One of the best things in watching a biopic (biographical
movie) is that you have the chance to get interested in someone for the first
time or all over again. The best part is that with any luck, you people will
have the chance to be exposed to someone they may not have heard of or perhaps
as in the case of GET ON UP a person they might have heard but didn’t know who
it was. James Brown has become an easy impersonation, a caricature of who he
really was. Many aren’t aware of his contributions to rock and R&B. With
the viewing of this movie perhaps that will change.
One thing this film doesn’t do is follow a straight on
narrative of Brown’s life. It opens with him in the midst of a comeback career
but then turns hard right and delves into his childhood. From there the movie
jumps forward and back relying little on the time line of his life. Instead it
hits on the highs and lows that made the man who he was. Rather than attempt to
jump back and forth writing like the movie unfolds I’ll try and touch those
points.
Brown (Chadwick Boseman) started out poor, a cliché enough
to garner a joke in Steve Martin’s THE JERK, but the reality of his life.
Abused by his father and dumped to live with an “aunt” who ran a brothel, Brown
never saw his mother after she was sent away by his father until he achieved
success. While working for his “aunt” he found music coming from a church and
was taken by the sound. Is this reality or movie magic? I don’t know but have
no reason to doubt much of what we see here.
After doing prison time for the theft of a suit, Brown is
taken in by a family who wants to provide him with a chance to make a better
life for himself on parole. He becomes part of family member Bobby Byrd’s
(Nelsan Ellis) band. Due to his abilities on the mic and his talent for drawing
a crowd, Brown eventually takes over as lead front man for the group. During a
break in a performance by Little Richard, Brown and the band take the stage and
capture the audience calling themselves the Famous Flames. Richard gives him
some advice and the band begins to make a name for themselves by recording a
record and promoting it with non-stop touring. It pays off in the end as they
are approached by a record company out of Cincinnati.
Along the way they gather an agent played by Dan Aykroyd and
begin to garner attention. But the record company sees something different than
the band does and wants to promote them as James Brown and his Famous Flames.
All but Bobby abandon Brown and the company finds him another band. The only
one to stick with Brown for most of his life ends up being Bobby. This becomes
a major theme in the film, that sense that he was abandoned by almost everyone
who meant something to him in his life. Some of that was due to circumstances
that happened while others happened from things Brown himself did. It becomes
another story of a talented artist who finds love from millions of strangers
and yet has a hard time coming to grips with it in his real life.
The movie follows Brown from these early moments in his life
to his arrest on drug charges later and then on to his comeback down the line.
Boseman does a fantastic job as Brown, not only looking like him but bringing
something special to the real life man he is portraying. While it would be easy
to do the usual imitation of the way Brown spoke (which many comedians do) he
plays him real, even if there are times later in his life when he seemed
unintelligible. Through it all, even through the make-up that shows that slow
progression of age perfectly, Boseman displays the heart and soul of the
troubled singer from start to finish.
Perhaps the best way to find the depth of musical ability
and history of Brown’s legacy to rock, R&B and funk is to simply hear the
music. The movie offers much of that, thanks in part to co-producer Mick
Jagger’s securing the rights to his music. I challenge anyone not to listen to
songs like “Cold Sweat”, “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” or “I Feel Good” and not
find your toe tapping or the urge to move take you over. After watching the
film the first thing I did was to pull up those old recordings and listen to
them once again. I was amazed at how much more inspiring his performances were
after delving deeper into the man than I had before.
Most biopics have a certain formula that they follow, most
of which revolves around a tragedy that somewhere along the line inspires the
person we’re learning about on screen, how they rise above that tragedy to
great success. This film does that as well but no to its detriment. Instead it
reminds you of simpler times, of more pure music not filled with autotuned
singers and overdubbed backing tracks. It brings back the soul of the music
that filled the lifetimes of so many. Above all it makes you realize just how
important James Brown was to the world of music. A more fitting film could not
have been made.
Click here to order.
No comments:
Post a Comment