The Five Heartbeats (1991)

Why so much hype?

Very best movie i ever watch

Awesome Movie

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The Five Heartbeats is about five best friends who formed a singing group in high school. The quintet participates in a local monthly talent show with hopes of being discovered. A talent scout unexpectedly sees potential in The Heartbeats and decides to offer them a deal, work with them for a month and, subsequently becomes their manager. After weeks of rehearsal the manager arranges another performance at a more competitive talent show. The group wins the contest and stumbles across a record deal the same night. With the record deal, the boys also get a chance to professionally record their original song. As their career progresses, The Heartbeats struggle with discrimination, substance abuse, and betrayal. The Five Heartbeats offers an entertaining yet didactic depiction of the untold story regarding the problems in the Black American music industry during segregated times. The first example of problems in the Black music industry is racial issues due to "separate but equal" laws and segregation in the South. After recording their first single, a record distributing company suggested that the song did not fit the group and continued to advise the song be given to an all Caucasian male group. Needless to say, The Heartbeats all but agreed and became even more enraged that the record's cover originally did not have a picture of the group but instead a picture of a Caucasian family at a beach. Because of the low budget the record company gave them while touring, The Heartbeats had to stay in the cheapest areas and survive under rural conditions. To add insult to injury, some of their touring caused The Heartbeats to have shows in the South. While driving the tour car with the group's name and title of their first single, they are unreasonably stopped by the police. The police have The Heartbeats stand outside of the vehicle, ruffle through their belongings and make them sing out of spite and ridicule. The next example of problems in the Black music industry would be drug and alcohol abuse. Lead singer, Eddie Cane Jr., begins to cope with stress and pressure by using alcohol and illegal drugs as many vocal performers have in history. Along with the owner of the record company came a cocaine dealer making drug use enticing to Eddie. Eddie's use of drugs does not alleviate his problems but instead worsens them. He loses his beloved girlfriend, his spot as lead singer, and his melodic voice which also removes his purpose in The Five Heartbeats. Eddie attempts to use Big Red, CEO of Big Red Records, to convince the manager to keep him as the lead singer which may have been Big Red's ulterior motive. However, it turns out unsuccessful and Eddie's once affluent lifestyle immediately declines. The final example of problems in the Black music industry is the motif of betrayal. By trying to persuade Eddie to go against Jimmy, Big Red has an agenda of his own to take over as manager of The Five Heartbeats. J.T. Matthews, brother of Donald Matthews, goes after Donald's fiancée, declaring their love for each other to be untrue because of his feelings for her. Because of Eddie's decline in vocal talent, The Five Heartbeats are forced to find another lead singer, Flash. After using the group to bring his name up, Flash makes an attempt to become a solo artist leaving the group without a lead singer once again. Subsequent to all of the hurt the group has been through Donald removes himself along with Flash never to be heard from again. I personally enjoy this movie because of its entertaining aspects as well as its detailed look into the music industry since that is my desired career. The minor roles and musical selections in the film are what make it entertaining. I would definitely recommend this film for anyone that loves musicals.

Some people run at the first sight of stormy weather ... But SOME people hold on and work it out together." -- Breakout lyric from the movie's soundtrack.This movie has absolutely everything.It's got comedy of all sorts, yet this movie really isn't a comedy.And it's got compelling moments that'll make you think and make you feel some kinda way about given relatable characters and life circumstances, yet I wouldn't exactly fit this movie into a mold of your typical drama."The Five Heartbeats" is the loosely autobiographical tale of the rise, fall and ultimately triumph in life of a hit five-man R&B group from the 1960s (my father and uncles have an ongoing debate about whether this group's experiences were based upon The Temptations, The Four Tops or The Dells).This movie seems like a real-enough, real life story about how money, fame and stardom can breed distrust, hate, disloyalty and an assortment of shady dealings that could undue any family relationship or close friendship.The story follows five young men who start out as close friends who share a common passion and talent: singing.Of course, they get "discovered" but as they start to and eventually make it big, they discover their moment at the top is filled with tragedy, anger, addictions and deceptions of all kinds -- realities totally different from the starry-eyed images they'd had of "making it big" once upon a time.Overall, this movie is very much uplifting because, while it takes a life time, these five friends eventually overcome the past and learn some invaluable life lessons.This is a movie for families -- the plot and various scenes will be interpreted differently by kids and adults, however, both demographics will be able to relate to this movie's overall theme and message.Fame and fortune are fleeting. Friendships -- good friendships -- are priceless. This is a movie that was out and out ignored by Hollwyood. Easily Robert Townsend's best film and deserving of Academy Award consideration. Awesome acting, brilliant writing and a blazingly inspiring soundtrack. This movie is the complete package. Guaranteed crowd-pleasing movie and one you can watch over and over and over, and not get tired of.Probably one of the best movies I've ever seen

This movie was excellent. Every nuance of racism, drug use, etc were depicted accurately for black performers during those times. For those who think that those things were over-exaggerated are probably reading history book versions (cleaned up no doubt) of the struggles of that era. Those things HAPPENED! Also, this movie was NOT about the Temptations, it was about the Dells. The Chittlin' circuit, dirty managers, in-fighting EXISTED. Baby Boomers GET this film, because we lived it-we didn't read about it. This movie is great. I highly recommend it. Young people, don't read about it, ask your parents, grandparents--they know the real deal.

The movie was not intended to create an atmosphere of racism, but rather keep the movie in prospective given the era of it's setting. Many artist in those days were subjected to unfair treatment by the mainstream record labels in those days. Here are a few examples: 1. Frankie Lyman and The Teenagers were a group that was comprised of numerous ethnicities. One member of the group who Chris Montes (who was latino), was cut from the group by the label's producer because he was too ethnic. Chris Montes did later go on to record a few hits of his own such "Do You Want To Dance".2. American Bandstand which first in 1952 played mostly Rock and Roll which, was pioneered and played by mostly black artist. However, it wasn't until 1957 that Johnny Nash, Jackie Wilson, and other African American singers performed on the show.3. The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Dells, and many other such groups were restricted to playing all black venues during the 50's and early 60's in the south. This gave rise to would later become know as "The Chitterling Circuit", as the venues were mostly nightclubs, and juke-joints. These artist received harrassment from local law enforcement agencies, and townspeople on a regular basis whenever they came to the highly segregated south.As far the scene where the record company brings a white group called The Four Horsemen, that's not really a stretch. Most of the time what would happen is that a black group would write or even release a song to the black audience, while the record company would have that same song "covered" by a white group to be released to the "mainstream" audience. The covered version of these songs were the ones that normally got air play from disc jockeys. The best example I can give of that is the 1955 hit by The Platters "Only You (And You Alone)". This song was released on Mercury Records, while one of their subsidiary labels Dot Records released a covered version of the same song by a group called The Hilltopper's who hailed from Western Kentucky College (all white school...segregation you know.) The Hilltopper's version of Only You hit number eight on the pop charts six weeks after the release of the Platters version. The Platters version however reached number on the R&B charts, and crossed over to the pop charts were it number five. A few months later in 1956 The Platters hit #1 on the pop charts with The Great Pretender, which was covered by Stan Freberg in the same year without the same success.All of that is to say that the movie has its facts straight about what black artist went through in those days, but it's about much more than that. It's about the rise, fall, and resurrection of a talented group, and the proof that love and friendship can withstand all of life's ups and downs.