Wattstax (1972)

Review by All Movie Guide
The 1972 Wattstax festival was the biggest soul concert ever, and it follows that the film of the same name is one of the most notable documents of soul music. It includes performances (usually very good ones) by some big and not-so-big names of the early-'70s scene: Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Johnnie Taylor, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, the Bar-Kays, bluesmen Albert King and Little Milton, and on down to more minor but worthwhile artists like the Rance Allen Group and the Emotions. It's not quite an eclectic across-the-board sampling of top-line soul music, since all of the acts were associated with the Stax label (hence the event title Wattstax). But as Stax was the biggest soul label of the day except for Motown, that's not such a notable limitation. Actual music from Wattstax is only about half the movie, however, as the filmmakers took a chance and integrated quite a bit of footage of African-American life from the streets of Watts (often centered around cinema verite monologues and dialogues) as well as numerous comic routines by Richard Pryor and a few musical numbers not staged at the concert itself. While this to a certain extent guarantees an uneven quality, it also makes it more than a mere concert film, but also serving as a reflection of early-'70s African-American urban life -- of which music, of course, was a big part. That's not to say the music fan won't find a number of memorable sequences here, like the outrageously costumed Bar-Keys' movie-stealing "Son of Shaft"; the Emotions' lovely gospel number, filmed inside a church; a sweaty Johnnie Taylor in a nightclub; and a chicken-squawking Rufus Thomas, who manages to avoid a festival stoppage when dancers overrun the field by coaxing everyone back into the stands with rap-like rhymes. Unfortunately, due to legal problems, the grand finale of Isaac Hayes doing "Theme From 'Shaft'" had to be cut from the initial release (another song filmed on a sound stage mimicking Wattstax had to be substituted), but Hayes' original concert sequence is restored in the DVD version. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Movie Guide