The 1974 heavyweight championship fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali is the subject of this film, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. A pair of famous journalists who attended the fight, George Plimpton and Norman Mailer, provide reminiscenses. Their commentary is fronted with archival footage of Ali, Foreman, fight promoter Don King, performers at a concert organized by King, dictator Mobuto, and Zaire itself, where the fight was held. There is also narration by Spike Lee and Thomas Hauser.
Ali's brash, charismatic personality comes across
in numerous press conferences and interviews. He
was not only a great champion, but highly
entertaining as well. Africans were quick to
embrace him over the menacing, sullen Foreman,
the reigning champion who had seemed invincible
after quick knockouts of Joe Frazier and Ken
Norton. The press loved and respected Ali as
well, not only for his good-natured banter and
boasting, but for the values he represented and
his apt observations. In those days, Foreman had
no resemblance to the amiable, loquacious person
that he would later become.
Promoter Don King is described as brilliant and
hard-working but 'completely amoral'. Mobuto is
labeled as a murderous dictator, and is compared
to Joseph Stalin for his cult of personality.
Norman Mailer makes the from-left-field
observation that all dictators are ugly.
Before the fight, there was a major concert in
Zaire. James Brown, B. B. King and The Spinners
were among the performers. Footage from this
concert also makes it into the documentary.
The documentary succeeds in recreating the
atmosphere of the Ali-Foreman fighter. It does
seem padded, however, and the series of film
clips sometimes lack a cohesion which is only
partly provided by the Plimpton-Mailer narration.
(67/100)
Twenty-two years in the making this documentary chronicles one of the most famous heavyweight championship bouts in history the Muhammad Ali-George Fo...More at Family Video
During the six-week postponement of his Fight Of The Century against George Foreman, Muhammad Ali discovered an Africa which American audiences were u...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.