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Soul Power
Soul Power is a film directed by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, who also edited When We Were Kings, Leon Gast’s academy award winning 1995 documentary about the Ali/Foreman fight. Where the earlier film follows the fighters as they prepare for the title bout, Soul Power focuses on the other event that took place in Kinshasa, Zaire that year—an all-star concert of black performers. Shot on 16mm in verité style by four cinematographers, including Albert Maysles and Paul Goldsmith, the film reveals the tension and buildup to the three-day concert using crafty and effective editing. As in When We Were Kings the structure of the film follows the backstory to the event, introducing the setting, characters, and conflict centered around producing a concert in Africa, under a dictatorship, in 1974. There are many stars: Muhammad Ali makes a number of appearances, ruminating on the nature of flies in Africa (“they’re faster because they are hungrier”), listening with amusement to his manager Drew “Bundini” Brown espouse on the nature of freedom (Ali asks him “Have you been drinking?"), and even “sparring” in the ring with one of the musicians. Festival promoter Stewart Levine seems bombarded on all sides with threats to the project. Don King, promoter extraordinaire, declares in his own less than timid way his greatness as a producer and money raiser. The writer George Plimpton also makes a brief, humorous and somewhat drunken cameo.
But the real reason to see the film, of course, is for the music. Soul Power opens with a taste of what’s to come—James Brown in full strutting glory belting out the title song. When we finally arrive at the performance sequences they are strong, the cinematography intimate, and the sound clean and powerful. One of the standout performances is Bill Withers, alone, playing acoustic guitar, doing “Hope She’ll be happier.” He seems to pull every emotion of love and separation from a simple guitar arrangement and a sincere but weary voice. B.B. King’s version of “Thrill is Gone” is the personification of blues power. “The Click Song," performed by Miriam Makeba (who had a small but important role in When We Were Kings) with grace and intensity in her native tongue was a showstopper. Celia Cruz brings her own brand of high-energy salsa to the event. And James Brown does not disappoint - bursting with charisma and power he drives home four more songs, capped by his 1968 anthem “Say it Loud (I’m black and I’m proud).”
Soul Power should make an outstanding DVD, or set of DVDs—there are surely many great performances on the cutting room floor. One criticism of the film, though, would be the lack of political context regarding Zaire and the dictator Mobuto. In When We Were Kings, for instance, we learn that political prisoners were traditionally kept in cells directly below the stadium where the fight was held. Given the sheer amount of material the filmmakers had to work with, though, they can be forgiven for not getting everything into 93 minutes.
Thomas W. Campbell
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