August 6. 2014
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Biopic on James Brown ® gets it right
Jagger has spoken admirii,81y not
©
only of Brown’s complex moves but
by
D arleen O rtega
A biopic about James Brown
surely presents challenges. It is hard
to imagine capturing Brown’s ex­
traordinary gifts as one of the found­
ing fathers of funk music without
devolving into mimicry. Fortu­
nately, for the most part, “Get On
Up,” the long-awaited biopic about
the Godfather of Soul, avoids those
pitfalls and inspires the right kind of
reverence and enthusiasm for a
musical genius whose influence
can’t be overstated.
First and foremost, this film gets
the musical performances right.
None other than Mick Jagger pro­
duced the musical tracks for the film
by re-mixing Brown’s original multi­
track recordings; and the remark­
able Chadwick Boseman, seen as
Jackie Robinson in “42,” positively
channels Brown’s musical vibe.
The film stages key performances
in Brown’s musical evolution, in­
cluding a dazzling 1962 Apollo The­
ater concert; a 1964 performance on
the T. A.M.I. show in which Brown
famously upstaged The Rolling
Stones; a historic concert at Boston
Garden shortly after Martin Luther also “his whole persona’’ and “the
King Jr.’s assassination; and a 1971 way he worked the audience, the way
concert at the Olympic theater in he works so hard himself, the way he
Paris. The presentations are thrill­ put all his energy into it.”
ing to watch, capturing the innova­
The music does the best talking
tion and care that went into each here. The film captures how much
elaborate show, with a huge and
talented band, energetic choreog­
raphy, and of course Brown himself,
w hose p h y sicality and vocals
grabbed audiences by the lapels.
Boseman’s performance (building
on Brown’s own vocals), and the
elaborate restaging of those iconic
show -stopping concerts, m akes
you feel you are there. •
The sheer energy marshaled for
each performance is astounding and,
seen from this distance, Brown’s pro­
found influence on popular music
becomes undeniable, no explanation care went into each performance;
necessary. He was so original— and how controlling Brown was of ev­
so black— that you sense he claimed ery aspect of the arrangements; how
an audience, in a time when audi­ hard he was on his side men; the
ences were not used to hearing acts sheer ego it took to create his high-
remotely like him, by the sheer force energy shows. In one pivotal scene,
of his will and ego. His influence is he insists on a rhythmic change that
everywhere — on Jagger, Michael one of his side men protests “doesn ’ t
Jackson, Prince, Lady Gaga, Jay Z, work musically,” and Brown makes
Bruno Mars, and Justin Timberlake. the inarguable case that “if it sound
! the criticism that the film gives that
i well-documentedaspectofBrown’s
history short shrift. But incidents of
Brown’s bad behavior are sprinkled
through the film and they needn’t
be explained and aren’t excused.
That isn’t the point of the film, nor
should it be.
H ie seeds for Brown’s musical
genius, his ego, his frequent vio­
lence, and his antisocial behavior
are evident in his childhood of ex­
treme poverty, domestic abuse, and
abandonment by his parents. He
lived his early years hungry and
abused in a shack in South Carolina,
then spent much of his childhood in
a brothel in Augusta, Georgia, and
was in prison by the age o f 16 for
theft of a suit. The film wisely doesn’t
lay on those co n n ectio n s too
thickly; it shuffles the time sequence,
returns to certain pivotal scenes
(like the PCP-fueled arrest from the
’80s) a handful of times, and then
lets them go. The effect is to toss up
those disparate elements of Brown ’ s
life and to suggest the connections
between them but not push the point
too hard.
The same is true for his musical
influences. The film depicts signs of
a rhythmic drive early in childhood,
and also a scene when he walks into
a revival meeting as a child and is
good and it feel good, then it’s drawn into the music that absorbs
musical.” It doesn’t matter whether all the participants. The vibe imper­
this scene ever actually happened, fect — a preacher with an elaborate
because it convincingly captures hairstyle and everyone in white suits
what Brown was about, and how he and dresses, worshipping with their
brought up everyone’s game and whole bodies. The scene has a
created one new thing after another. mythical quality that captures the
The film doesn ’ t skimp on what a sense o f such a meeting but also the
sense of how it might be remem­
bered by a child.
Occasionally the shuffling be­
tween time periods can be discon- _
certing, as can instances when
Brown speaks directly to the cam ­
era. I’m not sure those risks always
pay off. But, in the end, most of it
does. The elements of Brown’s his­
tory, his hardships, and his foibles
— they are all here, and all must be
functioning somehow to drive the
man. Forthe most part, the film wisely
backs off from wrapping it up too
hard man Brown was to live with. It neatly.
opens with and frequently returns
And a certain truth emerges. As
to an incident in the ’ 80s when, high Brown himself puts it, “Nobody
on PCP, he brandished a gun at a helped James Brown” as a young
group of strangers and led police on person. Nobody taught him the rules,
a high-speed chase that landed him though his experience taught him the
in prison. A scene in which he rules weren’t in his favor. His tremen­
punches his second wife establishes dous drive pulled him out of his dire
that such violence was not an iso­
continued
on page 15
lated incident, though I understand
The seeds fo r Brown’s musical
genius, his ego, his frequent violence,
and his antisocial behavior are
evident in his childhood o f extreme
poverty, domestic abuse, and
abandonment by his parents.