The political perspective abruptly interrupted the boxing history and was a bizarre choice.
16 Reviews
Agree
paulstack-3575826 June 2021
Great Boxing History, Strange Political Interludes
mikemckenna8919 February 2022
The history of the Four Kings is told well, by many great minds in the history of boxing. I don't understand why they decided to make it so heavy on Ronald Reagan cameos though.
It feels like Showtime had 40 minutes of footage for a scrapped Reagan documentary, and instead of binning it they decided to add it to a boxing documentary. The political stuff doesn't tie in much with the fighters' careers at all, so it is a puzzling inclusion for sure.
Despite these complaints, the boxing history and production quality make this series worth a watch for any boxing fan.
It feels like Showtime had 40 minutes of footage for a scrapped Reagan documentary, and instead of binning it they decided to add it to a boxing documentary. The political stuff doesn't tie in much with the fighters' careers at all, so it is a puzzling inclusion for sure.
Despite these complaints, the boxing history and production quality make this series worth a watch for any boxing fan.
Could have been a 10
ddlvwrkhi12 March 2022
This is a great telling of the greatest era of boxing. Would be hard to choose the best of these four or rank them. Was nice to learn of their backgrounds and struggles and see the highlights of these great matches. I was born in 1976 and became a boxing fan at a young age but I was only able to catch the tail end of these great careers. I learned a lot and enjoyed most of this mini-series. If the obviously one sided politics were kept out of this I would score it a 10+
Brilliant Boxing Documentary
portal179012 June 2021
Not only one of the best boxing documentary I've seen yet but one of the best in sports. A truthfully biography of 4 of the greatest boxing athletes ever full of drama . The music is beautiful . A History of pain and glory told by who live it. By one way or another. Great five episodes.
The last golden era of boxing.
mlbsa23 October 2022
An in depth look at four great champions (Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran, Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns and Surgar Ray Leonard). This documentary delves in detail into the backgrounds of each fighter and each of their personal backgrounds and struggles. I would have rated this higher but the partisan political commentary from some of the social narrators took away from the story. Narration by the fighters, those involved in the fight game and those that actually knew the fighters was well done but the others clearly had their own personal perspective they were unfortunately pushing.
Best Ever
davidallenbrigham15 January 2022
One of the best things I have ever watched. I couldn't get enough of it. If this doesn't win an award then awards are meaningless. By far the best sports documentary. For anyone who was a part of making this....great job, it could not have been better...it is perfection, in my opinion.
Four epic boxers, four great characters, four impressive trajectories and a perfect portrait of the vital political background
guisreis19 October 2021
Excellent four-part documentary on four great boxers (which were also quite interesting characters) whose careers crossed and clashed to each others throw the 80, with a seriously explored social and political background which they are also products and representatives. While all four fighters have been poor and became victorious and skilled sportsmen, half of them were media superstars, while the other half were black heavy punchers who attracted attention only after beating one of the other two. "Sugar" Ray Leonard was the smiling golden boy on TV (a rare black man in that position in those years) who was the perfect neo-liberal propaganda self-made man of Reagan (but was also the addicted unfaithful frenzied husband seriously eroded by low self-esteem). Opposed to the United States imperialism was Roberto Durán, the former street boy who fought as if his family would have no food if he lost, who represented the proud of Panama with his "Manos de Piedra" blowing down rich gringoes, befriended nationalist dictator Omar Torrijos and was also the macho womanizer with no discipline that was guided by his desires (a lusty drunk glutton). Inside USA, Thomas Hearns, "The Hitman", was the son of impoverished Detroit city where the black poor guys - just like he used to be - suffered deeply from reactionary anti-welfare and law-and-order repressive policies by Reagan. The last but not least, Marvin Hagler bypassed politics (as happens with most of sportsmen), was a compromised father and husband and a hard-training focused boxer who did everything alright, but was considerably ignored by the media and was obsessed by being called by the nickname he have himself, "Marvelous". The stories of these punching "kings" present great magic or tragic moments of boxing. As usual in perhaps the most "political" among all sports (it is a "sport of poor boys", as documentary correctly states), boxing brings here a fascinating portrait of a social and political background, which specific changes impact the world until nowadays. (Unfortunately I could not watched the first segment; I have also no watched the last one yet, but I will edit it here after watching).
A era that lives in lengends
Sxtxn1stx9 January 2022
Great portrait of some of my new heroes (': champions never quit. Also the tell us that to be a champion you have to do something that the rest don't. Hard work comes with pain and effort and boxing is one of the sports that many think is violent but you have to see through it.
Now we have another boxing era coming and great matches ahead.
Now we have another boxing era coming and great matches ahead.
What a fantastic and fascinating series!
thomas-c-obrien31 December 2021
Please tell me this series will continue, if so I will resubscribe to discovery+ All of this background research adds to the drama of those fights, it shines a whole new light on all of those fights and a way to relive them, wow well-done now I want to see the Tyson era!
