Amazing Grace

For younger readers, the late Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) was, simply put, one of the greatest singers America has produced. Her career began in 1956 and ended just last year, along the way winning 18 Grammy Awards and selling around 75 million records globally.

Like her contemporary Elvis Presley, Franklin synthesized different strands of American music—rhythm & blues, gospel, pop, and more—and wrought an indestructible alloy that transcends generations, languages, trends, everything. Franklin emerged from a gospel background and while that was always at the core of her style, after years of mainstream success, she wanted to focus on gospel.

Over two nights in January 1972, Franklin recorded the all-gospel album Amazing Grace live at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Director Sydney Pollock (The Way We Were, Tootsie, The Firm) was to document this event. For reasons technical and legal (not really discussed in the film), the movie was never released. The footage languished in a vault until producer Alan Elliott assembled it, and the finished product was widely released this year.

Amazing Grace is not a straightforward concert film—Pollock, in cinema verité style, covered the rehearsals and the performances that made the event, intercutting back and forth between the two. This approach grants more heft to the proceedings—we see and hear the work and inspiration that went into the final product.

Aretha Franklin, 1991. Photo: Michel Haddi.

Talk about blood, sweat and tears—Grace presents it all: the making of a song; the nervousness and stimulus of the performers; Franklin looking anxious before singing a few songs despite her many years of experience; the discipline and spontaneity of performance; dealing with equipment set-ups; and a few peeks at the mostly rapt audience. (Look for Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts amid the throng.)

One can virtually feel the perspiration on Franklin’s face, and the excitement of the onlookers and performers. For music nerds, musicians Chuck Rainey and Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, often heard (they’ve played on countless recording sessions) but seldom seen, are captured here, live, in their glory. The musical highlights are too many to list, but special mention must be made of the astonishing medley of the gospel standard “Precious Lord,” and Carole King’s pop classic “You’ve Got A Friend”; the stirring “Mary Don’t You Weep”; and the title song. Not to imply she slacked off later in her career, but Franklin was arguably at the peak of her vocal powers in the early 1970s. Judging music—especially vocalists—can be very subjective, but fans of Aretha, R&B, soul, African-American gospel, classic American music, and concert documentaries—run, don’t walk to this movie.

Mark Keresman