The Cover

These are the folks that Standing in the Shadows of Motown tries to shed some light on. Essentially what you learn is that not only were the self named "Funk Brothers" great musicians, they were Motown. Here's how it worked. They'd jam, create the beats and music, the singer would come in and sing. It's just incredible, in a jaw dropping way, to think about it. Nothing that I'd considered before this movie. In fact, someone is quoted in the documentary as saying that they could basically bring in a chicken, put it over Funk Brothers' music and end up with a hit. After watching this, you won't disagree.

In wonderfully moving, funny interviews, the surviving Funk Brothers talk about creating the music, inspirations and living in complete obscurity as the singers became superstars. Cut in with this interview footage (which is loose and on-location) are truly great concert sections. The Funk Brothers take to the stage to perform Motown hits along with Joan Osborne, Ben Harper and Gerald Levert who all really surprised me. Joan in particular can belt them out. Nice.

For fans of music, and Motown in particular, there's no reason why you wouldn't love this movie. It highlights forgotten heroes of music, and finally puts them in the limelight where they belong.

Movie Grade: A

Video: 3 out of 5
It's nice, but it's a mix of stock footage, grainy recreations and still photos. The concert is nice and crisp though. Really, ain't the point of this disc the music?
Widescreen Anamorphic 1.85:1

Audio: 5 out of 5
The concert is what gives this disc the high marks. Beautiful, loud and surround oriented, it's all you could ask for. The bass in particular is balanced just right with the high notes of the Motown sound.
English (DTS 6.1), English (Dolby 5.1)

Joan and the Guys

Extras: 4 out of 5
In my humble opinion, this disc would be better served by standing on it’s own. But there are a few nice extras including a funny commentary by Alan Slutsky (author of the book, producer of the movie) and director Paul Justman. That's the significant stuff for the first disc. On the second, there's some nice interviews and some deleted scenes, but I feel it's all a little gratuitous in light of the great movie.

Overall: 4 out of 5
At the very least, you must rent this movie and see it. There's no reason not to. Except if you hate Motown. If that's the case, you're probably not human, but rather a cruel alien master sent down to enslave us fun loving humans.

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