Standing In The Shadows Of Motown DVD Review
Posted by Julian Cantella on 05.01.2003
Motown's greatest studio musicians finally get the spotlight.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown DVD
Release Date: April 22, 2003
Rated PG
108 minutes
“I Heard it Through the Grapevine”. “My Girl”. “Do You Love Me?” Regardless of one’s taste in music, every person in the U.S. has heard and appreciated at least one of these classic Motown tunes. The classic Detroit label, founded in 1959, was the brainchild of Berry Gordy, a musical genius who collected some of the finest musicians in the country together to produce countless hit records. Along the way, his artists practically invented the modern variations of the genres of soul and rhythm and blues that are heard on the radio and CD’s today. These musical acts included legends such as Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Contours, The Supremes, and many more.
What many people don’t know is that the success of these many songs and artists was partially a result of Motown’s house band, known as the Funk Brothers. The Funk Brothers, consisting of over ten pianists, drummers, guitarists, and others, played on almost every song that Motown released. In over thirty years with the label, they performed on more number one hits than The Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, and Elvis Presley combined. Despite this enormous amount of success, the band never received any of the attention or prestige they deserved. That is, until Allan Slutsky, a technical music writer, discovered their story and wrote a book about it; that book was the inspiration for this deep and interesting documentary of the same title.
The Film
Paul Justman’s documentary recounts the stories of the Funk Brothers, the aforementioned group highlighted by Benny Benjamin on drums, Earl Van Dyke on the keyboards, James Jamerson on bass, and countless others. The film includes scenes of the surviving Funk Brothers (six of the thirteen have passed away) recollecting various stories, photos from their past, reenactments of some of the more interesting events of their lives, and live performances from a recent concert that reunited the group for the first time in over a decade. These performances feature guest vocalists including Ben Harper, Chaka Khan, Bootsy Collins, and Joan Osbourne, and allow the viewer to appreciate the Funk Brothers musical talents in the best setting possible. While the vocalists themselves (especially Meshell Ndegeocello) are fairly weak, the instrumentation is so masterful and lively that it invigorates what would otherwise be stale performances. These sections vary from boring to extremely entertaining, but all serve as a thrilling showcase of what the Funk Brothers, even today, are capable of.
However, the performances are marred by a blatant flaw: the camera work focuses on the singers! This ironic error is all too common in many concert movies, but in a movie specifically about how the background musicians deserve more credit, this is a laughable mistake. The rest of the film is also very entertaining but flawed; for one thing, it’s just too long, clocking in at almost two hours. In addition, the reenactments occur at random times with bad actors, and don’t seem to have any explicit purpose. Finally, the biographical aspect of the film focuses almost entirely on the men’s musical lives: their instruments, education, experience, and style. While it’s great that this information is being captured on film as a historical document, the filmmakers leave out a lot of personal facts about their subjects. Many (if not most) of the men had serious personal problems, from alcoholism to an intense desire for recognition, and although these issues are mentioned, they are never explored with any great level of detail. The film didn’t have to become a True Hollywood Story, but it’s important to mention the bad as well as the good. Despite these flaws, Motown is a very informative and entertaining documentary about a subject that certainly deserves it.
Video Quality
The viewer is subjected to the standard, slightly faded look of a documentary; with old photos, black-and-white reenactments, and video mixed with filmed concert footage, there are bound to be some visuals that are less perfect. Despite these usual detractions, the DVD makes things look just about as good as is possible given the source material. The picture is normally vibrant and clear, but occasionally a scratch or fade pops up on the screen.
Audio Quality
This DVD was made with an audiophile in mind: the audio is presented in 6.1 DTS, 5.1 Dolby EX, and 2.0 Dolby Stereo options. For a movie about musicians, one would expect the sound to be good, and thankfully, it is. The music and dialogue alike are clear and melodic, and are presented in a very well done mix.
Special Features
Believe it or not, this is a 2-disc set. The first disc offers alternate audio in the form of a trivia track as well as a commentary by director Paul Justman and Producer Allan Slutsky (who must have been taunted horribly in school).
How It All Began offers two features about the process of getting the film made. The Photo That Started It All is a short commentary by the author of the book about how he became interested in the project, while The Video That Started It All is a 5 minute promotional video with commentary detailing the efforts of the director to get someone to finance his film. These are moderately entertaining.
Performance Selecting offers a direct jump to any of the thirteen performances in the movie, though about half are worth skipping in the first place. There is also a collection of trailers as well as a DVD-ROM link to BMW’s The Hire short action films (though what that has to do with this subject matter is beyond me).
Disc 2 opens up with Dinner With the Funk Brothers, a 12 minute view of the living musicians drinking wine and telling stories. Nothing said is any more interesting than those anecdotes included in the actual film, but it’s a decent supplement nonetheless.
Multi-Angle Jam Sessions is a collection of 3 jam sessions, each with alternate views of the various instrumentalists. This may appeal to viewers educated in music performance, but was pretty boring for me.
15 Deleted Scenes are offered, ranging from the Brothers’ original reunion to a couple of staged scenes to some solo or group performances. They vary in quality, but at least a third of the half hour of footage is well worth watching.
The Ones That Didn’t Make It eulogizes the deceased members of the Funk Brothers with 13 minutes of biographical information that goes into much greater personal detail than the main film. For some reason, this featurette has horrible audio, but is otherwise okay.
At Long Last Glory is a 7 minute featurette detailing the fame and attention that the Funk Brothers finally received as a result of the release of this film. This was a little extraneous.
Disc 2 also includes individual biographies, a music video montage, the Funk Brothers Discography (listing all of their #1 Hits), DVD-ROM options including games, and Honorable Mentions a list of musicians who played on notable Motown recordings but were not official Funk Brothers.
Film: 7.0
Video: 5.5
Audio: 9.5
Special Features: 7.0
The 411: Standing in the Shadows of Motown is not a very well-made documentary, but it is an enjoyable one. The Funk Brothers make very deserving and entertaining subjects, and their story is undoubtedly one that needed to be told. With the release of this film, the Motown studio musicians can finally step out of the shadows and see a little light.
