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The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/When We Were Kings: Review and Commentary: Difference between revisions
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="font-size:22px;">{{BASEPAGENAME}}/</span>''When We Were Kings'': Review and Commentary}} | {{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="font-size:22px;">{{BASEPAGENAME}}/</span>''When We Were Kings'': Review and Commentary}} | ||
{{MR13}} | {{MR13}} | ||
{{Quote box|title=''When We Were Kings'' (Blu-Ray Special Edition)|Directed and Produced by Leon Gast<br />Featuring Muhammad Ali, George Foreman<br />With Norman Mailer, George Plimpton</br />The Criterion Collection, 2019, $35.00|align=right|width=25%}} | {{Quote box|title=''When We Were Kings'' (Blu-Ray Special Edition)|Directed and Produced by Leon Gast<br />Featuring Muhammad Ali, George Foreman<br />With Norman Mailer, George Plimpton</br />The Criterion Collection, 2019, $35.00|align=right|width=25%}} | ||
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''Soul Power'' was the original project ''When We Were Kings'' director Leon Gast hoped to complete it when he went to Africa. Segments of the music performances by James Brown, B.B. King, The Spinners, and Miriam Makeba did make it into ''When We Were Kings'' and also serve as the soundtrack for interesting B-roll footage. Many of the performances appear to be from rehearsals, with the performers enjoying themselves among one another rather than playing to an audience. No trace of an audience, in fact, is ever shown. Neither are any of the many African performers, with the unfortunate exception of Miriam Makeba. | ''Soul Power'' was the original project ''When We Were Kings'' director Leon Gast hoped to complete it when he went to Africa. Segments of the music performances by James Brown, B.B. King, The Spinners, and Miriam Makeba did make it into ''When We Were Kings'' and also serve as the soundtrack for interesting B-roll footage. Many of the performances appear to be from rehearsals, with the performers enjoying themselves among one another rather than playing to an audience. No trace of an audience, in fact, is ever shown. Neither are any of the many African performers, with the unfortunate exception of Miriam Makeba. | ||
[[File:Gloves-Lowenberg.jpg|thumb|500px|Boxing gloves, Norman Mailer’s Provincetown living room. Photo by Bill Lowenburg. ]] | |||
''Rolling Stone'' reported that only 8,000 attended the first two nights of the festival, which may explain the dearth of crowd shots accompanying the performances. The 80,000 seat stadium filled on the final night only because President Mobutu “convinced” concert promoters to give away the remaining tickets.{{sfn|Gehr|2016}} Included on the Blu-ray version are brief interviews with Gast and co-producer David Sonenberg. For those devotees of Norman Mailer not interested in accumulating another piece of plastic in their home, both films are available via streaming on Amazon Prime, minus the extra content. | ''Rolling Stone'' reported that only 8,000 attended the first two nights of the festival, which may explain the dearth of crowd shots accompanying the performances. The 80,000 seat stadium filled on the final night only because President Mobutu “convinced” concert promoters to give away the remaining tickets.{{sfn|Gehr|2016}} Included on the Blu-ray version are brief interviews with Gast and co-producer David Sonenberg. For those devotees of Norman Mailer not interested in accumulating another piece of plastic in their home, both films are available via streaming on Amazon Prime, minus the extra content. | ||
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While Ali no longer danced as gracefully at age 32, his well of boxing resources was far from dry. For one thing, he could take a punch. Following his fight with Joe Frazier in Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971, referee Arthur Mercante commented on the fourteenth-round knockdown: “Frazier hit him as hard as a man can be hit . . . Ali was exhausted. He went down, and anyone else would have stayed on the canvas, but he was up in three seconds . . . I motioned Frazier to a neutral corner and when I turned around to face Ali, he was on his feet.”{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=229}} Besides his physical resilience, Ali could think under pressure and was a master of improvisation, both in and out of the ring. | While Ali no longer danced as gracefully at age 32, his well of boxing resources was far from dry. For one thing, he could take a punch. Following his fight with Joe Frazier in Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971, referee Arthur Mercante commented on the fourteenth-round knockdown: “Frazier hit him as hard as a man can be hit . . . Ali was exhausted. He went down, and anyone else would have stayed on the canvas, but he was up in three seconds . . . I motioned Frazier to a neutral corner and when I turned around to face Ali, he was on his feet.”{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=229}} Besides his physical resilience, Ali could think under pressure and was a master of improvisation, both in and out of the ring. | ||
