When We Were Kings

In 1974, boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman came to the still-emerging and politically unstable African nation of Zaire for what Ali called the "Rumble in the Jungle," a highly publicized world heavyweight championship fight. Documentarian Leon Gast flew to Zaire to film both the fight and a ...more

Filmmaker Leon Gast caught an ironically lucky break when the footage he shot of the famed 1974 heavyweight match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman got tied up in legal red tape for the better part of two decades. With the passage of time, the fight has taken on even larger dimensions than its status as one of the more dramatic upsets in boxing history: It was one of Ali's last big hurrahs; it humbled the chiseled and glowering Foreman, who was eventually reborn as a roly-poly, genial, ...more