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* ShockingDefeatLegacy: For one man, George Foreman. Mentioned only briefly at the end of the film, as Mailer talks about Foreman's "two-year depression". In RealLife, a troubled Foreman retired from boxing in 1977, only to come back ten years later and shock the world by eventually winning the title in 1994, becoming the oldest heavyweight champion of all time.
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* ShockingDefeatLegacy: For one man, George Foreman. Mentioned only briefly at the end of the film, as Mailer talks about Foreman's "two-year depression". In RealLife, a troubled Foreman retired from boxing in 1977, only to come back ten years later and shock the world himself by eventually winning the title in 1994, becoming the oldest heavyweight champion of all time.ever.
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** First there was the "right-hand lead". As Mailer explains in the movie, the right-hand lead--leading with your strong hand if you're a right-handed boxer, that is--is an extremely dangerous tactic because it leaves you open to a devastating counter-punch. Consequently professional boxers rarely use it. Ali used it several times in the early going, scoring some hits and confusing Foreman with an odd tactic.
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** First there was the "right-hand lead". As Mailer explains in the movie, the right-hand lead--leading lead -- leading with your strong hand if you're a right-handed boxer, that is--is an extremely is -- is a ''very'' dangerous tactic because it leaves you open to a devastating counter-punch. Consequently professional boxers rarely use it. Ali used it several times in the early going, scoring some hits and confusing Foreman with an odd tactic.
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* YoungFutureFamousPeople: One of Ali's sparring partners is a young Larry Holmes, who will later become heavyweight champion and effectively end Ali's career by dealing him a humiliating defeat in 1980.
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* YoungFutureFamousPeople: One of Ali's sparring partners is a young Larry Holmes, who will later become heavyweight champion and effectively end Ali's career by dealing him a humiliating defeat in 1980.1980.
----
----
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For a fictionalized account of the Rumble in the Jungle, see the biopic ''Film/{{Ali}}''.
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For a fictionalized account of the Rumble in the Jungle, see the biopic ''Film/{{Ali}}''.
''Film/{{Ali}}''. Received an AffectionateParody in the form of the Series/DocumentaryNow episode ''How They Threw Rocks.''
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A famous TroubledProduction (see reporting [[https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/16/movies/the-fight-took-8-rounds-the-film-22-years.html here]] and [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/06/05/when_we_were_kings_captures_muhammad_ali_in_his_prime.html here]]) that went through 22 years of DevelopmentHell. Originally supposed to be a ConcertFilm about all the musical acts that went to Africa to stage a concert in coordination with the fight. The original idea was for the concert film to have clips from Ali and Foreman as supplementary material, while the finished film was exactly the opposite. The 22-year delay allowed for the inclusion of interviews with various talking heads, including Creator/SpikeLee, who talks about the significance of the fight in the African-American community, as well as Creator/NormanMailer and George Plimpton, who were there in Kinshasa to cover the fight. The TalkingHeads segments were filmed by an uncredited Creator/TaylorHackford (uncredited in that he didn't get a directorial credit, that is, although he did get "A Film By" along with Gast).
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A famous TroubledProduction (see reporting [[https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/16/movies/the-fight-took-8-rounds-the-film-22-years.html here]] and [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/06/05/when_we_were_kings_captures_muhammad_ali_in_his_prime.html here]]) that went through 22 years of DevelopmentHell. Originally supposed to be a ConcertFilm about all the musical acts that went to Africa to stage a concert in coordination with the fight. The original idea was for the concert film to have clips from Ali and Foreman as supplementary material, while the finished film was exactly the opposite. The 22-year delay allowed for the inclusion of interviews with various talking heads, including Creator/SpikeLee, who talks about the significance of the fight in the African-American community, as well as Creator/NormanMailer and George Plimpton, Creator/GeorgePlimpton, who were there in Kinshasa to cover the fight. The TalkingHeads segments were filmed by an uncredited Creator/TaylorHackford (uncredited in that he didn't get a directorial credit, that is, although he did get "A Film By" along with Gast).
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* ShockingDefeatLegacy: For one man, George Foreman. Mentioned only briefly at the end of the film, as Mailer talks about Foreman's "two year depression". In RealLife, a troubled Foreman retired from boxing in 1977, only to come back ten years later and shock the world by eventually winning the title in 1994, becoming the oldest heavyweight champion of all time.
