January 10, 2025 – Although this movie seemed to be about four hours long, it was actually 2.5 hours. I was ready to give up on it several times, but I finally stuck it out. The best thing about it is the soundtrack, featuring some of the finest musicians ever.

Thousands of fleeting images and text flow past at dizzying speed, including translations of various languages. A constant stream of music, along with audio from interviews, newscasts, and memoirs is heard over the music, accompanied by thousands of images, text and videos, all relating to the overthrow of the government of the Congo and the assassination of its elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, on January 17, 1961.

The overall method of telling this story did not work for me. Some call this “nonlinear,” that's the polite term for it. It could also be called scattershot, mind-numbing, non-cohesive and ephemeral. This sort of thing is tolerable in small doses, but not in such long form. This movie was originally supposed to be about four hours long, but was cut back. It covers some very complex people and issues, but also oversimplifies many of those complexities, according to some historians.

The heroes of this story include Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, Malcolm X, Jawaharlal Nehru, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Andrée Blouin. Villains include President Dwight Eisenhower, U.S. CIA director Allen Dulles, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, Mobutu Sese Seko and Belgian royalty, politicians and military people.

The gist of the story is that the Western powers, including the United States, were worried about Lumumba, and wanted him out of the way. They also wanted continued access to the mineral wealth of the Congo, including its rich uranium deposits. The movie indicates that United Nations peacekeeping troops, along with Belgians, mercenaries and others were involved in a Congo coup. Congolese military man Mobutu was a key agent in this effort.

New York City's Harlem area, and Malcolm X, were at the center of much of what was going on in Africa at this time, more so than I was ever aware of. That, and alleged threats by jazz legend Louis Armstrong to leave America if it didn't stop interfering in African politics, were a surprise to me. There is a whole American black historical perspective of this period of African history that I was unaware of.

Another historical development that I learned watching this film is about the attempt to create a “United States of Africa.” Lumumba favored the idea and moved to join it. You can just imagine how the western powers reacted to the idea of a united Africa with a central government and military. That is scary as hell for those who want to exploit Africa.

The movie is pretty convincing when it comes to showing how the western powers conspired to get rid of Lumumba and replace him with a friendlier, more compliant and corrupt leader, but is far less successful showing how Louis Armstrong and others had anything to do with that. At most, it shows that some prominent musicians, including Armstrong, were sent on U.S. sponsored tours abroad at the same time these underhanded events were taking place.

The soundtrack of this movie is awesome, featuring such music legends as Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Miriam Makeba, Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane, along with singer Abbey Lincoln and drummer Max Roach, who, in 1961, crashed a meeting of the UN Security Council to protest the murder of Lumumba.

The movie relies on excerpts from Andrée Blouin's “My Country, Africa,” Conor Cruise O’Brien's “To Katanga and Back,” audio memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, In Koli Jean Bofane's “Congo Inc.” and numorous photos, interviews, and historical film clips. It is a massive amount of information presented in staccato fashion over a long running time.

Fact checking this movie would be a very lengthy and time-consuming task, and probably irrelevant in terms of a movie review. There are those who have tried. If you are interested in such efforts, seek them out. As far as I'm concerned, this is a very ambitious film that throws a lot of ideas at the viewer. It doesn't succeed in being a compelling or entertaining narrative, but it is impressive as a research project bundled in a novel multimedia package. This film rates a C.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff (no extra charges apply). I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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