When We Were Kings (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #34 extract: When We Were Kings (1996)

Tremendous. As multi-faceted as Ali himself was, this documentary explores his famous Rumble In The Jungle match with Foreman as a piece of sports history and political history. In such, this carries much of what Ali embodied: powerful, undeniable negritude - which stems from the sports side of this narrative - and a sense of pan-Africanism that reached out of the content and into America - which stems from the political side. 

Whilst I can't say I fully agree with the politics of this film, its power is irrefutable; Ali's opening poems alone sell this movie as a force of counter-cultural fervour. It is then hard to not be sucked into this narrative and accept it as a voicing of an individual and a time in history that made incredible waves across the world. Highly recommended.