Amazing Grace ** (2018, Aretha Franklin, James Cleveland) – Movie Review

Director Sydney Pollack was totally inexperienced in shooting any kind of music documentary when he directed the fascinating music documentary Amazing Grace (2018) that documents the two nights in Watts, Los Angeles in January 1972 when Aretha Franklin returned to her roots to record a gospel album with the Southern California Community Choir and congregation at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church.

Franklin is in great voice, and so is the choir, though the gospel songs and Christian setting may not be to everyone’s taste. Surely all her best works were soul songs, and obviously that’s not what we get here. Nevertheless, her gospel songs were hugely popular, unlike her disco songs on her 1979 album La Diva, which sold fewer than 50,000 copies and was the lowest point in her career.

Warner Bros oddly hired Sydney Pollack for the shooting duties on Amazing Grace, and we see him regularly playing the role of director rather ostentatiously, looking a bit bewildered, dazed and confused. There is quite a bit of chaos in the hall, not the usual atmosphere for recording a hit album. Mick Jagger and Bill Wyman make several iconic appearances in the audience, at the back of the hall, rather ostentatiously cheering on Aretha. Her minister dad, Clarence L Franklin, is brought on to deliver a serious, dull and over-long sermon in praise of his daughter. And gospel singer Clara Ward takes a bow too (she died on 16 January 1973, aged 48).

But the other actual star of the two evenings is the Reverend James Cleveland, who plays the MC, plays the piano and sings too, all of them tremendously well. He is quite a character and star of the show, doing most of the chat, whereas Aretha hardly speaks. While not singing she seems awkward and hugely embarrassed and a bit intimidated when her dad appears.

This film, abandoned for technical reasons only hinted at in the documentary (the 20 hours of footage shot could not be synchronised with the audio tracks), is lovingly restored and does the favour of capturing a moment in time and a voice in its prime. Fascinating it may be, Amazing Grace is fine for home viewing but is hardly essential for a cinema night out, yet amazingly it screens at the main screen at the Odeon Shaftesbury Avenue, as with another 10 central London screens. Amazing Grace commands interest and respect, but it is nowhere near in the class of the documentary Whitney as an essential music experience, which is still essential even if you are not a fan of the music.

Aretha’s Amazing Grace album came out in June 1972, selling millions without benefit of the documentary.

Sydney Pollack died of cancer on 26 May 2008, aged 73. In 2007, he handed over the project to producer and music enthusiast Alan Elliott to complete, which he has with the help of Spike Lee’s 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks.

RIP The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin (1942–2018). She died of pancreatic cancer on 16 August 2018 in Detroit. Her father Clarence was shot by a mugger on 10 June 1979, leaving him in a coma for five years. Aretha moved back to Detroit to take care of him and he died on 27 July 1984.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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