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* ShockingDefeatLegacy: For one man, George Foreman. Mentioned only briefly at the end of the film, as Mailer talks about Foreman's "two year "two-year depression". In RealLife, a troubled Foreman retired from boxing in 1977, only to come back ten years later and shock the world by eventually winning the title in 1994, becoming the oldest heavyweight champion of all time.
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* CrossCulturalKerfluffle: Foreman arrives in Africa in the company of his pet German shepherd. All it means is that George Foreman likes dogs, but in the Belgian Congo, the Belgian slavedrivers used German shepherds to terrorize and control the workers. The locals, already inclined to prefer Ali, become even more so.
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It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained it with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger. While Foreman pounded Joe Frazier and Ken Norton each into jelly in the second round, Ali had lost to both Frazier and Norton in recent years.[[note]]He'd also beaten each of them, although the scoring in the second Norton fight was controversial.[[/quote]] For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
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It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained it with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger. While Foreman pounded Joe Frazier and Ken Norton each into jelly in the second round, Ali had lost to both Frazier and Norton in recent years.[[note]]He'd also beaten each of them, although the scoring in the second Norton fight was controversial.[[/quote]] [[/note]] For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
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It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained it with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger. While Foreman pounded Joe Frazier and Ken Norton each into jelly in the second round, Ali had lost to both Frazier and Norton in recent years. For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
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It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained it with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger. While Foreman pounded Joe Frazier and Ken Norton each into jelly in the second round, Ali had lost to both Frazier and Norton in recent years. [[note]]He'd also beaten each of them, although the scoring in the second Norton fight was controversial.[[/quote]] For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
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It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger, and while Foreman pounded Joe Frazier into jelly in the second round, Ali's two fights with Foreman were 15-round slugfests, one of which Ali lost. For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
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It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained it with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger, and while younger. While Foreman pounded Joe Frazier and Ken Norton each into jelly in the second round, Ali's two fights with Foreman were 15-round slugfests, one of which Ali lost.had lost to both Frazier and Norton in recent years. For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
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* ConcertFilm: It was supposed to be this. Although the focus of the film had radically changed by the time it was finally released, it still has lengthy scenes from the festival, including performances by Music/JamesBrown and Music/BBKing.
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* ConcertFilm: It was supposed to be this. Although the focus of the film had radically changed by the time it was finally released, it still has lengthy scenes from the festival, including performances by Music/JamesBrown and Music/BBKing.Music/BBKing as well as local African artists.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3356dab7_e5ee_4ec6_b8d6_d2e23bdb75b2.jpeg]]
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* BadassBoast: Muhammad Ali, everybody.
--> '''Ali''': I'm young, I'm handsome, I'm fast, I'm pretty and can't possibly be beat.
--> '''Ali''': I'm young, I'm handsome, I'm fast, I'm pretty and can't possibly be beat.
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* DeathGlare: Quite the bloodcurdling stare that Foreman delivers to Ali as they touch gloves.
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* FunnyAfro: Don King's crazy hair has always been part of his persona. Plimpton says "Some people would say that he's stuck his thumb into an electric socket," which is followed by an immediate cut to a giggling Mailer saying "falling down an elevator shaft."
* HappilyEverBefore: DiscussedTrope. Mailer talks about how Ali fought 22 more fights after Foreman and how "he hurt himself in those 22 fights." Plimpton observes that boxing was the thing Ali loved most, and it destroyed him. (By the time the TalkingHeads were recorded, 20 years after the rest of the footage, Ali had been rendered unable to speak due to Parkinson's disease.)
* HappilyEverBefore: DiscussedTrope. Mailer talks about how Ali fought 22 more fights after Foreman and how "he hurt himself in those 22 fights." Plimpton observes that boxing was the thing Ali loved most, and it destroyed him. (By the time the TalkingHeads were recorded, 20 years after the rest of the footage, Ali had been rendered unable to speak due to Parkinson's disease.)
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It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title that he earned with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger, and while Foreman pounded Joe Frazier into jelly in the second round, Ali's two fights with Foreman were 15-round slugfests, one of which Ali lost. For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
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It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title that he earned with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger, and while Foreman pounded Joe Frazier into jelly in the second round, Ali's two fights with Foreman were 15-round slugfests, one of which Ali lost. For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
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* TheStrategist: Ali, with his clever tactics to beat Foreman.
