I knew this film was a documentary about the world-famous gospel singer turned "Queen of Soul", I assumed it was going to be a straightforward biopic with people talking about her, I didn't know it was footage of an album recording. This concert film was filmed over two nights in 1972 by director Sydney Pollack (The Way We Were, Tootsie, Out of Africa). Aretha Franklin was performing and recording her live album, Amazing Grace, in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts district of Los Angeles. She is accompanied by Reverend James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir, and a mostly African American audience, but also Rolling Stones stars Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts on the second night. Songs performed during the recordings include: "Amazing Grace", "Mary Don't You Weep", "What a Friend We Have in Jesus", "You've Got a Friend", "How I Got Over", "Precious Memories", "Precious Lord", and "My Sweet Lord". The film was not released as scheduled in 1972 due to difficulty in synchronizing the audio with the visual print. Producer Alan Elliott purchased the raw footage and attempted to synchronize it, but Aretha sued Elliott a couple of times for various reasons. It was finally released a short time after the sad passing of the singing star aged 72. Aretha has a magnificent voice, there are moments where she perhaps riffs too much, but the long notes and big bursts are most impressive. You do not have to be religious, there is a lot of preachy kind of stuff, but that is to be expected. You can just enjoy Aretha and the choir making music and seeing what goes into making what became a highly successful platinum-selling gospel album, a worthwhile music documentary. Good!
Review of Amazing Grace
