Review: ‘Soul Power’

In 1974, boxing and music were both a big part of culture. Concerts were a great way to celebrate, attract attention to a cause, or as a promotional tool. This was no exception when it came to a three day music festival held in Kinshasa, Zaire that was a prequel to the historic boxing match titled “The Rumble in the Jungle”.

Soul Power is a collage of footage that was taken during the Zaire 74 music festival and of the fighters who were about to partake in a heavyweight boxing match. The concert showcased a mixture of both African and American musicians, sharing their soul, r&b, funk and blues sounds with the world. The show also covers a rather big boxing match between Muhammad Ali and then heavyweight champion George Foreman in one of Don King’s first events as a boxing promoter.

The movie centers mostly around James Brown, showing the most footage of his performances then any other musician on the bill. Other acts, such as The Crusaders, B.B. King, Celia Cruz, The Spinners, and Bill Withers were not given nearly as much screen time. Zaire 74 was used as a giant promotional tool by Don King to build excitement for the Foreman vs. Ali fight. The idea was to bring a group of African American musicians “home” to play with their fellow musicians. Meanwhile, Zaire gained a great deal of press that it otherwise would not have received. The movie is mostly about the concert but does feature clips of the Ali speaking about Zaire, Africa, and their culture.You won’t get any George Foreman clips, but you’ll certainly get some Don King!

Brown is the only artist to have more than one song featured in the film. The documentary ended up leaving me wanting more, but not necessarily in a good way. Being a concert documentary, I would liked to have seen a lot more performance coverage. B.B. King’s “The Thrill is Gone” was his only showcased performance. He is not the only one who was shortchanged. The African artists were given even less screen time. This makes no sense since this was suppose to be a merging of the artists. At first I wondered if there was a lack footage to round out this film, but the director has said that there is still plenty of material that has not been used, although some of it is of a lower quality. Still, it would have been nice to see more footage of the performances instead of cramming a 3 day music festival into 93 minutes. That doesn’t even give enough coverage to the political message that both the artists and the republic of Zaire were trying to spread, alongside the fight promotion. The concert was meant to introduce the world to African American music and its roots. Black power and pride is a big part of the festivities.

Other than the music, Muhammad Ali is covered in all his self-loving greatness. He touches on his respect of Zaire for their treatment of African-American’s and how the United States seems to be behind in that area. He doesn’t blatantly call the United States racist, but the message is certainly laid out and implied. He also brags about how fast he is, and lets you see just how confident he is about himself, which appears quite cocky at times.   The fight was postponed for weeks following the concert due to an injury to Foreman causing a lack of tourists that might have attended while in Zaire for the fight. Despite the delay, 80,000 people attended the show to make certain that it was a significant part of history.