THE FIVE HEARTBEATS
US, 1991, 122 minutes, Colour.
Robert Townsend, Tressa Thomas, Diahann Carroll.
Directed by Robert Townsend.
The Five Heartbeats was directed by Robert Townsend, stand-up comic whose films include Hollywood Shuffle. The film is based on the African -American group, The Dells. The period ranges from the mid-'60s to the early '90s.
The film is musical biography from the perspective of Afro Americans. It shows the auditions and rock and roll in the mid-'60s, the rival groups. It highlights the personalities of each of the group, social backgrounds, interrelationships. It also highlights the era of the post Civil War demonstrations and the emergence of African Americans into American society as well as their success in show business.
The film successfully delineates a range of characters, the tensions between them as well as highlighting the possibilities for a musical career - in the aftermath of The Beatles and Elvis Presley. This includes adulation by the audiences, instant wealth, alcohol and drug problems, promiscuity - and the need for rehabilitation. It also highlights the record industry and the possibilities of success and failure. It also highlights how gangster elements enter into the show business industry - with consequent violence.
The film has a strong cast, even including Diahann Carroll in a central role. There is quite a lot of music throughout the film - but the film did not get much release outside the United States and its target African- American audience.
1.Musical biography, the portrait of a group, Afro American musicians and singers, the background of American civil rights and Afro -Americans from the '60s to the '90s?
2.The time span and the contrast between the '60s and the '90s in the United States, with African- Americans, music styles, the nature of show business, entertainment, records, concerts and tours?
3.The film based on the Dells? Their acting as advisers. A warts-and-all portrait?
4.The conventional opening, auditions, competitions? The various groups and their styles? Presence, costume, singing, performance? The Heartbeats and their not winning? The interest of the manager? Entree into the world of pop music?
5.The men as friends, their backgrounds, relationships? Their working as a group? Duck and J.T. as brothers? Eddie and his eye for the women, flirting, seduction, promiscuous? His being unreliable? The effect that this had on himself, on the group, their cohesion, performance?
6.The film painting the background of each of the members, the portraits of family, the background of church? Mothers, wives, girlfriends? The role of women with the group?
7.Jimmy as a down-and-out manager, his dreams, schemes? His relationship with Eleanor? Her caution? Being impressed by The Heartbeats, offering them the deal? Becoming their agent - and success? Their accepting him? The changing of all their fortunes? Wealth? The passing of the years, Jimmy as agent, Eleanor as support? The meetings with Big Red, Big Red and his record company, his pressures? The changing fortunes, the confrontation, ousting Jimmy? Big Red killing Jimmy? Eddie and his role in the betrayal of Jimmy? Eleanor and the funeral, spurning Eddie? Eleanor and her continued support after Jimmy's death?
8.Big Red and his style? The gangster background, henchmen? His place in the record industry? His label? His taking on The Heartbeats, success, the tours, his pressure on them for publicity? The glimpses of his personal violence, the assistant and threatening him over the balcony? The confrontation with Jimmy, using Eddie? The murder? His going to the funeral? The later expose, his arrest, trial and imprisonment?
10.Duck as the centre of The Heartbeats? Robert Townsend and his screen presence? Relationship with J.T., friendship with the other men? His ability to play, perform, comic touch? Composing? The sequence of composing with his sister and its vitality? His poetry, his love for the young woman, her family's rejection of him? Her relationship with J.T? The years passing, performance, being a mediator? His engagement, seeing her with his brother, the break, his suffering? His philosophy about suffering and being a better composer? The years passing after he left the group? The final party, the possibilities of reconciliation? The group playing together again? His going to the church and discovering that Choirboy had rehabilitated Eddie? A more serene finale?
11.Duck and his relationship with J.T., their family background? J.T. and his sexual addiction and concern? His relationship with the young woman, his wanting to tell Duck, Duck finding out the truth, the sense of betrayal, the confrontation and the separation? J.T. and his settling down, marrying, his family?
12.Eddie and his personality, unreliable, relationship with women? His skill in performance, his drug dealing and taking? The spiral down? The effect on his life, health? Clashes with the group? His siding with Big Red and the ousting of Jimmy? His seeming disappearance? The surprise of Choirboy rehabilitating him, the church, his singing, the reuniting with the group?
13.Choirboy, the background of the church, his parents, the stern father, support of his mother? The warnings before they went on tour? At work in his church, the support of Eddie?
14.Flash as substitute singer, his career, self first, publicity, the reaction of the audiences? His walking out for his solo career?
15.The staging of the concerts, the songs, the vocal arrangements, performance, clothes and style? The comparison with rival groups? The tours and the pressure, the concerts and the reactions of the fans? The effect on the group over the years?
16.The dramatising of personal crises, group crises, family crises? The family resolution, the gathering together, the picnic, the forgetting of differences, Duck coming back into the group, literal harmony in their singing?
