Wattstax | Full Movie | Movies Anywhere

Name: Wattstax
Released: 1973-2-4
Cast: Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson, Melvin Van Peebles, Jesse Jackson

Wattstax

NR
1h 43m
1973

90%

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Featuring highlights of a seven-hour concert for an audience of over 100,000 people at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in the summer of 1972, along with on-the-street interviews and comedian Richard Pryor at his peak, this amazing documentary film celebrates a mammoth musical event, the seventh annual Watts Summer Festival. Performances include: "Theme from Shaft" and "Soulsville" by Isaac Hayes; The Dramatics' "What You See Is What You Get"; "If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Right" by Luther Ingram; "Respect Yourself" sung by The Staple Singers; "Breakdown" and "Funky Chicken" by Rufus Thomas; The Emotions' "Peace Be Still"; "I'll Sing The Blues For You" by Albert King; and many more.

Director:

Mel Stuart

Producer:

Mel Stuart, Larry Shaw (II), David L. Wolper, Al Bell

Cast:

Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson, Melvin Van Peebles, Jesse Jackson

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

90%

Critics Consensus: From the stage to the street, Wattstax brilliantly captures a musical moment -- and a poignantly passionate response to painful social upheaval.

Reviews

48 Hills

Dennis Harvey

It’s a memorable display of African-American pride—and extravagant 1970s sartorial style—that also makes room for such leading Black cultural figures of the moment as Richard Pryor, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee and Melvin Van Peeble...

All [the performers] draw lively reactions from the crowd who get to chant, "I am somebody." And isn't that all what we want to be?

It is a fine documentary in that it does, better than any popular music film with the possible exception of Woodstock, document a group of people, their music, how it came to be, and why they like it.