When We Were Kings

  • Documentary
  • TV Movie
  • History
  • Music
10/25/1996
89
PG

The untold story of the Rumble in the Jungle.

It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.

Director:
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Revenue:
$2,666,118

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  • pablogeezer

    Roger Ebert February 27, 1997

    The heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire on Oct. 30, 1974--The Rumble in the Jungle--is enshrined as one of the great sports events of the century. It was also a cultural and political happening.

    Into the capital of Kinshasa flew planeloads of performers for an African Woodstock, TV crews, Howard Cosell at the head of an international contingent of sports journalists, celebrity fight groupies like Norman Mailer and George Plimpton, and of course the two principals: Ali, then still controversial because of his decision to be a conscientious objector, and Foreman, now huggable and lovable in TV commercials but then seen as fearsome and forbidding.

    I'm young, I'm hand...

    August 28, 2013

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