Highest-Rated Movies about 'Soul Music'

The T.A.M.I. Show (1964), Rocky (1976), The Thing (1982), The Blues Brothers (1980), Ray (2004), Wattstax (1973), Everything: The Real Thing Story (2019), The Commitments (1991) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Soul Music movies.

#1. The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

Storyline: Chuck Berry opens the show and performs "Johnny B Goode" and his 1955 hit "Maybelline". He is then joined by "Gerry and The Pacemakers" who do their updated British version of the song. and a medley of their hits. "Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas perform "Little Children " and "Bad To Me". Detroits' Motown is represented as "Diana Ross and The Supremes " sing "Baby Love" , by "Smokey Robinson and The Miracles" who sing "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" and by Marvin Gaye who sings " Hitchhike". NYCs Lesley Gore sings "It's My Party" and "You Don't Own Me",a million seller several years before "women's lib" The 'early surfer' hosts, Jan and Dean sing "The Little Old Lady From Passedena". "The Beach Boys" sing " I Get Around". James Brown, making his first nationally televised appearance, performs his standards "Out Of Sight", "Prisoner Of Love", "Night Train" and "Please Please Please", with cape. The Rolling Stones , in their first major venue, close the show performing "Time Is On My Side", "It's All Over Now", ' Around and Around ", and are joined by a festive cast who dance to Mick Jagger's rendition of "I'm Alright".—efffee@aol.com

Plot Keywords: national film registry, rock music, concert film, acronym in title, california, 1960s, teenager ...

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#2. Rocky (1976)

Storyline: Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying to make the big time, working as a debt collector for a pittance. When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to set up an exhibition match between Creed and a struggling boxer, touting the fight as a chance for a "nobody" to become a "somebody". The match is supposed to be easily won by Creed, but someone forgot to tell Rocky, who sees this as his only shot at the big time.

Plot Keywords: boxer, strongman, training, boxing, fistfight, 1970s, violence ...

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#3. The Thing (1982)

Storyline: A US research station, Antarctica, early-winter 1982. The base is suddenly buzzed by a helicopter from the nearby Norwegian research station. They are trying to kill a dog that has escaped from their base. After the destruction of the Norwegian chopper the members of the US team fly to the Norwegian base, only to discover them all dead or missing. They do find the remains of a strange creature the Norwegians burned. The Americans take it to their base and deduce that it is an alien life form. After a while it is apparent that the alien can take over and assimilate into other life forms, including humans, and can spread like a virus. This means that anyone at the base could be inhabited by The Thing, and tensions escalate.

Plot Keywords: antarctica, body horror, paranoia, isolation, alien life form, alien creature, shapeshifting ...

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#4. The Blues Brothers (1980)

Storyline: After the release of Jake Blues from prison, he and brother Elwood go to visit "The Penguin", the last of the nuns who raised them in a boarding school. They learn the Archdiocese will stop supporting the school and will sell the place to the Education Authority. The only way to keep the place open is if the $5000 tax on the property is paid within 11 days. The Blues Brothers want to help, and decide to put their blues band back together and raise the money by staging a big gig. As they set off on their "mission from God" they seem to make more enemies along the way. Will they manage to come up with the money in time?

Plot Keywords: 1980s, chicago illinois, flamethrower, reckless driving, police chase, parolee, building collapse ...

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#5. Ray (2004)

Storyline: The story of Ray Charles, music legend. Told in his adult live with flashbacks to his youth we see his humble origins in Florida, his turbulent childhood which included losing his brother and then his sight, his rise as pianist in a touring band, his writing his own songs and running his own band and then stardom. Also includes his addiction to drugs and its affect on his working life and family life.

Plot Keywords: based on true story, drug addict, civil rights, concert, male female relationship, dream, racial discrimination ...

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#6. Wattstax (1973)

Storyline: Documentary with a selection from a non-stop 7-hour musical event at Watts, the Los Angeles Coliseum, August 20, 1972. It's a sort of Woodstock event but with black artists, namely the groups Dramatics, Staple Singers, Rance Allen Group, Emotions, Bar Kays, Mel & Tim.—Artemis-9

Plot Keywords: national film registry, musician, music festival, inner city, charity, 1970s, concert film ...

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#7. Everything: The Real Thing Story (2019)

Storyline: Dubbed 'the black Beatles' by the British tabloids, the 'other' four lads from Liverpool recount their incredible story from the tough streets of Toxteth to the bright lights of New York - a journey of international stardom as Britain's pioneering million-selling soul and funk band. Against a backdrop of prejudice and political turmoil in the 1970s, The Real Thing were the first all-black British band to hit #1 in the UK pop charts, with the universally-loved 'You To Me Are Everything'. Other hits like 'Can't Get By Without You', 'You'll Never Know What You're Missing' and 'Can You Feel the Force' set dance-floors alight, but their proudest moment was composing the rousing 'Children of the Ghetto' - the first ever protest song to address the plight of black immigrants in Britain. The group's massive success has been tempered with racism, drug addiction and suicide but, for the very first time, original band members Eddy Amoo, Chris Amoo and Dave Smith reveal the brutally honest truth behind their trailblazing 50-year career. After five decades together, they remain the godfathers of black British music.—Baker Street

Plot Keywords: racism, disco, 1970s, suicide, drug addiction, liverpool, soul music ...

