‘When We Were Kings’

More charismatic than most actors, Muhammad Ali (pictured), in his sheer presence, makes the 1996 “When We Were Kings” a special event. A documentary centering on the famous “Rumble in the Jungle,” the 1974 heavyweight championship fight between Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, “Kings” had been a work in progress for 22 years. Director Leonard Gast came back from Africa after the Foreman-Ali fight with something like 450 hours of footage dealing with the event as well as its accompanying world music festival. But varying kinds of problems (paying the lab bill alone took almost 15 years) kept his film from being completed. In 1995, director Taylor Hackford became involved with the project. The resulting film does have a makeshift quality to it, but because a classic heavyweight championship fight, especially with these protagonists, epitomizes the drama inherent in sport, When We Were Kings” always compels our interest (TMC Sunday at 2:05 p.m. and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.).