The long awaited James Brown bio-pic is now in theaters.
Blah blah blah…. Every film review starts out like that lets just skip to the
good stuff. Is it good or not?
YES…. !!! The time really whizzes by and you really don’t
want this thing to end. It’s pure funk, it’s pure rock, and this thing really
delivers just like James himself, (played by Chadwick Boseman). There’s a lot
of ground to cover because we have to cover six decades of musical history in
just a couple of hours. Fear not because it can be done.Mick Jagger produced it
and there is a lot of detail here in the life of the Godfather of Soul. This
was a labor of love. Dan Aykroyd is in here and plays James’ manager Ben Bart
. It’s hard to keep Aykroyd away from
the R&B sound because well he was a Blues Brother after all, ( he also put
money in for the House of Blues restaurant you might recall). No worries here on this
flim project because the James Brown estate is in fine hands with this powerful
cinematic tribute.
I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that I know all
about the classic history. Let the other journalists do that and they might
even tell you the most expected and trite bits of dialogue. I’m going to spin
my review from the heart. Are you cool with that? James is where he belongs, on
the big screen and the tale is bold, epic and powerful.
If you think you got problems go see, “Get On Up”. There’s a
good chance that your life isn’t even close to the kind of traumatic upbringing
that James Brown endured. This kid went through an ordeal and it doesn’t even
seem possible at times that this could be a true story. But like any good true
story you won’t be able to take your eyes off of it. The story takes place in
what appears to be disjointed segments of the past, the early years and the
present. But they all come together at the end to knit together one heck of a
history.
We see Brown’s early impoverished years in the backwoods
shack in Taccoa, Georgia. One of the first glimpses we see of the young
performer shows him taking the shoes off a dead hanging man. It’s grim, it’s
brutal but this is what we see and you can’t help but want to turn away. The
family life is bizarre and brutal. His parents are portrayed as rough and
ignorant and shows some hints of abuse. After Brown’s mother leaves the family
young James is shuffled off to live in what looks like a whore house while dad
takes a gig in the army. From there the story moves along swiftly in a Dicken’s
Oliver Twist kind of way.
James is about seven when he gets exposed to the rough and
tumble nightlife characters of servicemen, working women and R&B which he
takes to immediately. He seeks it out at a nearby church and we see a reverend
with long curly black hair and a flamboyant white suit. This preacher has the
dance moves and the voice to make him a stand out character and James takes
notice. Dressed from head to toe in a tailor made white suit and has a bundle
of dollar bills pinned onto his chest like a corsage. He is a dazzling white
vision of the future.
From there he gets arrested for stealing a three piece suit
and gets slapped with a five year jail sentence. While in jail he is surrounded
by more music and makes new friends. Once out of jail he gets a group started
and they hit the scene and rub elbows with Little Richard.
By the time James Brown hits the big time and lands on
television he has his act down. The cinematography is lush and dense with
color. There is a lot of attention paid here on the detail of set design,
clothing and what people were actually like back then. Its star time and James
wows the crowd with his signature mic stand theatrics, ( later copied by so
many including Prince) leg splits, dance moves, and trademark howl. The crowd is loving him and showing approval
and as an audience we are ready for that after seeing so much grim realism.
There are great recreations here of the band and the musical arrangements are
tight, funky, and very entertaining. Brown was famous for fining his band $20
bucks for every mistake they made. A similar type of punishment was later used
by the original Temptations in the Motown scene.
Nothing is spared in exposing the roughness of the people
and that includes racial tones and attitudes. I find this particularly hard to
watch and I am more sensitive to it as I get older. One scene stands out where
young black boys are forced to fight eachother for the amusement of drunken
country club members. Boys ages 7 – 10 are blindfolded with one arm tied behind
their backs while the free arm is laced up with a boxing glove. The idea here
is that they all beat each other senseless until there is one left standing. I’m
sure this really happened and there is some historical reference to it
somewhere but man is it hard to watch.
This isn’t all grim and hard luck there are some good times
in here too. There are moments in here that are unintentionally funny like when
Brown and his band are invited to play in Viet Nam. The plane they are riding
in is under fire and an engine is hit. It is nothing short of a miracle that
nobody was killed. The whole time I am watching this I keep asking myself, “Is
this for real? Did this really happen?”. Bombs explode around the plane in mid
air and these special effects are really powerful.
Artistically we are swept through the story in a series of
chapters. There are graphic titles artfully done in the 1960’s poster font in
screaming orange and lemon yellow fonts that read, “Mister Dynamite”, and “The Minister
Of New New Super Heavy Funk”. We are taken away to the 1970’s where James Brown
and his band are playing in Paris and the stage set up revved up and explosive.
The dancers in the back are placed on high level stage blocks and the horn
section is kicked up for a new sound. The camera picks up close shots of the
manic dance moves, the mic stand antics and we get to see the hard work that
goes into the show. We get more than up close and personal – at times we almost
get TOO close. Even at the worst of moments you still do not want the film to
end.
This is the fourth film for Tate Taylor. Other films
include, “Pretty Ugly People” and “The Help”. Chadwick Boseman is electric and delivers another outstanding portrayal
of a iconic legend. You may remember last year Boseman played Jackie Robinson in the hit flim, “42”.
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