In re-watching Foreman dismantle Norton and Frazier, I see exactly why Foreman felt the way he did. I’ve watched hundreds, perhaps over a thousand fights over the years and have never seen anyone punch harder than Foreman. In winning the championship against Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, on January 22, 1973 (after Frazier had defeated Ali) one of George’s uppercuts in the second round lifted Smokin’ Joe entirely off the canvas. Incredibly, Frazier got up, only to be knocked down again, for the sixth and final time, before the fight was stopped.{{sfn|Cosell| | In re-watching Foreman dismantle Norton and Frazier, I see exactly why Foreman felt the way he did. I’ve watched hundreds, perhaps over a thousand fights over the years and have never seen anyone punch harder than Foreman. In winning the championship against Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, on January 22, 1973 (after Frazier had defeated Ali) one of George’s uppercuts in the second round lifted Smokin’ Joe entirely off the canvas. Incredibly, Frazier got up, only to be knocked down again, for the sixth and final time, before the fight was stopped.{{sfn|Cosell|2011}} Coincidentally, the match was refereed by Arthur Mercante, who afterward may have revised his opinion about the hardest a man can be hit. | ||
During the run-up to the fight in Zaire, while Foreman healed, brooded, and trained without gusto, Ali threw his one-man public relations machine into high gear. During a reception given in his honor at the presidential palace, Ali said, “Mr. President, I’ve been a citizen of the United States for 33 years and was never invited to the White House. It sure gives me pleasure to be invited to the Black House.”{{sfn|Goldstein|2000|p=110}} Meanwhile, he privately confessed to Howard Bingham, his personal photographer, “I’d give anything to be training in the United States. They got ice cream there, and pretty girls and miniskirts.”{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=270}} | During the run-up to the fight in Zaire, while Foreman healed, brooded, and trained without gusto, Ali threw his one-man public relations machine into high gear. During a reception given in his honor at the presidential palace, Ali said, “Mr. President, I’ve been a citizen of the United States for 33 years and was never invited to the White House. It sure gives me pleasure to be invited to the Black House.”{{sfn|Goldstein|2000|p=110}} Meanwhile, he privately confessed to Howard Bingham, his personal photographer, “I’d give anything to be training in the United States. They got ice cream there, and pretty girls and miniskirts.”{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=270}} | ||
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Two other individuals featured in the film—promoter Don King and President Sese Seke Mobutu—are essential to understanding the context of the fight. Like Ali and Foreman and Mailer and Plimpton, they each possessed a huge ego and led complex and controversial lives. | Two other individuals featured in the film—promoter Don King and President Sese Seke Mobutu—are essential to understanding the context of the fight. Like Ali and Foreman and Mailer and Plimpton, they each possessed a huge ego and led complex and controversial lives. | ||
Mailer comments in the film, “This fight came into existence because of Don King’s desire to be famous . . . if it failed, he was destined to go back into obscurity.”{{sfn|Gast|2019}} Consider the fact that just three and a half years earlier, King had listened to reports of the Ali-Frazier fight in his prison cell in Marion, Ohio, where he was serving time for a manslaughter conviction.{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=261}} He had been convicted in 1967 for stomping Sam Garrett, an ex-employee in his numbers racket, to death on the street in Cleveland. It was the second time he had killed a man. In 1954, he shot Hillary Brown in the back and the killing was ruled justifiable homicide. Paroled in 1971, King was eventually granted a full pardon by Ohio Governor James Rhodes in 1983. Rhodes justified the pardon by saying he relied heavily on letters of support submitted by Reverend Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, Steve Davis, executive director of the National Publishers Association, Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, and Cleveland Indians president Gabe Paul, among others.