Don’t bother seeing Amazing Grace if you plan to shush other people in the audience or even if you plan to stay seated. But if you do manage to remain quiet and still during this 90-minute tour de force, that would also be amazing.
The movie documents the recording of then-29-year-old Aretha Franklin’s first full gospel album — her best-selling collection and widely regarded as the greatest gospel record ever made.
In January 1972, she and her team set up at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts community of southern Los Angeles for a two-day live recording of gospel classics, including the title song, “Mary, Don’t You Weep,” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and Marvin Gaye’s “Wholy Holy.”
Franklin was backed by the Southern California Community Choir, led by the legendary Rev. James Cleveland — often called the King of Gospel. Everyone involved, Franklin included, takes a deferential role to Cleveland. And even though Sydney Pollack (Tootsie) was credited as the documentary’s official director, Cleveland takes that role de facto, instructing the choir, Franklin, the crowd and even Pollack’s crew over the course of the filming.
Yes, the experience is a recording of an album, Cleveland notes as he welcomes everyone. “But I’d like for you to be mindful, though, that this is a church, and we’re here for a religious service.”
And this movie is indeed a full-on service, with people swaying, getting the spirit and singing along — including a young Mick Jagger, clapping and praising in the front row.
Amazing Grace has languished since its filming because technicians couldn’t sync the sound and images, rendering it unreleasable. But even after the syncing issues were solved with modern technology under the guidance of former Atlantic Records A&R employee Alan Elliott, the film’s release was further delayed by a lawsuit from Franklin. Her reasons remain unclear, although control of her likeness and image were mentioned over the years in which her injunction against release was in effect.
It’s a shame that Franklin, who died last August, didn’t live to see audiences today connecting with this service, as surely as the people in New Temple’s pews did as it happened in front of them.
By the time of the filming, she already had five Grammys and 11 No. 1 singles on the pop and R&B charts. But the church was her home, where she was raised and where she was evidently most humble. Her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, tells the crowd how proud he is of his daughter, who’s been singing in church since she was 6 or 7 years old.
“I saw you crying and I saw you responding, but I was about to bust wide open,” he says. “You talk about being moved.”
Amazing Grace is church: black church, gospel church, Baptist church. But you don’t need to believe in anything to enjoy this gift of a movie — just the power and soul of Aretha Franklin.
Starts April 26 at the Fine Arts Theatre
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