Throughout the year I have been studying the documentary 'When We Were Kings' based around the 1974 World Boxing Championship fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. The fight was staged in Zaire, Africa and is subsequently predominantly an African influenced film, although still effective in delivering the story and exposition of one of the greatest sporting moments of our modern era. Through use of a complex sound track - including live sound and interviews from the past - Gast is able to entice me to continue viewing the colourful, musical and exciting documentary. Using a majority of archival footage combined with a cast of experts and witness' Leon Gast captures the moment whilst providing us with the necessary background …show more content…
Gast's use of live footage from the "African Woodstock" of superstars of the music of the day - James Brown, and BB King - I found particularly effective in portraying the importance of a culture returning to it's origins. The energy created by performers such as James Brown can do nothing but up the tempo and build excitement, while the slow, sombre blues solos of BB king remind us of Ali's daunting task. Gast has been able to provide tempo and excitement to a lot of his black and white / archival footage and engages us by launching in to exciting music straight after the slower, almost monotonous - compared with the rest of the film - recounts of historical witness' such as Norman Mailer and George Plimpton. The music used by Gast is by Ali's definition the music of "my brothers" or "black man's music" and what better music to reflect the mood and atmosphere at the pinnacle of Ali's career and breaking free of black America.
Gast began filming 'When We Were Kings' in 1974 after he was hired to go and film the rock concert that was to be staged alongside the fight. Gast took so much footage that it took him twenty three years to sort and find backing for his Ali epic, and it all paid of through Gast's achievement at the Academy Awards. For Gast to be that involved - that he shot so much relevant footage - and to have pursued his vision until completion, he must have received so much inspiration from Muhammad Ali and
Did you ever wish of meeting a professional boxer? The Washington Post informs that, “Muhammad Ali, the charismatic three-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world, who declared himself “the greatest” and proved it with his fists…”. Muhammad Ali was a great boxer and champion and he was declared a magnificent boxer. “His fights were among the most memorable and spectacular in history, but he quickly became at least as well known for his colorful personality, his showy antics in the ring and his standing as the country’s most visible member of the Nation of Islam The Washington Post”. The Washington Post states that, Muhammad was a spectacular boxer and that his fights were unforgettable, Muhammad was well known in the ring and outside of the ring. Many people ubiquitous Muhammad
Millions of people worldwide take part as spectators to the sport of prize fighting: better known as boxing. In a 1962 essay entitled “Who Killed Benny Paret?” the author, Norman Cousins, writes about the dangers that come with the sport of boxing. He especially talks about a match that resulted in the death of a boxer named Benny Paret. Cousins argues that boxing is just a show of violence and that boxers put themselves in the ring just for the simple purpose of entertaining a crowd. Even though investigations reflect the role of the referee, Paret’s manager, and the doctor’s examinations as the main cause of Paret’s death, Cousins blames Paret’s death on the people that attends boxing matches to see a man get hurt or knockout because he
African American influence in music has been an ever present and controversial subject in American history. Stemming from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds, large portions of American music was introduced by, and credited to African Americans. Although in many cases, this music was used for entertainment by the masses or majority, contrary to popular belief, black music served a greater purpose than just recreation. Dating all the way back to the beginning of slavery in the U.S. during the 17th century, music has been used to make a statement and send a message. As African American music progressed over the years, there were common themes expressed as the genres evolved. It has been an open letter to the world, documenting and protesting the ongoing oppression faced by blacks in the United States, as well as an outlet for frustration. For many African Americans, the music gave them the only voice that couldn’t be silenced by their oppressors.
In casual conversation, the topic of professional wrestling is usually met with childhood nostalgia or careless disdain for its seemingly childish nature. In “The Aria of Babyface Cauliflower Brown,” Tim Grant approaches this scorn by carefully delving into the drama and developing a fresh perspective, insisting that it isn’t simply a fake sport, it’s a real story. Tim Grant's purpose is not to suggest that the chokeslam and piledriver are legitimate, instead he suggests that professional wrestling obtains justice in an otherworldly way; inspiring crowds through the timeless tale of good versus evil. In totality, pro wrestling is not meant to be ‘real;’ it isn’t meant to fool the eye and suggest amazing feats of strength, instead, it’s a way of transforming a parable into a visual and interactive work of art.
Boxing, an official sanctioned sport in the early 20th century, is a sport that is known as one of the most violent and physically demanding sports on the earth. Professional boxers that get paid to fight must be in top shape in order to preform at the highest level. Being a professional boxer is a tough life. Boxers train hard for many months leading up to one fight and either win, lose, knock out the opponent or even get knocked out. The sport has been around for centuries, but has most recently taken off over the last 100 years. It is a multibillion dollar industry with fighters taking home hundreds of thousands of dollars if not even millions of dollars for big matches. In his novel Papa Jack, Roberts tells the story of the famous African American boxer Jack Johnson. He details the boxers rise to fame and fortune and his downward spiral that would soon follow. In Papa Jack, Roberts displays life of a professional boxer through firsthand accounts with events that happened during Johnson’s life and shows how boxing not only influenced his life but also how he influenced the African American community.
