The Temptations

The Temptations
by Allan Arkush

The Temptations
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Charles Malik Whitfield, Christian Payton, D.B. Woodside, Leon, Terron Brooks
Director: Allan Arkush
Brand: Lions Gate
Producer: David V. Picker
Producer: Deborah Edell Underwood
Producer: Helen Robin
Producer: Jay Benson
Producer: Otis Williams
Writer: Kevin Arkadie
Writer: Robert Johnson
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 150 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-08-14
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Lions Gate

Movie Reviews of The Temptations

Movie Review: Great movie
Summary: 4 Stars

This is a great film. The best part of it is the music. The acting is surprisingly good.

Summary of The Temptations

They were the rhythm and blues sensation five singers who created a sound and style that redefined the boundaries of popular song. But there was a price to be paid for their meteoric rise and when the pressures became to great to bear rivalries threatened to tear them apart forever. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 12/21/2004 Run time: 150 minutes Rating: Nr
Conceived as a television miniseries, this portrait of the epochal Motown vocal group scores as one of the most detailed re-creations of the '60s pop milieu ever filmed. Told largely through the eyes of founding member Otis Williams (Charles Malik Whitfield), The Temptations portrays its protagonists as soul Everymen whose early triumphs closely followed, and helped expand, Motown Records' emergence as "the Sound of Young America," providing an inspirational fable for black Americans.

Inevitably, of course, the story is also a cautionary tale about the price of success for both the Temps and their mentor, Motown founder Berry Gordy (Obba Babatunde). With hit records and tours, Williams and his partners grapple with drugs, alcohol, depression, jealousy, and delusions of grandeur. In particular, the galvanic lead singer David Ruffin (Leon) serves as both a focal strength and potential destroyer for the group, as his ego combines with a mounting cocaine habit to create a monster. At the same time, Gordy's eventual decision to leave his and the label's home, Detroit, for Los Angeles marks a loss of innocence for the group and their label-mates. The film provides ample insider detail about how the former Ford assembly-line worker created and controlled his unique hit factory.

Based on the biography coauthored by Williams and former manager Shelly Berger, the project gets a vital boost from behind the camera, thanks to executive producer Suzanne DePasse, herself a former Motown exec, and director Allan Arkush (Rock 'n' Roll High School). That lineage probably pulls some punches in terms of individual characters and Gordy's machinations, but it also affords The Temptations its convincing detail, as does the generous running time--a mixed blessing, due to the original two-part broadcast, which might have benefited from tightening for this video version. Giving the show its greatest kick are the group's original hits, performed and choreographed convincingly in lip-synched sequences. --Sam Sutherland

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