When We Were Kings (1996)

IMDb plot summary: Boxing documentary on the 1974 world heavyweight championship bout between defending champion, George Foreman, and the underdog challenger, Muhammad Ali.

Directed by Leon Gast.

When We Were Kings is a 1996 documentary about Muhammad Ali and his fight with George Foreman. I did watch this at an unfortunate time in my viewing when I was watching two documentaries at the same time and couldn't ever quite get myself in the right headspace for either of them, so I admit that there is something about this that i couldn't quite get into. That could easily be my fault as much as it is the movie's. I liked its portrayal of Ali. I felt like I knew him a little bit better by the end, which was nice because i really didn't have any sense of who he was as a persona. They do a really good job of pointing out what made him unique as a public figure, in his wit and his cocky boldness, which came across as charming and young rather than rather than just macho posturing. I did not particularly care to follow along with the politics of where and when to have this fight. That was much less interesting to me than just watching Ali as a human. I'm sure some of this is just a missed era of pop culture for me, where it's just not something that I know a lot about, so I don't have any stakes in it. There's some really nice music in this as well. The score really helped to bring home the whole vibe of Ali as a figurehead representing his community, for better or for worse. Probably more interesting if you had a connection to the story, but I did feel like I learned something.

🎥 When We Were Kings (1996)

📊 Ranked #2517/4221 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 40

lost to Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (held at #2151)

beat 12 Days of Terror (#3203 → #3204)

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beat National Theatre Live: The Habit of Art (#2523 → #2524)

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