Great boxing, solid biographies, skewed politics
leedscelta25 June 2021
This very good series deserves about 7.5 stars. The boxing coverage and the biographical intertwining of the four men's lives is mostly excellent, and the show is a must watch for boxing fans.
That said, the politics are heavily skewed towards the far left, (and I've never voted Republican in the five elections I've voted in; I'm moderately left in general), and the series' perspective on American politics in the 80s and specifically Reagan are biased to the point of eye-rolling. Unfortunately, Bonnie Greer is given far too much voice over time; she contradicts herself about morality and gives superficial, mostly incorrect commentary on Reagan-era politics throughout. Still, the series is worth watching, especially for boxing fans.
That said, the politics are heavily skewed towards the far left, (and I've never voted Republican in the five elections I've voted in; I'm moderately left in general), and the series' perspective on American politics in the 80s and specifically Reagan are biased to the point of eye-rolling. Unfortunately, Bonnie Greer is given far too much voice over time; she contradicts herself about morality and gives superficial, mostly incorrect commentary on Reagan-era politics throughout. Still, the series is worth watching, especially for boxing fans.
Boksning and politics
krisward-3977711 September 2021
Great story and interviews with the boxers. For the documentary on boxing it's worth a much higher rating.
But unknown voices( none of the fighters) weight in on the politics of the time. None of the fighters themselves speak of this.
As usual the political views are heavily bias.
But unknown voices( none of the fighters) weight in on the politics of the time. None of the fighters themselves speak of this.
As usual the political views are heavily bias.
Overly Politically Distracted
timlozada15 June 2021
I understand if you want to show how the politics at the time helped to shape these fighters, but this show veers way to deep into the politics and begins to ignore the story of these fighters. It's almost like there are two different shows. There is a bit about the four fighters and then a whole lot more about how the filmmakers hate Ronald Regan.
Most of the parallels they try to juxtapose between what drove the fighters and the politics doesn't make sense, perhaps that's why Duran often becomes an afterthought.
The filmmakers go out of their way to paint Reagan as evil with such outrageous out of context b-roll of white waterskiiers with a confederate flag randomly being shown on screen and replaying a snippet of his speech in the 79' saying "make America great again" as if to tie him to Trump. The filmmakers in their attempts to make this a political piece seem to completely ignore what made Reagan and his administration so powerful which was the support of so many Democrats. He won by such crazy landslides because he had the support of so many democrats. That era was not steeped in the same us vs. Them political and social climate that exists today, both parties were complicit in the governmental policies of the 80's.
A great disservice was done to "the kings" by these lengthy full hard turns into politics. If they didn't have enough story to fill their four hour show they could have at least given us more footage and highlights from these great fighters actual fights.
It's become a trudge to wade through the political stuff that poorly ties any relevance to these great sportsmen. Too bad I was really excited for this one.
Most of the parallels they try to juxtapose between what drove the fighters and the politics doesn't make sense, perhaps that's why Duran often becomes an afterthought.
The filmmakers go out of their way to paint Reagan as evil with such outrageous out of context b-roll of white waterskiiers with a confederate flag randomly being shown on screen and replaying a snippet of his speech in the 79' saying "make America great again" as if to tie him to Trump. The filmmakers in their attempts to make this a political piece seem to completely ignore what made Reagan and his administration so powerful which was the support of so many Democrats. He won by such crazy landslides because he had the support of so many democrats. That era was not steeped in the same us vs. Them political and social climate that exists today, both parties were complicit in the governmental policies of the 80's.
A great disservice was done to "the kings" by these lengthy full hard turns into politics. If they didn't have enough story to fill their four hour show they could have at least given us more footage and highlights from these great fighters actual fights.
It's become a trudge to wade through the political stuff that poorly ties any relevance to these great sportsmen. Too bad I was really excited for this one.
Dragging entertainment down with politics.
iwalker114 August 2021
I gave this 5 stars because its great for the boxing side of it but then they have to force left wing politics into a story about 4 great boxers, rerelease this and remove the politics.
*Editing to 3 stars after watching all four episodes, someone wanted to make a show about left wing politics and then added boxing to give it more appeal, disgusting.
*Editing to 3 stars after watching all four episodes, someone wanted to make a show about left wing politics and then added boxing to give it more appeal, disgusting.
Disappointed, the political stuff ruined it
mccallum-2698826 May 2023
This had the potential to be a brilliant documentary about four of the greatest fighters ever, but was ruined by the constant talk of American presidents and politics especially Ronald Reagan, it got to the point where it was just as much talk about American presidents and politics as there was boxing and became very frustrating to watch, only gave it five stars because when it was about the four Kings it was decent. Very disappointed as a huge boxing fan, hopefully someone else can redo it and leave the Regan rubbish to a documentary about him instead of boxing, I would watch again but would skip the politics rubbish that didn't belong in the documentary.
More Politics than Boxing
rdesimone883 September 2021
Typical of HBO to turn a story about four of the greatest boxers of all time into an Anti-Reagan diatribe. Very disappointing that the boxers' amazing life stories were overshadowed by the forced injection of politics.
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