film for his boxing but also for his heart.

While watching "When We Were Kings", I was distracted by many "what if" questions: "what if Foreman had won that match in Zaire?" "What if Ali had lost?" "What if it was a flop?" etc. Cynically, I assumed that had Ali lost, the documentary wouldn't have been made, but then I remembered that it waited 22 years to be made, and receive the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1997. In other words, it wasn't supposed to 'make a film'; it was a legend from the very start.And "Rumble in the Jungle" is the nostalgic celebration of the most legendary episode of Boxing History, through a recollection of images and stories from those who witnessed the event. It's a treasure in terms of archive footage, musical sequences, and extraordinary shots of Ali haranguing his African fans and shining everyone with his unique charisma or Don King discussing the black condition with James Brown. The match is almost secondary while the film is more of a magnificent tribute to the enormous contribution of African American people in sport and entertainment. Some would think that the genius of people is better measured on fields such as science, medicine, physics, literature or politics, but in these times, sport and music was the most likely medium where African American people could express their voice.And sport is probably the noblest expression of Humanity's true spirit: self-accomplishment, victory and respect. While science and literature cruelly depend on the level of education one has received, sport is universal; it's no-money learning: anyone can develop physical abilities with his own will. In a world full of segregation, sport offers the less segregationist environment. While intelligence can be used to disguise ignorance, strength cannot disguise weakness, the strongest is the strongest. Boxing is probably the most straight-forward incarnation of the true essence of sport, and on that discipline, Muhammad Ali was the greatest, a sort of semi-God like figure who had to prove his physical strength, before it transcended the limits of the ring, even at the risk of becoming an unpopular figure, an outcast … but sometimes, it's this very status that paves the way to the legend.One has to remember how truly unpopular Ali became when he refused to fight in Vietnam. As recalls Spike Lee, interviewed in the documentary, it's not just the refusal but the way it was stated: "No Vietcong ever called me a N-word". Ali shouted what every member of his community was secretly thinking, he had the guts to refuse to be a government's puppet, he lost his Heavyweight Champion title and couldn't fight for several years, but what it cost him in sports, elevated him above all the other athletes: more than a spokesperson, he became a living icon, a myth and a model. Basically, his refusal taught people one thing: that one can't ask for respect if he doesn't respect himself. And the man who 'shook up the world' by defeating Sonny Liston had too much self-esteem to fight against people he's got nothing against just because he's told to do so. Respect starts with self-respect and even school can't teach you to respect yourself.This is why the documentary might be guilty of a certain bias toward Ali, but it doesn't denigrate Foreman either. He is the 'quiet yet invulnerable' force, a Fighting Machine that knocked out and dethroned Joe Frazier after a technical knock-out, but his lack of flamboyance and eccentricity allowed Ali to conquer the hearts of all the Zairian people. Basically, "Rumble in the Jungle" could have been subtitled the "Ali show". The film isn't pro-Ali or anti-Foreman, it even manages to draw a sort of retrospectively sympathetic portrait of 'Big George' who just couldn't outsize Ali, popularity-wise. An unfortunate irony is that even as a darker person, Foreman incarnated the 'White man' for the people, by arriving at the airport with a blonde shepherd, symbol of the previous Belgian colon. Misunderstood, Foreman also misunderstood the public, and the whole fight's symbolism, he showed as an African American man, while Ali was exalting the pride of the difference, this pride that started when he refused to assign.And this is exactly this pride of the difference that the film conveys through Ali's exuberant personality, even the title works like a slogan reminding that there was a time where Africa was the mother of humanity, when there was a pride to be Black, and people like Ali revived that pride. The film powerfully encapsulates the spirit within the black people in America or Africa, this 'Booma ye!' spirit ,where it was not about wanting to be 'assimilated', but to be 'respected'. Difference, not assimilation … and never had the Black pride been as authentic, as sincere, as expressed by Muhammad Ali, an equal of Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X and ironically to Patrice Lumumba who was ordered to be killed by the very President of Zaire, Mobutu himself. "When We Were Kings" provides an important slice of African life under dictatorship, proving that the people still had inner demons to exorcise, undermining the path to liberty.Nothing positive can be dictated by terror and beyond the whole show, orchestrated by Don King, Ali and Foreman were not there to express an antagonism, but to play a game, it was a performance. And the film, although trying sometimes to convey a false sense of suspense by depicting Ali as a challenger who had almost no chance to win -a theory contradicted by most boxing experts- the legend preceded the match. How about the victory then? Well, I guess my "what if" questions were unthinkable in Ali's mind. It's as if, as a Muslim, he believed that some things were like written by God (or Allah) himself wanted to make reality even more appealing as fiction. Indeed, while "When We Were Kings" is a documentary and a damn good one, I felt it as emotionally gripping as a fiction.

Well, although I am not too much of an Ali fan, I heard some of the important moments of his life. You probably know him as that draft dodger who almost got 5 years in federal jail for refusing to be inducted into the U.S. armed forces. And of course, there was the Ali-Foreman matchup taking place in an African country where you can get by with some French, and you heard about King Motu from Zaire and Don King from the USA masterminding this famous fight.What makes this movie better than Will Smith's version of "Ali" was the music. If you have seen that version of "Ali", there are the same patterns---you hear the "Bumaye Ali" chant (which was a motivator for Ali to knock out George Foreman) like Will Smith's version, and the big pre-game fanfare with all of that Black music, leading to the entrance of Ali and Foreman into the big stadium with a lot of soldiers. But the music in "When We Where Kings" added a great fuel to the fire of what was this famous boxing match to come.I found out that Motu could not see the famous fight in person at the stadium, because Motu was targeted for an attempt on his life by someone.The early 1970s was when the soul music and progressive rock explosion went sky-high. This was in response to the turbulent Civil Rights movement of the mid-1960s in the United States, leading up to the turbulent events in 1968 such as the Martin Luther King assassination. Especially when you hear James Brown and his famous Soul Generals band strut their stuff with famous soul hits like "We're Gonna Have a Funkin' Good Time"...especially when they were on the Zaire venue before the George Foreman-Muhummad Ali matchup.