Actually “Wattstax” is quite a weird thing. It’s mostly a concert film, about the Wattstax concert that took place in Watts in August of 1972, the seventh anniversary of the riots. There’s some other stuff, like interviews with Stax locals about their lives and above all Richard Pryor (just about to become the Greatest Of All Time) doing some routines.
The concert is held – maybe you’ve guessed it – by Stax Records, the famous Memphis label. It was a strange time for Stax, who had battled througout the sixties with Motown. Motown had beautiful pop and the Funk Brothers, Stax had a gritty sound and deep Southern soul. Motown had Marvin, Smokey, Little Stevie, the Jackson 5. Stax had Otis, Sam and Dave, Booker T..
Motown made the jump into the 70s (also with a move away from Detroit), Stax never really did. It did have Isaac Hayes though, who had started out as a songwriter (allegedly he and David Porter wrote “Hold On, I’m Coming” when one shouted it to the other one from the toilet).
Hayes appears at the very end, in full-on Black Moses mode, to play “Soulsville” and “Theme from Shaft”. Before that there are The Dramatics, the absolutely heavenly Staple Singers (sadly not on stage, just on the soundtrack), the mighty Rance Allen (Stax always had strong Southern Gospel roots), the incredible Rufus Thomas doing the Funky Chicken, his daughter Carla Thomas (the first Stax star, who had recorded a very sweet duet album with Otis).
In other words: Pleasures too numerous too count. Maybe “Wattstax” tries a little to hard to be a Document but it success in spite of itself. Before the concert Kim Weston sings “The Star-Spangled Banner” to much disinterest, and then “Lift Every Voice And Sing” which everybody indeed does. I mean, come on.
http://vimeo.com/30318776