** First there was the "right-hand lead". As Mailer explains in the movie, the right-hand lead--leading with your strong hand if you're a right-handed boxer, that is--is an extremely dangerous tactic because it leaves you open to a devastating counter-punch. Consequently professional boxers rarely use it. Ali used it several times in the early going, scoring some hits and confusing Foreman with an odd tactic.
** Then there was the "rope-a-dope" strategy. In the second round Ali hung back against the ropes. His supporters, who had expected him to "dance", were horrified. Plimpton even said "The fix is in!" But leaning far back against the ropes and forcing Foreman to lunge at him both robbed Foreman's punches of most of their power, and led to Foreman's exhausting himself. Ali's continual taunting--"I thought you could punch harder than that, George!"--enraged Foreman, causing him to punch wildly and further tiring him out. This allowed Ali to attack later, after Foreman had punched himself out.
** First there was the "right-hand lead". As Mailer explains in the movie, the right-hand lead--leading with your strong hand if you're a right-handed boxer, that is--is an extremely dangerous tactic because it leaves you open to a devastating counter-punch. Consequently professional boxers rarely use it. Ali used it several times in the early going, scoring some hits and confusing Foreman with an odd tactic.
** Then there was the "rope-a-dope" strategy. In the second round Ali hung back against the ropes. His supporters, who had expected him to "dance", were horrified. Plimpton even said "The fix is in!" But leaning far back against the ropes and forcing Foreman to lunge at him both robbed Foreman's punches of most of their power, and led to Foreman's exhausting himself. Ali's continual taunting--"I thought you could punch harder than that, George!"--enraged Foreman, causing him to punch wildly and further tiring him out. This allowed Ali to attack later, after Foreman had punched himself out.
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* HiddenDepths: Don King is an obvious huckster and con artist. But he can also bust out a quote from ''Theatre/AsYouLikeIt'' about adversity--"Ugly and venomous like a toad, but wears a precious jewel on his head."
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* TheDreaded: George Foreman. Mailer says "the word murderous does not quite apply." According to Mailer, Ali's own entourage was uncharateristically subdued prior to the fight, believing that Foreman not only will win but that he might kill Muhammad Ali, who certainly won't quit even if he's getting pummeled.
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* DavidVsGoliath: Virtually no one gave Ali a chance. While Ali was a throwback to the somewhat smaller heavyweight, Foreman was the model of the modern hulking heavyweight boxer.
* TheDreaded: George Foreman. Mailer says "the word murderous does not quite apply." According to Mailer, Ali's own entourage was uncharateristically subdued prior to the fight, believing that Foreman not only will win but that he might kill Muhammad Ali, who certainly won't quit even if he's getting pummeled. Mailer recalls how Foreman's heavy bag would be left with a dent in it after Foreman was done punching.
* InsistentTerminology: Foreman, annoyed at questioning after a cut on his face forces a six-week postponement, says "There will not be a delay. The fight will be ''rescheduled'', but when it happens, it will be intended for that time."
* TheDreaded: George Foreman. Mailer says "the word murderous does not quite apply." According to Mailer, Ali's own entourage was uncharateristically subdued prior to the fight, believing that Foreman not only will win but that he might kill Muhammad Ali, who certainly won't quit even if he's getting pummeled. Mailer recalls how Foreman's heavy bag would be left with a dent in it after Foreman was done punching.
* InsistentTerminology: Foreman, annoyed at questioning after a cut on his face forces a six-week postponement, says "There will not be a delay. The fight will be ''rescheduled'', but when it happens, it will be intended for that time."
* TheQuietOne: Foreman, who rarely speaks, in dramatic contrast to Ali the MotorMouth.
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* TalkingHeads: By this time Muhammad Ali was in no condition to be interviewed, and Foreman isn't interviewed either. Interviewees include Spike Lee, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, and a member of Mobutu's government who helped organize the fight.
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* TalkingHeads: By this time Muhammad Ali was in no condition to be interviewed, and Foreman isn't interviewed either. Interviewees include Spike Lee, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, and African artist Malik Bowens.