{{sfn| | Mailer comments in the film, “This fight came into existence because of Don King’s desire to be famous . . . if it failed, he was destined to go back into obscurity.”{{sfn|Gast|2019}} Consider the fact that just three and a half years earlier, King had listened to reports of the Ali-Frazier fight in his prison cell in Marion, Ohio, where he was serving time for a manslaughter conviction.{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=261}} He had been convicted in 1967 for stomping Sam Garrett, an ex-employee in his numbers racket, to death on the street in Cleveland. It was the second time he had killed a man. In 1954, he shot Hillary Brown in the back and the killing was ruled justifiable homicide. Paroled in 1971, King was eventually granted a full pardon by Ohio Governor James Rhodes in 1983. Rhodes justified the pardon by saying he relied heavily on letters of support submitted by Reverend Jesse Jackson, Coretta Scott King, Steve Davis, executive director of the National Publishers Association, Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, and Cleveland Indians president Gabe Paul, among others.{{sfn|King|2019}} | ||
Thomas Hauser, Ali’s biographer, said, “Don King is one of the brightest, most charismatic, hardest working people in the world . . . he’s also totally amoral and I can’t think of a man who has done more to demoralize fighters, take from fighters, and exploit fighters and ruin their careers. But you have to give him his due for what he did to make Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire.”{{sfn|Gast|2019}} Since 1975, [[w:Don King|King]] has been sued by Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Tim Witherspoon, Mike Tyson, Terry Norris, Lennox Lewis, and ESPN, to name but a few. | Thomas Hauser, Ali’s biographer, said, “Don King is one of the brightest, most charismatic, hardest working people in the world . . . he’s also totally amoral and I can’t think of a man who has done more to demoralize fighters, take from fighters, and exploit fighters and ruin their careers. But you have to give him his due for what he did to make Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire.”{{sfn|Gast|2019}} Since 1975, [[w:Don King|King]] has been sued by Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Tim Witherspoon, Mike Tyson, Terry Norris, Lennox Lewis, and ESPN, to name but a few. | ||
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By 1998, Salton had sold $200 million worth of the George Foreman Lean, Mean, Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, and the company made the business decision to offer Foreman a buyout instead of awarding him a percentage of sales. George was paid $137.5 million in cash and stock for use of his name in perpetuity. Added to what he’d earned previously, along with $11 million more for television appearances, Foreman’s profit from the grill approaches $200 million—more, by far, than he earned or ever dreamt of in his boxing career. He continues to sidelight as a boxing commentator for HBO and payper-view broadcasts.{{sfn|Rovell|2010}} | By 1998, Salton had sold $200 million worth of the George Foreman Lean, Mean, Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, and the company made the business decision to offer Foreman a buyout instead of awarding him a percentage of sales. George was paid $137.5 million in cash and stock for use of his name in perpetuity. Added to what he’d earned previously, along with $11 million more for television appearances, Foreman’s profit from the grill approaches $200 million—more, by far, than he earned or ever dreamt of in his boxing career. He continues to sidelight as a boxing commentator for HBO and payper-view broadcasts.{{sfn|Rovell|2010}} | ||
Asked in recent years to reflect on the Rumble in the Jungle, the New George delivers his own version of the Butterfly Effect. “I’m just happy that I didn’t win it . . . because everything would be different . . . it made me fall into the hands of God . . . it was that fragile . . . one little thing could have messed the whole thing up. The world would have been different for us”{{sfn|Brunt|2002|p=189}} . . . | Asked in recent years to reflect on the Rumble in the Jungle, the New George delivers his own version of the Butterfly Effect. “I’m just happy that I didn’t win it . . . because everything would be different . . . it made me fall into the hands of God . . . it was that fragile . . . one little thing could have messed the whole thing up. The world would have been different for us”{{sfn|Brunt|2002|p=189}} . . . “I’m just proud to be part of the Ali legend. If people mention my name with his from time to time, that’s enough for me. That, and I hope Muhammad Ali likes me, because I like him. I like him a lot.”{{sfn|Hauser|1991|p=278}} | ||
=== | ===Citations=== | ||