The death of one is not worth the money earned from winning a fight. This is important to realize because the expense of one’s life is worth way more than the winnings of a cage fight. In “On Boxing,” Joyce asserts directly why she thinks boxing is not a humanized sport: “In the boxing ring, even in our greatly humanized times, death is always a possibility - which is why some of us prefer to watch films or tapes of fights already past, already defined as history” (source c). Joyce is stating that many watch tapes from the past when boxing first started because it was much safer then, than it is now. Also in “On Boxing,” Carol states directly her opinion for the sport boxing: “In no other sport can so much take
Elliott J. Gorn’s The Manly Art is a unique book that tells readers the origins of boxing in American culture. The book was published in 1986 by Cornell University Press, the book discussed the development of boxing and American society. Gorn takes sport history, a commonly misunderstood and misinterpreted topic and wrote a book that not only was easy to read but allowed readers to gain knowledge on the sport. Gorn says “To understand prize fighting, I have discovered, is necessarily to understand something about nineteenth-century America. Ideology, ethnicity, social class formation, violence, urbanization, gender roles, religious world views, productive relationships, all are a part of sports history in general and boxing in particular.” (Gorn, pg. 12)
culture is shown through their music. For instance, the way Willie Brown blowed the harmonica
“Many commentators have since claimed that peace and good will arose not in spite of disaster, but because of it. The hunger, rain, mud, and unserviced toilets conspired to create an adversity against which people could unite and bond” (Cooke 178). Most of the fans present expressed how they felt about the war in riots and violence. “Woodstock Ventures retained its exclusive rights, but the memory of Woodstock Nation belongs to the world; it is irrevocably imbedded in American culture” (Cooke 179). Not only was the war an influence, but the gathering itself influenced the historical outcome. “The most common feeling among all parties-producers, musicians, audience, town, and nation-was the sense of history in the making. It was the largest group of people ever gathered, and the greatest roster of musicians ever assembled, and it became the defining moment of a generation” (Cooke 178).
It’s no wonder that with his transformation into electric experiment, Miles lost a huge share of the loyal audience who had been following his earlier career. This new electric music dared to shed a "jazz" sound to integrate the highly charged, youthful raw power from rock and funk. Ignoring barriers, this music refuses to stay in any "proper" place. Besides being multicultural, it makes an even bigger transgression: it is often unpleasant, assaulted, harsh, macho, eerie, and seemingly formless. Just as Miles Davis’ career is a continuous progression of remaking and replenishing himself, he has moved on and left his old self in the past decade.
The elements used in this concert were videos of a timeline of African-American dances. This was very helpful because it allowed the audience to know what time period they were looking at for a certain dance. There were different varies of costumes. There were costumes from the tribes danes, spiritual dances, 1902' dances as dancers, and etc. The dancers did an excellent job with combine the costumes to the era and it actually looked like pieces from that era. The lighting was very good and it allowed for the mood to be seen in the dances as well. When a dance needed to evoke a spiritual mood, the lighting would evoke that mood by only allowing light on the dancer and no one else. If it needed a joyful feeling, all the lights were on showing
directs, and stars in this war between nations in which the only battle is fought in a boxing ring. Rocky must defend his honor,
Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is the single biggest selling jazz album ever made, selling over 5 million copies, and was my favorite to learn about. It is known to be one of albums that convert people to liking jazz styled music, even though it was created over fifty years ago. The most significant part of the album to me was that it made such an impact on the jazz community and it was only made in seven hours and all but only one of the tracks were first takes. What has stuck with me in the documentary was the saying, “The first thought is the best thought.” I really appreciated this because the artist stuck with their initial first gut feeling. The music was really innovative and most specifically, the opening of “So What”, was completely improvised and then the riff takes off, allowing to be one of the most iconic songs in jazz (in my opinion). The magic of music was truly created in this album creation and led a different direction of jazz creation.
Perhaps Johnson’s most famous title defense was against former heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries in 1910. Jeffries had been retired for six years and had refused to fight Johnson before Jeffries retirement. The battle was labeled the “Fight of the Century” with a crowd of over 20,000 in attendance. Johnson’s eventual victory in the 15th round led to riots throughout the country as the last of the “Great White Hopes” had failed to salvage the title.
To begin, the particular videos that we will be discussing are Paul Simon’s diamonds on the sole of her shoe, Kinobe’s kora performance, and Youssou N’Dour’s song daan featuring American singer/ rapper Akon. These three particular videos relate to the west African musical culture because they all involve singing, instrumental music, and dancing which are all characteristics of this particular music. Most of their music consist of a beat that you can dance to and that is usually how you can tell whether it is or is not this type of music. Rhythm and melody are two key factors of west African music and all three of the videos consist of both characteristics. The songs above were very unique to me. It may have been the beat that makes me want to dance, the calmness of it, or it may have even been uplifting to me. They all presented something different that drew my attention to them.