Last night I watched the outstanding Oscar-winning documentary "When We Were Kings," which follows Muhammad Ali as he takes on the much younger heavyweight champ George Foreman in Zaire. What an amazing film, and it highlights how far we as a nation have come in 34 years.

In 1974 Ali was exuberant to be going to Africa for the fight, to ride on a plane piloted by black men, to feel freedom for the first time, as he put it. While the country they were going to was not exactly free itself as it was ruled by a dictator's heavy, bloody hand, Ali was excited and hopeful for a world of new possibilities and his chance to be a positive role model to black children.

And that's the story the movie tells more than the story of a boxing match. It's a story of hope and strength of the spirit and overcoming adversity. The fight was in 1974 (the documentary wasn't compiled and interlaced with new interviews of people discussing the importance of the fight until 1996). The time the fight took place wasn't too long after key events in the Civil Rights movement; it wasn't too long after Martin Luther King Jr., JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Malcolm X were assassinated. And now, just a generation after the fight took place, America has elected it's first black president, Barack Obama. Which in itself has stimulated feelings of hope and optimism - exactly what Ali carried with him as he prepared to take on a titan, exactly what the cheering crowds seemed to feel as Ali claimed victory.

As for Foreman, he seemed short on words and lacking the vivacious personality the crowds of Zaire loved from Ali. The film says Foreman went into a deep depression for two years after the fight; I don't blame him - he wasn't out-fought by Ali, he was out-witted. But he turned that around, and now is the smiling, likable father-figure who's made a fortune selling electric grills (I've got a pink one myself). So this fight was a real turning point for Foreman in many ways it seems, and he must have come out of it a changed man. I didn't see the Academy Awards show where this film won an Oscar, but my husband tells me that Foreman helped his former foe to the stage (Ali has suffered from Parkinsons Disease since the early '80s).

I don't know much about boxing. I really don't like watching guys pummel each other, it never seemed like a sport to me. But now I kind of get it. It's not just about pummeling each other, it's also a match of skills and wits. And boxers have often been men who've overcome the odds and prejudice or poverty, so the audience feels a kinship of sorts, a sense of joining the boxers as they all overcome adversity. I think that's the appeal anyway; as I said, I've never followed boxing or had a good handle on any sports.

But being a boxing fan isn't required to enjoy this movie. It's definitely a must-see just for how well it's done, and for how it's a marvelous period-piece offering a look at a place and time in American history - even if much of the action takes place in Africa.