TINA
US, 2021, 118 minutes, Colour.
Tina Turner.
By Daniel Lindsay, T.J .Martin.
This is a vigorous and dynamic documentary, in keeping with the personality of its star, Tina Turner.
The film is framed by interviews with Tina in Switzerland in 2019, age 75, looking back over her tumultuous life, her career with her husband, Ike Turner, revelations about violence and abuse, her comeback and becoming a superstar of rock ‘n’ roll. There are also quotations from her revelatory interview in 1981 for People Magazine.
The film is satisfying in so far as we are shown Tina Turner and listen to her voice, her memories of the past, telling her story, the ups and downs, the struggles, the final triumph and her exhilaration.
The film goes into various archives, providing a great deal of film footage of the young Tina, of her work with Ike, footage of Ike himself, television interviews, music. And there are photos of her home town of Nutbush Tennessee. Both her father and mother disappeared and she was in the care of relatives. Her mother does reappear at the end of the film, critical of her daughter, seemingly unable to love her, but Tina providing some comfort and luxuries for her mother in her older years.
The film spends considerable time on Tina’s relationship with Ike Turner, his promoting her, their vigorous performances, growing success, Ike’s musical abilities. She joins him in 1957, marries him, four children, two from his previous marriage, one from her previous relationship, one son whom they both parented. There is a great deal of footage, plenty for fans to enjoy of Tina and her performances, the costumes, her reliance on the vigour of her body, movement and dance, distinctive style.
The film also covers the truth about her relationship with Ike Turner, his music success, his management of Tina, the violence of their home life, her attempted suicide with pills, the role of the children, her eventually moving away from him, leading to divorce in 1976, her not benefiting financially from the divorce, her having to work in all kinds of situations, take on television guest appearances…
And, that might have been the end, but then liberated from Ike, and with enormous determination, she moves towards a comeback (although the narrative indicates that with the Ike and Tina performances she had never arrived as Tina herself, and this was her coming).
Roger Davies became her manager at the end of the 1970s, determined that she should have an album, making all kinds of contacts, failing, Tina eventually moving to London. She met Terry Britain – and, at first unwillingly, she created her hit What’s Love Got To Do With It (and with quite some renditions here). She also collaborated with Kurt Loder for an autobiography which was also highly successful. There followed tours all around the world, featuring 186,,000 people at a concert in Rio. There were book signings, television interviews – and her strong regrets that interviewers still kept going back to Ike and her time with him rather than focus on her emergence. It was at this time that she made Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome in Australia (a minute more of this would have been welcome!)..
Some attention is given, with interviews with star, Angela Bassett, to the film on her life and career, also called What’s Love Got To Do With It.
Tina became a household word own, Turner not really necessary. From the 1980s, she has been a world star, distinctive in her performances, her vigorous voice. There are excerpts from later concerts and with songs such as Simply the Best.
In 2019, Tina Turner attended the premiere of the musical based on her life, staged on Broadway. She also talks about her relationship with her husband from 2013, Erwin Bach, who served as a producer for this film and is also interviewed. She has lived in Switzerland since the 1990s and is a Swiss citizen.
While Tina Turner has had a hard life, she is obviously quite a survivor, and encouragement for show business performers, and beyond.
