Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 44
Fresh: 27 | Rotten: 17
Though this documentary could be more informative, the performances themselves are wonderful.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 22
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 7
Though this documentary could be more informative, the performances themselves are wonderful.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 540
Roger Friedman is an entertainment journalist and music fan with a particular love for R&B and soul music from the mid-'50s to the pre-disco era of the early '70s. Owing in part to segregated booking policies and simple lack of proper archiving, Friedman discovered there is little or no surviving film footage or videotape of many of the greatest artists of the era performing on-stage. However, a large number of the performers in question were still active and performing on a regular basis, and
Jan 1, 2002 Wide
Feb 3, 2004
Miramax Films
All Critics (50) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (17) | DVD (2)
There's no problem with a little bias, but Friedman's fan-boy perspective puts the subjects of Only the Strong Survive on too high a pedestal.
Content to merely serve as a cluttered, heart-shaped scrapbook, missing many more stories than it bothers to include.
... the music is great, but as a film thumbs down.
Fortunately, the performances themselves are beautifully filmed and recorded.
A film that even with its flaws should be cheered for preserving the later years of these towering musical talents.
Worth the time and money some of the summer's effects-driven spectacles probably won't be.
...fails to give audiences as much frame of reference for the unifying economic, political and atmospheric elements that made the Stax brand of R&B soul music so powerful.
you get the feeling that Hegedus and Pennebaker couldn't care less about soul music.
I would have prefered deeper insights... [but] as a concert film, this one's a blast.
A disorganized sprawl.
Lacks context, depth and a sense of purpose.
Invaluable as a record of its subjects (including the late, great Rufus Thomas), but it doesn't cohere as a feature...
A loving look at soul's golden era that leaves you wanting more; a disappointment in some respects because it doesn't craft a more comprehensive, cohesive background.
The scrappy country cousin to the high-gloss Standing in the Shadows of Motown.
These survivors share a timelessness and a universality that remain untouched by the fickle shifts of popular culture.
Only good memories come from reliving this music, I sometimes feel bad for the younguns, I know they can listen to it now, but you had to have been in that era, to know what I mean.
March 11, 2007
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