{{Reflist| | {{Reflist|20em}} | ||
===Works Cited=== | ===Works Cited=== | ||
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* {{cite book |last1=Dundee |first1=Angelo |last2=Sugar |first2=Bert R. |date=2008 |title=My View From The Corner: A Life In Boxing |url= |location=New York |publisher=McGraw Hill |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last1=Dundee |first1=Angelo |last2=Sugar |first2=Bert R. |date=2008 |title=My View From The Corner: A Life In Boxing |url= |location=New York |publisher=McGraw Hill |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite news |last=French |first=Howard W. |date=May 17, 1997 |title=Anatomy of an Autocracy: Mobutu’s 32 Year Reign |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/051797zaire-mobutu.html?scp=21&sq=32&st=cse |work=The New York Times |edition=International |page= |access-date=2021-02-28 |ref=harv }} | * {{cite news |last=French |first=Howard W. |date=May 17, 1997 |title=Anatomy of an Autocracy: Mobutu’s 32 Year Reign |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/051797zaire-mobutu.html?scp=21&sq=32&st=cse |work=The New York Times |edition=International |page= |access-date=2021-02-28 |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite AV media |people=Gast, Leon (director); Grant, Leon (producer) |date=2019 |title=When We Were Kings |trans-title= |medium=Blu-Ray |publisher=Criterion |ref= | * {{cite AV media |people=Gast, Leon (director); Grant, Leon (producer) |date=2019 |title=When We Were Kings |trans-title= |medium=Blu-Ray |publisher=Criterion |ref={{SfnRef|Gast|2019}} }} | ||
* {{cite magazine |last=Gehr |first=Richard |date=June 6, 2016 |title=Zaire ’74: How a Pan-Continental Funk Fest Soundtracked Muhammad Ali |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/zaire-74-how-a-pan-continental-funk-fest-soundtracked-muhammad-ali-59935/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |pages= |access-date=2021-02-28 |ref=harv }} | * {{cite magazine |last=Gehr |first=Richard |date=June 6, 2016 |title=Zaire ’74: How a Pan-Continental Funk Fest Soundtracked Muhammad Ali |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/zaire-74-how-a-pan-continental-funk-fest-soundtracked-muhammad-ali-59935/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |pages= |access-date=2021-02-28 |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite AV media |people= |date=May 11, 1994 |title=George Foreman vs Michael Moorer |trans-title= |medium=video |language= |url=http://youtu.be/2VQmYUg2Pp8 |access-date=2021-02-28 |archive-url= |archive-date= |format= |time= |location= |publisher=Classic Boxing Matches |ref={{Sfnref|Foreman|1994}} }} | * {{cite AV media |people= |date=May 11, 1994 |title=George Foreman vs Michael Moorer |trans-title= |medium=video |language= |url=http://youtu.be/2VQmYUg2Pp8 |access-date=2021-02-28 |archive-url= |archive-date= |format= |time= |location= |publisher=Classic Boxing Matches |ref={{Sfnref|Foreman|1994}} }} | ||
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* {{cite book |last=Hauser |first=Thomas |title=Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times |publisher=Simon & Schuster |date=1991 |ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Hauser |first=Thomas |title=Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times |publisher=Simon & Schuster |date=1991 |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{citation |last=Leifer |first=Neil |title=Telephone Interview |date=November 13, 2019 |ref=harv }} | * {{citation |last=Leifer |first=Neil |title=Telephone Interview |date=November 13, 2019 |ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite AV media |people=McKormack, Pete (director); Murray, Derik (producer) |date=2010 |title=Facing Ali |trans-title= |medium=video |publisher=Network Entertainment |ref= | * {{cite AV media |people=McKormack, Pete (director); Murray, Derik (producer) |date=2010 |title=Facing Ali |trans-title= |medium=video |publisher=Network Entertainment |ref={{SfnRef|McKormack|2010}} }} | ||
* {{cite book |last=Oates |first=Joyce Carol |title=On Boxing |edition=1 |location=Garden City |publisher=Dolphin/Doubleday |date=1987|ref=harv }} | * {{cite book |last=Oates |first=Joyce Carol |title=On Boxing |edition=1 |location=Garden City |publisher=Dolphin/Doubleday |date=1987|ref=harv }} | ||
* {{cite web |url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/38657945 |title=Foreman’s Grill Deal: Best in Sports Marketing History? |last=Rovell |first=Darren |date=August 11, 2010 |website=CNBC |publisher= |access-date=2021-02-28 |quote= |ref=harv }} | * {{cite web |url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/38657945 |title=Foreman’s Grill Deal: Best in Sports Marketing History? |last=Rovell |first=Darren |date=August 11, 2010 |website=CNBC |publisher= |access-date=2021-02-28 |quote= |ref=harv }} | ||