* TheUnfavorite: George Foreman, who can't understand why Ali is such amember of Mobutu's huge favorite with the local crowd when Foreman is blacker than Ali is. Ali's cultural cachet after fighting the U.S. government who helped organize over his induction, and his opposition to the fight.Vietnam War, simply makes him much more appealing.
* TheUnfavorite: George Foreman, who can't understand why Ali is such a
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* BlatantLies: Ali's pre-fight smack talk often reaches heights of delightful absurdity.
--> '''Ali''': Only last week I murdered a rock.
--> '''Ali''': Only last week I murdered a rock.
* TheDreaded: George Foreman. Mailer says "the word murderous does not quite apply." According to Mailer, Ali's own entourage was uncharateristically subdued prior to the fight, believing that Foreman not only will win but that he might kill Muhammad Ali, who certainly won't quit even if he's getting pummeled.
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* TalkingHeads: By this time Muhammad Ali was in no condition to be interviewed, and Foreman isn't interviewed either. Interviewees include Spike Lee, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, and a member of Mobutu's government who helped organize the fight.
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* StockFootage: Of the fight, which Leon Gast was not allowed to film. A few more brief clips of Ali's career, or Mobutu, etc. Everything else is Gast's original footage from 1974.
* TalkingHeads: By this time Muhammad Ali was in no condition to be interviewed, and Foreman isn't interviewed either. Interviewees include Spike Lee, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, and a member of Mobutu's government who helped organize thefight.fight.
* YoungFutureFamousPeople: One of Ali's sparring partners is a young Larry Holmes, who will later become heavyweight champion and effectively end Ali's career by dealing him a humiliating defeat in 1980.
* TalkingHeads: By this time Muhammad Ali was in no condition to be interviewed, and Foreman isn't interviewed either. Interviewees include Spike Lee, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, and a member of Mobutu's government who helped organize the
* YoungFutureFamousPeople: One of Ali's sparring partners is a young Larry Holmes, who will later become heavyweight champion and effectively end Ali's career by dealing him a humiliating defeat in 1980.
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''When We Were Kings'' is a 1996 documentary film directed by Leon Gast.
It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title that he earned with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger, and while Foreman pounded Joe Frazier into jelly in the second round, Ali's two fights with Foreman were 15-round slugfests, one of which Ali lost. For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
The fight is scheduled in Kinshasa, [[UsefulNotes/DemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo Zaire]]. The reason for the exotic locale is that promoter Don King, having promised the fighters five million dollars apiece but not having anywhere near that much capital, goes looking for bidders, and the high bid was made by Zaire's brutal, bloodthirsty dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. While the location was a matter of cold hard cash, it quickly becomes significant in the black community, both among African-Americans who feel a new connection with Africa, and with natives of Zaire who view civil rights activist Muhammad Ali as a hero.
A famous TroubledProduction (see reporting [[https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/16/movies/the-fight-took-8-rounds-the-film-22-years.html here]] and [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/06/05/when_we_were_kings_captures_muhammad_ali_in_his_prime.html here]]) that went through 22 years of DevelopmentHell. Originally supposed to be a ConcertFilm about all the musical acts that went to Africa to stage a concert in coordination with the fight. The original idea was for the concert film to have clips from Ali and Foreman as supplementary material, while the finished film was exactly the opposite. The 22-year delay allowed for the inclusion of interviews with various talking heads, including Creator/SpikeLee, who talks about the significance of the fight in the African-American community, as well as Creator/NormanMailer and George Plimpton, who were there in Kinshasa to cover the fight. The TalkingHeads segments were filmed by an uncredited Creator/TaylorHackford (uncredited in that he didn't get a directorial credit, that is, although he did get "A Film By" along with Gast).
For a fictionalized account of the Rumble in the Jungle, see the biopic ''Film/{{Ali}}''.
----
!!Tropes:
* ConcertFilm: It was supposed to be this. Although the focus of the film had radically changed by the time it was finally released, it still has lengthy scenes from the festival, including performances by Music/JamesBrown and Music/BBKing.
* TheKenBurnsEffect: Used once very effectively. A grainy newspaper photo appears of reporters Plimpton and Mailer, staring in open-mouthed astonishment. The camera then zooms out to reveal that it's a picture of Foreman tumbling to the ground as he's knocked out by Ali. Later, near the end of the movie, a photo montage of Ali's life and career uses pans and zooms for almost every picture.
