Wattstax

1973

Action / Comedy / Documentary / Music

4
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 89% · 40 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 89% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.7/10 10 1183 1.2K

concert black people race politics musical woodstock, new york watts riots

Plot summary

A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the living conditions in the current-day Watts neighborhood.

Director

Mel Stuart Photo
Mel Stuart

Top cast

Isaac Hayes Photo
Isaac Hayes as Self
Jesse Jackson Photo
Jesse Jackson as Self
Melvin Van Peebles Photo
Melvin Van Peebles as Self
Mavis Staples Photo
Mavis Staples as Self - The Staple Singers
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
948.85 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 4
1.9 GB
1920*1072
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 11

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by mobyvicp71 8 / 10

Only 12 Comments for This Movie???

I only heard of this movie recently, bought it yesterday, and watched it this evening. Wow! I'm old enough to remember 1972, but I was very removed from the feel of this film at the time.The musical performances are magnificent, and the attempt to capture the feel of the people in the audience is admirable, but I wonder if "Isaac the Bartender" from "The Love Boat" was actually a Watts resident or if he was an actor hired to evoke a mood (same deal for "Woodrow" from "Sanford and Son").I suppose it's good that we would consider the Reverend Jesse Jackson enticing 100,000 black people to shout "I am somebody!" not so significant today, but in 1972 it was probably considered radical.Rufus Thomas is an absolute gem. It's amazing to see how smoothly he works crowd control, completely eliminating the need for police intervention, by appealing directly to the masses. And of course it's always a treat to see the Staple Singers perform.I recommend this movie first for the fabulous musical performances, and second for its capturing of the feel of the time and place. I give it an 8 instead of a 10 simply because I wish I could have seen ALL of the performances in their entirety.
Reviewed by tavm 10 / 10

Richard Pryor and the Stax Records roster dominate Wattstax

On August 20, 1972-the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots-a 7 hour concert of various musical acts from the Stax Records roster was held at the Los Angeles Coliseum in honor of that event. Among those artists put in the film include: The Stax Golden 13 warbling "Old Time Religion", The Staple Singers chanting "Respect Yourself", Kim Weston performing "Lift Every Voice and Sing", The Bar-Kays doing "Son of Shaft", Albert King singing "I'll Sing the Blues for You", Carla Thomas warbling "Picking Up the Pieces", Rufus Thomas performing "The Breakdown" and "Do the Funky Chicken", Luthur Ingram wailing "If Loving You is Wrong, I Don't Want to be Right", and Isaac Hayes doing-of course-"Theme From Shaft". In addition, three young women called The Emotions perform in a church with "Peace Be Still". All are surrounded by Richard Pryor doing some hilarious monologues about growing up black as well as many Watts residents-one of which I recognized as Ted Lange, later Isaac on "The Love Boat"-also talking about pretty much the same thing. Director Mel Stuart also provides lots of documentary footage of the area as it was at the time and during the events this film addresses. The performances I saw were great and I was especially glad to see the Hayes sequence since it wasn't in the airing on Cinemax in the '90s when I first watched this. The version I saw just now was on YouTube with the first 49 minutes from a French broadcast and the other an Asian one though it cut off after Luther Ingram in the middle of Pryor's next segment so I had to look elsewhere on the YouTube site for Richard's remaining monologues and Hayes' restored performance (I've yet to see his other number "Soulsville"). Nonetheless, this was a great documentary with excellent musical performances all around. So on that note, Wattstax is well worth seeing. P.S. Both The Emotions and The Staple Singers were native to my birthtown of Chicago, Ill. Luther Ingram was the co-writer-with Mack Rice-of the Staples' "Respect Yourself". It happened to be Hayes' 30th birthday when he performed at this event. And I also noticed Ossie Davis and wife Ruby Dee among the audience members. Update: 6/8/13-I've now seen Hayes' "Soulsville" performance and it's a nice serious number about the struggles of his people living below their means with pertinent footage accompanying it.
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