Amazing Grace (2018 film)

American singer-songwriter Aretha Franklin records her gospel album Amazing Grace live at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles in 1972. She is accompanied by the Southern California Community Choir, directed by Alexander Hamilton, mostly positioned behind her as Franklin sings from the church's lectern to a mostly African-American audience. James Cleveland appears as master of ceremonies, featured singer and piano accompanist. Franklin is also accompanied by Bernard Purdie on drums and Chuck Rainey on bass guitar.[6] On the second night Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts appear in the audience, in Los Angeles at the time to finish the Rolling Stones' album Exile on Main St. Critic Jordan Hoffman believes the gospel inflections of songs such as "Shine a Light" and "Let It Loose" were inspired by this visit.[6]

Credits adapted from Rotten Tomatoes.[7]

In 1972, Joe Boyd, the Music Services director at Warner Bros., originally proposed that film director James Signorelli direct the film.[8] At a later date, Warner CEO Ted Ashley approached Sydney Pollack to direct the film. Pollack accepted the assignment when he heard Franklin's name.[8]

Principal photography took place over two consecutive nights, on 13 and 14 January, at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, while Franklin recorded her Amazing Grace album.[9] The album went on to become the highest-selling gospel music album of all time.[10][11] Pollack shot 20 hours of raw footage using 16 mm cameras.[10][12]

The post-production and supervision of the film were completed by Final Cut USA, Inc.[13][14] Since Pollack had not used clapperboards, it turned out to be impossible to sync the audio with the video in post-production.[10][15] The project was halted, and the raw footage placed in a vault at Warner Bros; it went unseen through the 1990s.[16]

Franklin in 1968

The Amazing Grace film was initially scheduled for a 1972 release together with Warner Bros.' Super Fly.[17][9] In 2007, producer Alan Elliott purchased the raw footage.[15][9] Subsequently, sound editor/mixer Serge Perron successfully synchronized the sound with all the film footage.[18][19][20] Once all the sound and footage were synchronized, Jeff Buchanan edited the film.[20] Now pared down to 87 minutes, the film was scheduled for a 2011 release. However, Franklin sued Elliott for appropriating her likeness without permission, and the release was postponed.[9]

After Franklin's original release contract was discovered at the Warner Bros. offices, Elliott decided to release the film at the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival in 2015.[9][21] Franklin sued him again, this time for unpublished reasons, and was granted an emergency injunction against the film screening, because she had not given permission to screen the footage.[22][23] After Franklin's death in 2018, her family made an arrangement to release the film.[24] It premiered at the Doc NYC on 12 November 2018,[25][26] was released worldwide on 5 April 2019,[27] and had its UK premiere on 10 May 2019.[28] An expanded version of the film was developed with Neon and was scheduled to have a theatrical release in March 2020.[29]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 99% based on 130 reviews, with an average rating of 8.76/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Brilliantly capturing a remarkable performer near the peak of her prodigious power, Amazing Grace is a thrilling must-watch documentary for Aretha Franklin fans."[42] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 94 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "Universal acclaim".[43]

Odie Henderson of RogerEbert.com enthused, "Whether you're religious or not, you owe it to yourself to see this movie if the chance arises. You'll see how much love and feeling went into the construction of the resulting album."[44] Variety's Owen Gleiberman noted, "The movie reveals how the fundamental distinction between "rock 'n' roll" and "rhythm and blues" was not only racist at its core, but a way for the consumer culture to slice the God out of music that was invented as a way to talk to God."[1] Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian wrote, "The film is almost wall-to-wall music, with Franklin barely acknowledging the audience between songs."[6] The Los Angeles Times' Justin Chang wrote: "Aretha Franklin didn't transcend the gospel or gospel music; as first her album and now this marvelous documentary remind us, she did more than most to fulfill its potential for truth and beauty, devotion and art."[12]

Hoffman wrote, "And we can quibble as to whether Pollack, Elliot or credited editor Jeff Buchanan is the true author of the piece."[6] Producer Chiemi Karasawa claimed her work on the film was not compensated and filed an arbitration case against Alan Elliott upon its release.[14] Armond White of National Review criticized the film's politics, writing: "Is playing into the approval of white people the only way that bourgeois black people can think to confirm their significance? To reduce Franklin's art to the propaganda of 'empowerment' and activism disrespects the daily significance of the civil-rights movement and its basis in the sanctified church."[45]

• Official website
• Official website (UK)
• Amazing Grace at IMDb
• Amazing Grace at Rotten Tomatoes