* PresidentEvil: Mobutu. Mailer calls him "Stalinist", talks about his bloodthirsty reign, and notes how the very stadium that the fight was held in had underground dungeons devoted to torture and murder.
* ShockingDefeatLegacy: For one man, George Foreman. Mentioned only briefly at the end of the film, as Mailer talks about Foreman's "two year depression". In RealLife, a troubled Foreman retired from boxing in 1977, only to come back ten years later and shock the world by eventually winning the title in 1994, becoming the oldest heavyweight champion of all time.
* TalkingHeads: By this time Muhammad Ali was in no condition to be interviewed, and Foreman isn't interviewed either. Interviewees include Spike Lee, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, and a member of Mobutu's government who helped organize the fight.
It is a history of the famous 1974 "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rumble_in_the_Jungle Rumble in the Jungle]]" fight between UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli and George Foreman. Foreman is the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, having won the title that he earned with a merciless beatdown of Joe Frazier ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and retained with an equally savage destruction of challenger Ken Norton. Muhammad Ali, for his part, is attempting to regain the title he held from 1964 to 1967, before he was stripped of the title due to his refusal to submit to induction in the U.S. Army during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. Foreman is demonstrably bigger and stronger than Ali as well as seven years younger, and while Foreman pounded Joe Frazier into jelly in the second round, Ali's two fights with Foreman were 15-round slugfests, one of which Ali lost. For all of those reasons, Foreman is a prohibitive favorite.
The fight is scheduled in Kinshasa, [[UsefulNotes/DemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo Zaire]]. The reason for the exotic locale is that promoter Don King, having promised the fighters five million dollars apiece but not having anywhere near that much capital, goes looking for bidders, and the high bid was made by Zaire's brutal, bloodthirsty dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. While the location was a matter of cold hard cash, it quickly becomes significant in the black community, both among African-Americans who feel a new connection with Africa, and with natives of Zaire who view civil rights activist Muhammad Ali as a hero.
A famous TroubledProduction (see reporting [[https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/16/movies/the-fight-took-8-rounds-the-film-22-years.html here]] and [[http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/06/05/when_we_were_kings_captures_muhammad_ali_in_his_prime.html here]]) that went through 22 years of DevelopmentHell. Originally supposed to be a ConcertFilm about all the musical acts that went to Africa to stage a concert in coordination with the fight. The original idea was for the concert film to have clips from Ali and Foreman as supplementary material, while the finished film was exactly the opposite. The 22-year delay allowed for the inclusion of interviews with various talking heads, including Creator/SpikeLee, who talks about the significance of the fight in the African-American community, as well as Creator/NormanMailer and George Plimpton, who were there in Kinshasa to cover the fight. The TalkingHeads segments were filmed by an uncredited Creator/TaylorHackford (uncredited in that he didn't get a directorial credit, that is, although he did get "A Film By" along with Gast).
For a fictionalized account of the Rumble in the Jungle, see the biopic ''Film/{{Ali}}''.
----
!!Tropes:
* ConcertFilm: It was supposed to be this. Although the focus of the film had radically changed by the time it was finally released, it still has lengthy scenes from the festival, including performances by Music/JamesBrown and Music/BBKing.
* TheKenBurnsEffect: Used once very effectively. A grainy newspaper photo appears of reporters Plimpton and Mailer, staring in open-mouthed astonishment. The camera then zooms out to reveal that it's a picture of Foreman tumbling to the ground as he's knocked out by Ali. Later, near the end of the movie, a photo montage of Ali's life and career uses pans and zooms for almost every picture.
* PresidentEvil: Mobutu. Mailer calls him "Stalinist", talks about his bloodthirsty reign, and notes how the very stadium that the fight was held in had underground dungeons devoted to torture and murder.
* ShockingDefeatLegacy: For one man, George Foreman. Mentioned only briefly at the end of the film, as Mailer talks about Foreman's "two year depression". In RealLife, a troubled Foreman retired from boxing in 1977, only to come back ten years later and shock the world by eventually winning the title in 1994, becoming the oldest heavyweight champion of all time.
* TalkingHeads: By this time Muhammad Ali was in no condition to be interviewed, and Foreman isn't interviewed either. Interviewees include Spike Lee, Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, and a member of Mobutu's government who helped organize the fight.
