The Five Heartbeats (1991)

The Music, The Story, and the Acting were all equally compelling... This is entertainment at its best! One of the reasons I believe this is a favorite movie of lots of black folks is simply the diversity of the characters. Rarely had we seen an ensemble cast of wonderful, talented, yet flawed black characters that were all people we could look up to for one thing or another. Not to mention the story is one we are all familiar with, as many of the most iconic music groups suffer from these same issues yet none had been brought to the big screen prior to this film.The music being authentic plays the biggest part in the film being a classic. To this day when the songs from this film play they suck you right back in to the mood of the time.

This is such a wonderful, underrated film. Everyone I recommend it to looks at me like I'm crazy until they watch it and become total fans. One of the many delights about the Five Heartbeats is the soundtrack. The songs were written, performed and recorded with such attention to period detail they sound like they really come from the years of the movie. And most of them are great songs anyway. If they had been "real" they would be classics today. A Heart is a House for Love which was actually sung by the Dells, made it to #13 on the R&B charts. Most of the music came from Stanley Clarke, the brilliant bassist and composer. But Thom Bell, one of the originators of TSOP, contributed importantly too, including one of his old songs for the Delfonics. There are so many cool moments in this film. Michael Wright and Hawthorne James offer stand- out performances in a great cast. The Five Heartbeats is easily Robert Townsends best film.

I have the DVD of this movie and it is moving. It shows all races black and white that if you want something to keep working toward it and never give up. This movie really touched me and gave me a new outlook on my life and the things that i do. Where are the great writers like the ones who wrote this story? We need to be giving them all of the credit and praise because they are the ones who believed that the world should see how black music began and evolved into what is the most dominant music in America. We have had problems over the years with the really bad music and the really great music. This shows that black people lots of talent and much more charisma and can truly ACT.

Only someone foolish or not of the African-American persuasion would say that black artists did not experience racism in the 60's, when black artist still experience racism today. And, the attempt to masquerade white artists while using black voices is not so outlandish. The recording industry, the music industry, and the marketing industry are three completely different animals. Music, recording, and marketing can be combined to create a synergy that is altogether real or on the other hand you have Milli-Vanilli. If it was done in the 90's I am quite sure it was practiced in earlier years. Everyone that is in business is in business to make money and while there is making music and recording music, it all boils down to money. Marketing - optimizing profits by directing sales toward the market that has the potential to generate the highest earnings. The ideal of a sell out was popularized with the advent of the Hip-hop culture, before that time it was about money and money only, not being accepted into a culture that lauded "KEEPING IT REAL".