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12/11/08
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Only the Strong Survive (2003)
68
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:15
Rotten:7
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: Though this documentary could be more informative, the performances themselves are wonderful.
Theatrical Release:May 9, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: Influential documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, perhaps best known for his 1967 Bob Dylan documentary DON'T LOOK BACK, co-directs ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE, a fascinating look at some of the most... [More]
Starring: William Bell, Isaac Hayes, Sam Moore, Wilson Pickett
Director: Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker
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Reviews for Only the Strong Survive
Top CriticClick to read the article
08/07/04
Top CriticThere'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.
06/26/03
Top CriticContent to merely serve as a cluttered, heart-shaped scrapbook, missing many more stories than it bothers to include.
05/28/03
Top Critic... the music is great, but as a film thumbs down.
05/12/03
Top CriticFortunately, the performances themselves are beautifully filmed and recorded.
05/09/03
Top CriticA film that even with its flaws should be cheered for preserving the later years of these towering musical talents.
05/09/03
Top CriticWorth the time and money some of the summer's effects-driven spectacles probably won't be.
05/09/03
Top CriticWith Friedman, the narrator and emissary, tossing questions as squishy as Jell-O and heaping praise on the performers for their unexceptional appearances on the oldies circuit, it's a wasted opportunity.
05/09/03
Top CriticUnfortunately, it's not a great movie -- and given the filmmakers involved, that's a criminal disappointment.
05/09/03
Top CriticA celebration of the under-appreciated, and if any purpose beyond that is a bit fuzzy, it's a harmless aimlessness that likely won't get in the way for fans of the music.
05/09/03
Top CriticI'm not sure where you go to church, but you're unlikely to experience anything as holy as Jerry Butler doing a live version of his soul classic 'For Your Precious Love' in Only the Strong Survive.
05/09/03
Top CriticA shoddy, borderline incompetent documentary that offers next to no context, a movie in which the performers are lucky if the filmmakers show them performing one song all the way through.
05/09/03
Top CriticAn entertaining documentary that catches up with R&B and soul superstars whose heydays were in the '50s to '70s.
05/09/03
Top CriticThe classic soul that pumps, struts, growls and cries through Only the Strong Survive is so adrenalized that young audiences encountering the music for the first time could easily find themselves converted into old fogies.
05/09/03
Top CriticThe film offers a terrific lineup, performers whose ability to enthrall audiences is undiminished years after their peak of popularity.
05/08/03
Top CriticAn affair that for long stretches resembles a Time-Life infomercial hawking Memphis soul CDs.
05/08/03
Top CriticThe movie is redeemed by the performances, which are uniformly good.
05/08/03
Top CriticIt gets to you, watching R&B legends such as Sam Moore, Jerry Butler, the Chi-Lites, Carla Thomas and the names above dig deeper into the music they made in the Sixties and Seventies.
05/08/03
Top CriticMust be appreciated as an idiosyncratic chronicle as well as a collection of performances, some better than others.
05/08/03
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