The Gospel According To Al Green – 25th
Anniversary Edition (1984/Acorn
Media DVD)
Picture: C Sound:
C+ Extras: C+ Film: C+
Al Green
was one of the most important Soul/R&B vocalists in the peak period of that
genre, then after making so many priceless contributions and classic songs, he
left for religious reasons and turned full-time to Gospel. Disco and his loss in part led to the end of
such music in the 1980s and he really never returned. Robert Mugge’s The Gospel According To Al Green (1984) shows us where he moved
onto and that he was still alive and well, if just preaching to the choir.
I did not
find this engrossing or inspirational, though the film always had its fans and
has enough Gospel and interviews to please them, though we also get critics and
fans who praise his former career. Green
said an incident where, after telling a woman he was dating that he did not
want to marry her (she threw boiling water on him while he was in the shower!) made
him rethink his life and become Christian.
Many will never forgive her for that for many reasons.
Green
seems happy here, but as before when I saw this many years ago, there is
something missing on his part that that is as if he lost some part of himself
to find peace and I wondered fi he ever recovered. For the 1988 Bill Murray comedy Scrooged, he remade Put A Little Love in Your Heart with
Annie Lennox of Eurythmics and surprised many, but for the two-plus decades
since, he has been gone from Soul music and though he could easily make a
comeback, we’ll never hear from him in that context again. That makes this film an ironic farewell.
The 1.33
X 1 image is a little softer than it should be, shot in 16mm film that looks
clean and clear for its age. An HD
transfer is needed. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo is not bad, but shows its age.
Extras include many Gospel music performances (with and without video)
of Green, trailer, answering machine message Green made for Mugge and Mugge
interview reflections on Green and this film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