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#8. The Commitments (1991)

Storyline: Funny, musical and occasionally dramatic, this is the story of tumultuous rise and fall of a Dublin Soul band, The Commitments. Managed by Jimmy Rabbitte, an unemployed wheeler and dealer with a vision to create "The Worlds Hardest Working Band".

Plot Keywords: soul music, working class, ireland, price of fame, urban setting, blues music, friendship ...

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#9. Blood Simple (1984)

Storyline: Texas bar owner Julian Marty, who is generally regarded as not a nice person, hires shady private detective Loren Visser, who is able to obtain what Marty requests evidence - in this instance, photographic - that his wife, Abby, and one of his bartenders, Ray, are having an affair. As Ray and Abby realize that Marty has found out about them, it allows them to plan for their future away from Marty, while be up front with Marty about the situation. Marty, in turn, decides to hire Visser once again, this time to kill Abby and Ray, and dispose of their bodies so that they won't be found. The out in the open affair and the contract hit lead to some actions based on self interest, and a standoff of sorts between the four players, which is compounded in complexity by some wrong assumptions of what has happened, with an innocent bystander, another of the Marty's bartenders, Meurice, potentially and unwittingly adding to the scenario.

Plot Keywords: double cross, neo noir, hired killer, crime gone awry, private detective, texas, black comedy ...

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#10. High Fidelity (2000)

Storyline: Thirty-something Rob Gordon, a former club DJ, owns a not so lucrative used record store in Chicago. He not so much employs Barry and Dick, but rather keeps them around as they showed up at the store one day and never left. All three are vinyl and music snobs, but in different ways. Rob has a penchant for compiling top five lists. The latest of these lists is his top five break-ups, it spurred by the fact that his latest girlfriend, Laura, a lawyer, has just broken up with him. He believed that Laura would be the one who would last, partly as an expectation of where he would be at this stage in his life. Rob admits that there have been a few incidents in their relationship which in and of themselves could be grounds for her to want to break up. To his satisfaction, Laura is not on this top five list. Rob feels a need not only to review the five relationships, which go back as far as middle school when he was twelve, and try to come to terms with why the woman, or girl as the case may ...

Plot Keywords: employer employee relationship, based on novel, based on book, record store, talking to the camera, breaking the fourth wall, two word title ...

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#11. Blindspotting (2018)

Storyline: Collin (Daveed Diggs) must make it through his final three days of probation for a chance at a new beginning. He and his troublemaking childhood best friend, Miles (Rafael Casal), work as movers and are forced to watch their old neighborhood become a trendy spot in the rapidly gentrifying Bay Area. When a life-altering event causes Collin to miss his mandatory curfew, the two men struggle to maintain their friendship as the changing social landscape exposes their differences. Explores the intersection of race and class set against the backdrop of Oakland.

Plot Keywords: race relations, car alarm, sailboat, football, photo album, reference to fred astaire, abandoned house ...

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#13. What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)

Storyline: Anna Mae Bullock always had a special voice. Soon after arriving in St. Louis to live with the mother who had walked out when she was small, she soon attracts the attention of pop group leader Ike Turner. She becomes his band's singer, his wife, and mother to his children - not all hers. In love with him and determined not to leave in the way her mother had, she finds herself the target of increasing violence from him who can't see who is making his band such a success.

Plot Keywords: based on true story, music industry, domestic violence, based on autobiography, title based on song, 1970s, 1960s ...

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#14. The Sapphires (2012)

Storyline: 1968 was the year that changed the world. And for four young Aboriginal sisters from a remote mission this is the year that would change their lives forever. Around the globe, there was protest and revolution in the streets. Indigenous Australians finally secured the right to vote. There were drugs and the shock of a brutal assassination. And there was Vietnam. The sisters, Cynthia, Gail, Julie and Kay are discovered by Dave, a talent scout with a kind heart, very little rhythm but a great knowledge of soul music. Billed as Australia's answer to 'The Supremes', Dave secures the sisters their first true gig, and flies them to Vietnam to sing for the American troops. Based on a true story, THE SAPPHIRES is a triumphant celebration of youthful emotion, family and music.

Plot Keywords: soul music, based on true story, singer, female singer, singing, vietnam war, audition ...

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#15. Liberty Heights (1999)

Storyline: Anti-Semitism, race relations, coming of age, and fathers and sons: in Baltimore from fall, 1954, to fall, 1955. Racial integration comes to the high school, TV is killing burlesque, and rock and roll is pushing the Four Lads off the Hit Parade. Ben, a high school senior, and his older brother Van are exploring "the other": in Ben's case, it's friendship with Sylvia, a Black student; with Van, it's a party in the WASP part of town and falling for a debutante, Dubbie. Sylvia gives Ben tickets to a James Brown concert; Dubbie invites Van to a motel: new worlds open. Meanwhile, their dad Nate, who runs a numbers game, loses big to a small-time pusher, Little Melvin; a partnership ensues.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: marriage, intimacy, racist, teenager, fraud, gambling, lottery ...

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