{"id":6279,"date":"2024-10-19T23:17:20","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T03:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6279"},"modified":"2024-10-19T23:17:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T03:17:20","slug":"wattstax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/19\/wattstax\/","title":{"rendered":"Wattstax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Wattstax <\/strong>(1973)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Documentary\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mel Stuart\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Terry Manning (supervisor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John A. Alonzo, Larry Clark, Robert Marks, Jose Mignone and Roderick Young\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 4, 1973 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Featuring: The Dramatics, The Staple Singers, Kim Weston, Jimmy Jones, Rance Allen, The Emotions, William Bell, Louise McCord, Debra Manning, Eric Mercury, Freddy Robinson, Lee Sain, Ernie Hines, Little Sonny Warner, The Newcomers, Eddie Floyd, The Temprees, Frederick Knight, The Bar-Kays, Albert King, Little Milton, Johnnie Taylor, Mel Hardin, Tim McPherson, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Luther Ingram, Isaac Hayes, Richard Pryor, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ted Lange.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ve been kicking myself for years for not watching or taping Wattstax<\/strong> when it aired on Cinemax in summer \u201997. I didn\u2019t know until too late that it wasn\u2019t available on video due to (what else?) copyright issues over the music. It wasn\u2019t available in any format until \u201904 when Warner Bros. restored and released it on DVD. As for me, I finally rectified my error this past week when I ordered it on Amazon Prime. It is a truly amazing experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Part concert film and part documentary, the movie Wattstax<\/strong> is a beautiful, brilliant look at black music and black life in Los Angeles circa 1972. The title refers to an all-day concert held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum commemorating the seventh anniversary of the 1965 Watts riots. People of color showed up en masse to enjoy a line-up of recording artists from the Stax record label. That day, they listened to a variety of genres including soul, R&B, gospel, blues, jazz and funk. We get to see performances from the likes of The Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, Albert King, The Bar-Kays and Isaac Hayes. The music is fantastic!<\/p>\n

\u00a0That\u2019s the concert portion of Wattstax<\/strong>. The documentary portion is the footage of everyday life in Watts interspersed between performances. Director Mel Stuart (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) takes us on a tour of the neighborhood, showing us the various businesses and churches and introducing us to the residents (including a young, pre-Love Boat Ted Lange) who talk about their lives and other subjects pertaining to being black in America. He also includes footage of comedian Richard Pryor sitting in a bar doing his thing. It\u2019s all interesting, but I preferred the music.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As I\u2019m sure you can surmise, my favorite part of Wattstax <\/strong>is the music. All of it is GREAT! The songs performed include \u201cSon of Shaft\u201d (The Bar-Kays), \u201cI\u2019ll Play the Blues for You\u201d (Albert King), \u201cPicking Up the Pieces\u201d (Carla Thomas) and \u201cOld-Time Religion\u201d (The Golden Thirteen). The film concludes with headliner Isaac Hayes performing \u201cTheme from Shaft\u201d and \u201cSoulsville\u201d. This ending was cut from the original release due to (what else?) legal issues concerning the use of \u201cTheme from Shaft\u201d. Stuart includes performances filmed elsewhere like The Emotions\u2019 \u201cPeace Be Still\u201d (filmed at the Friendly Will Baptist Church), Little Milton\u2019s \u201cWalking the Streets and Crying\u201d (staged near some train tracks) and Johnnie Taylor\u2019s \u201cJody\u2019s Got Your Girl and Gone\u201d (filmed at The Summit Club in downtown L.A.). The last one is preceded by shots of pimps and players decked out in wild outfits arriving for the show.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The shots of the concertgoers having a good time run a very close second. Everybody is happy to be there as evidenced by the smiles and dancing in the stands. For a few hours, they\u2019re an extended family sharing a wonderful experience. At one point, several attendees jump the fence and take the field to boogie along to Rufus Thomas\u2019 \u201cDo the Funky Chicken\u201d. For a few minutes, it\u2019s a big dance party. Take note, not one fight breaks out. When the song ends, Thomas nicely asks the folks to go back to the stands and they do save for one (possibly drunk) guy who clowns around on the field. Thomas playfully pokes fun with comments like, \u201cThat\u2019s a brother alright, but I\u2019ll be damned if he\u2019s my brother!\u201d before asking audience members to help him back to his seat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I love Wattstax<\/strong> except for a couple of minor details. First, I wish the makers identified the artists with on-screen titles. I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not the only one unable to recognize all of the artists on sight. Second, I wish the makers didn\u2019t cut some of the performances short with more footage of Watts locals. In short, I wanted more music and less talk. But that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In any event, Wattstax<\/strong> is a joyous celebration of black pride. Reverend Jesse Jackson delivers his \u201cI Am Somebody\u201d speech to the people. The concert organizers insisted on having only black police officers on security detail. It was a wildly successful event and it\u2019s (almost) all captured on film. I\u2019m so glad I finally got to see it. It was totally worth the wait.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wattstax (1973)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Documentary\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Mel Stuart\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Terry Manning (supervisor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John A. Alonzo, Larry Clark, Robert Marks, Jose Mignone and Roderick Young\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 4, 1973 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Featuring: The Dramatics, The Staple Singers, Kim Weston, Jimmy Jones, Rance Allen, The Emotions, William Bell, Louise McCord, Debra Manning, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-documentary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Wattstax-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6480,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6279\/revisions\/6480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}