0
0
Rating: 4.25 out of 5
James Brown was a living legend on the stage and in music. Before Shaq gave himself more nicknames than anyone could imagine, Brown was the man who called himself many honorific nicknames such as “the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business,” “Godfather of Soul,” “Mr. Dynamite,” and “Soul Brother No. 1”. What a freakin legend! Brown has been credited with being the ancestor of funk music. His career spanned over 50 years, and his hair was always on point. Brown influenced more musical genres, and his commitment to music showed as he was one of the first 10 inductees ever into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Brown had 17 No. 1 hits on the Billboard R&B charts in his career. He is ranked seventh on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time. Like I said earlier, Brown had MAJOR influence in the world in music, television, and life. The godfather had some incredible hits like “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” and “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud.” Brown passed away in 2006 at the age of 73 on Christmas Day. If you are going to go out, you might as well go out on Christmas. As with any artist, this living legend had his ups and downs but kept performing and making sure his feet kept moving.
In the world we live in, you know someone of Brown’s stature would have a movie made after his life. Lo and behold, in 2014, a biographical musical about the life of Brown dropped upon the world. It was ironically titled “Get on Up.” The film, directed by Tate Taylor and written by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, is a fun but crazy look at the legendary singer played by the late and outstanding Chadwick Boseman. It was a film that broke the fourth wall more than anyone can count. Get ready to get up on your feet and dance when you hear the sound, Baby, baby, baby!!
Get On Up is a film that is told using a non-linear narrative. It is a film where if you sat at a table with Brown and asked him to tell you his story, it would be all over the place as he bounces around with his memories coming to him while also breaking the fourth wall. It was excellently done and fun to watch. The film starts off wild in 1988 with Brown (Boseman) in a dark green tracksuit rolls up to his hall. He pulls out a shotgun and walks right into the mall he owns, demanding who took a shit in his bathroom without his permission. Brown accidentally fires the shotgun and cries, “Good God!” before calming the woman down and running off.
As I stated, this film is told non-linearly, skipping back and forth between Brown’s childhood, rise to musical greatness, and his downs. Let me see if I can get through this review making sense. Brown’s childhood was rough, to say the least. He grew up in an extremely violent and extreme poverty. His mother, Susie (Davis), and father, Joe (James), argued, and he beat her. One day, Susie ends up leaving the family with Joe raising him. Joe decides he can’t raise brown and leaves him with his Aunt Honey (Spencer), who oversees a brothel. James does odd jobs for her until he is arrested as a sixteen-year-old for stealing a suit. He is sent to jail and listens to gospel music, where he is released and starts a group. I will say the scene where he was a little box and did the boxing match was despicable as Brown fought ten other boys with one hand in front of a white crowd.
I will say that on his rise to the top, the film made Brown extremely egotistical, narcissistic, and an asshole, even though he can perform with the best of them. This is shown throughout the film. In one scene, we see his band, The Famous Flames, performing live for an audience. When his manager tells him, he will perform before a new group called the Rolling Stones. Not liking this, Brown goes on stage and does a wild-ass performance to show up the Stones and says they will be has-beens in a year. Well, that didn’t quite work out too well because they became one of the biggest groups ever. In another scene, his record company knows that Brown is the star. He already knows, and instead of talking to his band, he tells them they can either work for him full-time or leave. When he does get a new band and at the top, he puts on significant restrictions and fines his band money. I think the scene that showed how really egotistical Brown was, but he was right, was when he gave his interview. In the interview, he stated that his music and sound are in everyone’s record. No matter what you listen to now or in the future, you will hear his music and influence. Brown was right; his music influences many artists in some way or another. With that comes jealousy. The film showed Brown as extremely jealous as a person who beat his wife and berated his band. Towards the end, when Bobby talks about recording a second solo album, Brown flips out and talks about how he is betraying him.
We need to talk about Brown’s musical greatness. Even though Brown stated he read at a sixth-grade level, the man knew business and how to push his records. Case in point when he left the middleman out and took the gate receipts. That is what you call business savvy. The music is what had people moving. When Brown and his band first made “Please, Please, Please,” the record executive didn’t like it, but later it became a hit. He stated that no one wanted to listen to the same word repeatedly. Have you heard the music today? Brown was among the first to record a Live at the Apollo album while he financed the whole thing himself. After King’s assassination, he recorded “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud,” an ICONIC song. How can you forget “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” or “I Got You (I Feel Good)? Some instant classics right there
I can talk about many people in this film, but the only one that needs to be praised and applauded is Chadwick Boseman. Boseman embodied the legendary singer, and at most times, it was looking at a mirror image of the singer. I don’t know if Boseman did any of the moves, but damn, did he sound like Brown. I must applaud Boseman’s performance because it was that good and that entertaining. I love how he broke the fourth wall to show how Brown felt about his situation.
Get on Up is a crazy, wild, but entertaining movie. The life and times of James Brown were wild, and this film does a great job showing somewhat how wild this entertainer was. Brown made a lot of music that is influential today. He had more nicknames than anyone can count, but damn, he was a great musical performer. Props need to be given to Boseman for embodying the legendary singer. Everyone needs to get on up and let those dance moves fly.
BONUS CLIP!!!
