Starring Angela Bassett, Lawrence Fishburne, Jenifer Lewis, and Vanessa Bell Calloway
Directed by Brian Gibson
Music and Lyrics by various
We segway from Black History Month to Women's History Month with our first two reviews this week. Tina Turner was one of the first women I remember admiring who wasn't my mother. Mom bought her Tiny Dancer album when it came out and told me how she made a huge comeback after leaving her husband Ike. It wasn't until this movie came out and I became interested in classic rock that I learned more details about exactly what happened to break up their act. What did happen? Let's begin at a church in Nutbush, Tennesee, where young Anna Mae Bullock (Ray'ven Larrymore Kelly) raises the roof with her improvised "scat" vocals, and find out...
The Story: Anna Mae (Bassett) was largely raised by her grandmother after her mother Zelma (Lewis) abandoned her. As a teenager,, she moves to St. Louis to live with her mother and her sister Aline (Phyllis Yvonne Stickney). Her sister takes her to a bar, where she meets Ike Turner (Fishbourne) playing with his band. He's impressed with her after she gets a chance to sing with him and offers to mentor her. That mentorship blossoms into love, to the horror of his girlfriend and the wife of his children Lorraine (Penny Johnson Jerald). They marry, have two children together, adopt Ike's two from Lorraine, and become one of the most prominent R&B duos of the late 60's and 70's as Ike & Tina Turner.
All is not well behind the scenes. Jealous of Tina's success and plagued by his own demons, Ike turns to drugs and becomes abusive. Tina loves him, but after her best friend Jackie (Calloway) turns her to Buddism, she finally finds the courage to defend herself. Their divorce leaves her with nothing but her pride and her stage name. Ike still wants to worm his way back into her life, but Tina's learned a few things, and this time, she's the one who's going to come back a star.
The Song and Dance: Wow. Powerhouse performances anchor this searing drama. Bassett and Fishbourne got Oscar nominations for their work as the troubled Turners. Fishbourne is magnetic as Ike, turning him into a portrait of a man who thrives on control and can't deal with anything when he loses it. Bassett ably show's Tina's ferocious stage presence and her less-strong offscreen marriage to a man who will own everything about her, or else. Love how Ike and Tina's costumes and hair perfectly show the transition from 50's romance in a bar to 60's R&B mop-tops to 70's Afros and shag cuts to Tina's infamous huge blonde 80's wig and tight leather dress.
Favorite Number: We open with Young Anna Mae rocking the church in "This Little Light of Mine." She's supposed to be singing along, but even then, Anna Mae was destined to stand out. "Darlin', You Know I Love You" is the number onstage that convinces Ike to let Tina join their group. Even with her 50's curls and Peter Pan collared blouse, she oozes raw intensity. "A Fool In Love" is Tina's first major stage performance with Ike, and their first huge hit. Tina and the Ikettes show a group of teens in the mid-60's how to "Shake a Tail Feather" on a very typical dance show.
"Proud Mary" covers a montage of Tina having increasingly more success, while Ike feels like he's being shoved ever more into the background. Tina's recording "Nutbush City Limits" when her husband literally attacks her after he claims her performance lacks passion. The movie ends with Bassett doing "What's Love Got to Do With It" onstage...and the real Tina Turner performing it in actual concert footage from the 80's.
What I Don't Like: First of all, violence, heavy swearing, drug use, sexuality (including a rape), and harrowing scenes of physical abuse makes this absolutely not for children. The sequences with Ike beating Tina until she's a bloody pulp may not sit well with people who were abused in real-life, either. There's also the fact that a lot of this is fictional or over-dramatized. The scene with Ike shoving a cake at Tina is often discussed as being a bit too much, but there's also the rape sequence and Ike showing up with a gun when Tina's about to go on near the end. Apparently, something similar happened with a cake, but a few years earlier and not quite that noisy. Ike's depicted as such a terrible person, it damaged Fishbourne and the real Ike Turner's careers.
The Big Finale: Worth seeing for Bassett and Fishbourne alone if you're a fan of them, Turner, or classic rock and R&B.
Home Media: Easy to find on DVD and streaming, often for under five dollars. It's currently free for streaming with a subscription at Amazon Prime.
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