When We Were Kings
A documentary reconstruction of the 1974 Ali–Foreman fight in Zaire, built from event footage, testimony and the cultural scale surrounding the bout.
- YEAR
- 1996
- DIRECTOR
- Leon Gast
- COUNTRY
- United States
- LENGTH
- 88 min
- SPORT / THEME
- Boxing · Documentary
- CAST / FEATURED PEOPLE
- Muhammad Ali · George Foreman
When We Were Kings in the wider sports-film conversation
When We Were Kings is worth viewing not only as a self-contained story but as part of a wider conversation about how sport is represented on screen. The film demonstrates how a sporting event can be re-edited as political, musical and cultural history without losing the tension of the contest itself.
Continue through Boxing, Leon Gast, 1996 and United States. For a closer reading, see When We Were Kings Event As History.
Synopsis
A documentary reconstruction of the 1974 Ali–Foreman fight in Zaire, built from event footage, testimony and the cultural scale surrounding the bout.
Place in film history
The film demonstrates how a sporting event can be re-edited as political, musical and cultural history without losing the tension of the contest itself.