The Five Heartbeats

The Five Heartbeats was a real, honest, remarkable film. It was packed with emotion. Well acted by all involved. A must see to appreciate! The portrayals on the members in the group were believable. It is my understanding that this is a story based upon the popular singing group, "The Dells". I don't know how true it is. I feel that Robert Townsend not only acted well in this film but, he did a fantastic job in directing it, too. To me, it's one of if not the best piece of work that he has done. I also enjoyed his film, "The Hollywood Shuffle" but the Five Heartbeats is my overall favorite. Kudos to Mr. Townsend for a job well done and may we say his greatest works are yet to come. Thank you Mr. Townsend and I hope to meet you one day!

The movie was not intended to create an atmosphere of racism, but rather keep the movie in prospective given the era of it's setting. Many artist in those days were subjected to unfair treatment by the mainstream record labels in those days. Here are a few examples:

1. Frankie Lyman and The Teenagers were a group that was comprised of numerous ethnicities. One member of the group who Chris Montes (who was latino), was cut from the group by the label's producer because he was too ethnic. Chris Montes did later go on to record a few hits of his own such "Do You Want To Dance".

2. American Bandstand which first in 1952 played mostly Rock and Roll which, was pioneered and played by mostly black artist. However, it wasn't until 1957 that Johnny Nash, Jackie Wilson, and other African American singers performed on the show.

3. The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Dells, and many other such groups were restricted to playing all black venues during the 50's and early 60's in the south. This gave rise to would later become know as "The Chitterling Circuit", as the venues were mostly nightclubs, and juke-joints. These artist received harrassment from local law enforcement agencies, and townspeople on a regular basis whenever they came to the highly segregated south.

As far the scene where the record company brings a white group called The Four Horsemen, that's not really a stretch. Most of the time what would happen is that a black group would write or even release a song to the black audience, while the record company would have that same song "covered" by a white group to be released to the "mainstream" audience. The covered version of these songs were the ones that normally got air play from disc jockeys. The best example I can give of that is the 1955 hit by The Platters "Only You (And You Alone)". This song was released on Mercury Records, while one of their subsidiary labels Dot Records released a covered version of the same song by a group called The Hilltopper's who hailed from Western Kentucky College (all white school...segregation you know.) The Hilltopper's version of Only You hit number eight on the pop charts six weeks after the release of the Platters version. The Platters version however reached number on the R&B charts, and crossed over to the pop charts were it number five. A few months later in 1956 The Platters hit #1 on the pop charts with The Great Pretender, which was covered by Stan Freberg in the same year without the same success.

All of that is to say that the movie has its facts straight about what black artist went through in those days, but it's about much more than that. It's about the rise, fall, and resurrection of a talented group, and the proof that love and friendship can withstand all of life's ups and downs.

On almost all the comments everyone assumes this film is based on The Temptations. Which is a fair assumption given The Temps' lead singer David Ruffin had a serious drug problem,as did the 'Hearts in this film.

This film is actually based on a group named The Dells. The Dells started recording in 1953 (as The El-Rays, and changed to the Dells in '55). They have atleast 3to4 dozen R&B hits in every decade from the 1950s to the 90s. Everything in the Film except for the lead singer being a drug addict is based on their experiences. As with most Hollywood films somethings were embelished for Dramatic effect. The Dells also sang just about every song the soundtrack. The theme song "A Heart Is A House For Love" was a #13 R&B in 1991. Happy to say the Dells are still performing and recording together after 51 years, with no personell changes since 1957. The Dells served as Technical advisors on the film, and at the end of the credits they show a picture of them and the Film is dedicated to them.

This is such a wonderful, underrated film. Everyone I recommend it to looks at me like I'm crazy until they watch it and become total fans. One of the many delights about the Five Heartbeats is the soundtrack. The songs were written, performed and recorded with such attention to period detail they sound like they really come from the years of the movie. And most of them are great songs anyway. If they had been "real" they would be classics today. A Heart is a House for Love which was actually sung by the Dells, made it to #13 on the R&B charts. Most of the music came from Stanley Clarke, the brilliant bassist and composer. But Thom Bell, one of the originators of TSOP, contributed importantly too, including one of his old songs for the Delfonics. There are so many cool moments in this film. Michael Wright and Hawthorne James offer stand- out performances in a great cast. The Five Heartbeats is easily Robert Townsends best film.

After you've seen this, you might as well just avoid seeing any other movie regarding going form nothing to having it all in the music industry...some stories may be more dramatic, some more extreme...but this one pulls it all together lays it out like no other. I have seen this movie probably 20 times and will surely see it another 20. All of the ingredients are there. It's well made and yet, the roughness apparent in the script and acting at times seem to add to it's charm. Perfect imperfections, as Cee-Lo Green has named his new Album, is how I'd like to call it. When you watch the %H, you feel like you're back in the 60's and understand that the groups of that time simply had this fire inside that they had to get out of themselves....the problems came only after the fire was released: WHat does one do NOW?

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful movie...Hey Bobbie T. Lace us with another one of these!!!!