When We Were Kings

When We Were Kings was very well done. I had seen the movie "Ali," but it was really fun to see the real deal in this movie. There is really no one like Ali, he seems to embody much of what we have talked about in this class. He has the mental and physical, he is the agon and alea, he definitely has metis, the king of "sledging" and intimidation.
I think he is one of the best examples of the character building that sports give you; he grew so much mentally throughout his career and was able to find the will power to win always. One can see how he took that character building and used it to his advantage in the political world as well. I believe if he had not trained his body so intensly, his mind would not have been as sharp. His footwork seemed to go hand in hand with his quick wit. The way in which he spoke was almost like the way he danced. In my first paper, I talked about one of our first readings which spoke to the idea of "total participation." It emphasized learning through experience. Ali pushed his body so hard that his mind got pushed with it. Boxing is a sport that is so mental because you have to keep your head in it completely and not let pain affect you.
It is interesting that we had just talked about Metis in class and it was argued that it didnt exist because Ali's "rumble in the jungle." It was not just random when he timed out the fight and waited until the seemingly perfect moment to take out Foreman.