Bolivion

#5 The Five Heartbeats

Robert Townsend can be forgiven for B.A.P.S. and Meteor Man, because of Hollywood Shuffle (which I may do) and this...

This movie I had on VHS for the longest. It was on the tape with Jo Jo Dancer, back when I would try to squeeze 3 movies on one tape. I'm too embarassed to tell ya'll what the third movie is.

This is another one of those movies you have to come across at least once if you're black. It follows the career of Duck (Townsend), his brother J.T. (Leon), and their homies Choirboy (Tico Wells), Dresser (Harry Lennix), and Eddie Kane Jr. (Michael Wright). They start off singing in talent shows, when Jimmy (Chuck Patterson) watches them and wants to manage, much to the dismay of his wife Elanor (Diahann Carroll). They improve somewhat, but they need some moves, in comes Sarge (Harold Nicolas), who dresses down Dresser and his lame moves. They win a big talent competition and get signed by Big Red Records, the owner of which, Big Red (Hawthorne James) has a jones for Elanor. The Hearbeats get large, then problems start with Eddie, who starts to get high and drunk all the time, missing shows n shit, taunting the Heartbeats rival in Flash (John Canada Terrell), "You want my spot Flash?"

Turns out, Eddie was trying to leave the Heartbeats through Big Red's influence, and Jimmy wasn't having it. So, Red had Jimmy whacked, the Hearbeats was fucked up about it and left for A&B Records, without Eddie, as Flash took his spot. Betrayal sets in, the Hearbeats break up and years later reconcile, blah blah blah, I know ya'll seen it...

This movie has a lot of great scenes, and a What the Fuck moment. Allegedly, the scene where Bird (Roy Fegan) was hung out of a window happened to Jackie Wilson. We already know it happened to Vanilla Ice, lol. Another great scene is where Eddie, after Flash takes his spot and he becomes a full time crackhead, approaches the Heartbeats after a show, dressed in one of their costumes from 1965 like, 'ANNNNNNG!', and follow that up singing...

"Nights like this... IIIII wish...that raindrops would fa-ha-ha-ha-hallll..."

Eddie was definitely the most interesting character. From the moment he is introduced in the movie, you knew he was going to be at the center of some shit.

Oh, a WTF moment was the whole time Duck was talking to that broad from the charm school, Tanya. First off, he started stalking her ass, and knew she had a nigga. THEN he starts leaving her poetry notes. THEN, when he approaches her about it, she don't even know who she is, and her moms hands him a box from the Salvation Army. He saved himself a little digninty by leaving her alone at that point, but as SOON as that nigga got rich, she found his ass. And he fell for it, then wondered why she would start creeping with his brother. No respect.

Oh, and Leon and Lester's Country and Western rap foretold Nelly and Tim McGraw. Scary, huh?

The soundtrack to this is cool, with a version of 'Nights Like This' done by After 7, and 'Stay in My Corner' and 'A Heart Is A House For Love' by the Dells.

This is one movie I enjoyed over, and over and over again, since at the time I only had like four movies. But today I will still sit down and watch it, even if only to sing along with Eddie... Nights like this IIIII wish...that raindrops would fa-ha-ha-ha-hallll...

Next: The Color Purple, after the Super Bowl...

Posted by maximillian at February 5, 2005 10:18 PM