I read that Earth Wind & Fire's masterpiece
1975 album That's the way of the world is a soundtrack
2 a movie with the same name & have the EWF starring in it.
Now,have anyone of y'all seen it.It must B rare.
What's it like?
/peace Manki

I still haven't seen this. All I've seen are 5th generation bootlegs on Ebay. All I know is it stars Harvey Keitel and EWF and was supposed to be a semi-autobiographical story about how they got started in the record business. It was a Sig Shore production.

psykosoul said:

ooh,that would B so great 2 see!
/peace Manki

Yes,'That's The Way Of The World' is a 1975 movie starring Harvey Keitel and Earth Wind and Fire.Everyone is familiar with the soundtrack,but not too many people went out to see the movie,and it disappeared from theatres after only a few days.It's not a very good movie,and it is very low-budget,like many of the blaxploitation films from this era.The film attempts to show us how shady and ruthless the record business is.It's an intriguing concept for a film,but unfortunately,the plot is paper-thin and totally predictable.


Harvey Keitel plays a record producer named Buckmaster who works for a popular record company.He is working on producing the debut album by "The Group",played by Earth Wind and Fire.He's very enthusiastic about this project and is determined to turn them into superstars.We see shots of The Group in the studio,reheasing an instrumental version of the title song.Later,Maurice confronts Buckmaster.He's angry because the album is taking forever to get done.We soon learn that the record company is not really interested in The Group.They're more excited with their newest act:a three-member family vocal group known as "The Pages".It consists of a father,his daughter and his son.This group specializes in a soft-rock Carpenters-type sound....the type of stuff that Buckmaster is trying to avoid.He's more interested in the edgy,funky sounds that The Group is playing.


So of course,Buckmaster fights with his record company bosses.They insist that he forget about The Group and focus on The Pages instead.He reluctantly agrees.So we soon see him in the studio,producing a song called "Joy" for the Pages.The lead singer is interested in Buckmaster and she throws herself at him.He begins an affair with her,which complicates matters even more.Meanwhile,Maurice and the guys in the Group continue working on their music.They perform "Happy Feeling" at a skating rink.

The biggest disappointment about this movie is the way EW&F's music is used.Despite the strong lyrics that relate to the action going on,most songs are only heard in their instrumental versions! The band performs "Happy Feeling" (with vocals) twice,and "Shining Star" (with vocals) is heard on a radio as Buckmaster drives around town.But every other song is heard only in their instrumental version.The songs "See The Light","Reasons","Yearnin Learnin","All About Love" and the title track are used as background music only.No vocals whatsover.

The Pages become an overnight success,but Buckmaster isn't happy.He eventually finds a way to outsmart his record company bosses,and he is free to leave the company and take The Group with him.We then see The Group performing "Happy Feeling" again,but this time,they're performing to a huge crowd.With Buckmaster guiding them,they apparently hit the big time.End of movie.

psykosoul said:

Several years ago,I knew a guy who was selling VHS copies for only $15.I'm gonna see if I can find his email address,I'm sure he has more copies.I'll post the information here.Trust me,you do not wanna spend a fortune for this movie on Ebay.It ain't that good.

I have an original, out of print VHS copy, from the early eighties... I actually think the movie's pretty cool, although it's certainly not a great film, by any stretch of the imagination... everybody panned it back in the day, including Maurice, and while some of it is a little hokey, I really enjoyed it...and it pretty much still holds true today -- a corporate music giant forces a producer(Harvey Keitel) to help push a lackluster, no talent pop group, while he's told to forget the talented group that he really believes in, and wants the company to promote (The Band - played by Earth wind and Fire).....the movie has to be seen just for the opening shot alone --EWF in the studio tuning up, then launching into doing "That's The Way Of The World"-- even though its a prerecorded track, it's mostly instrumental, with the group grooving along, until Maurice grabs the mic, and then the vocals drop in...and there's also scenes from an EWF concert at the end, with Verdine levitating on stage...

True, most of their music is used instrumentally, and it is a low budget film, but I still liked it...I think most people's disappointment comes from the fact that it's not a film about Earth Wind and Fire per se--it's a small, fictional story about a producer and his struggles, that just happens to have EWF in it...Luckily the album was released on it's own, rather than in conjuction with the movie, and propelled EWF to the top of Not only the R&B, but also the Pop charts--If they had been that big before the movie was done--I dunno, I'm guessing they probaly wouldn't have done the film in the first place!

Incidentally, EWF's real producer, the great Charles Stepney, cameos as Harvey Keitel's sound engineer and right hand man---hilarious, when you think about the reality of the situation--Off Camera, Stepney's giving pointers and advice to Keitel about how to play a producer in the studio, then when the cameras are rolling, Keitel's giving him advice, !!






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[Edited 5/24/05 14:07pm]

DavidEye said:

It's also very subtle about its feelings toward the record industry.

paligap said:

My VHS copy is also from the early 80s.It's extremely rare.I think it's been out of print ever since.Even though this movie is less-than-spectacular,I kinda wish it would come out on DVD.It's a nice item to have,if you're an EW&F fan.

RipHer2Shreds said:

Thank you Pali and David for the reviews. I remember this movie from "back in the day" but have never seen it. It did run in the theaters real briefly and I was kind of surprised to see it had a "R" rating. (Back then my parents would not have taken me to see that-lol). It's kind of off topic but Harvey Kietel was supposed to direct a version of his own "Hendrix" movie in 1999. Q-Tip was going to star in it and it was supposed to be about the last month of Jimi's life. I guess after that horrible Showtime movie the plans were scrapped.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Yup--funny, there have been several intruiging attempts to do the Hendrix story, but they were all shot down -- another example: when Laurence Fishburne was younger, he had bought the rights to a movie version of David Henderson's Hendrix bio, "Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky", but plans for that got thwarted---I wonder what made the Hendrix family agree to the awful Showtime movie?



...

Paligap...did you like that song "Joy,Joy,Joy" that the Pages perform in the movie?


call me crazy,but I like it

DavidEye said:

I liked the arrangements that they (Keitel and Stepney, in the movie) were trying to add to it, to spice it up....



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psykosoul said:

Yep. Sadly to say, I haven't seen it yet either. This video store in Los Angeles that stocks rare, hard to find videos promised me that they would get this in, but they never have.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Say What???! I would have loved to had seen that. Yeah, the Showtime's movie was a disgrace. The first film on Jimi that was supposed to had gone done had Phil Lynot starring as Jimi. But that didn't happen cuz Phil himself had died.

Wow! Phil as Jimi? I didn't know that. That would have been cool. Charlie Wilson from the Gap Band was slated to play him back in 83 but those plans fell thru also.

SPYZFAN1 said:

Nah, Charlie Wilson?! Now, that's a stretch. I can't see that. That's as bad as when Spike Lee wanted to do Jimi's movie in 94, 95 (a good thing) but he wanted P to play Hendrix ( definately a bad thing). First off, P ALREADY played Hendrix in a movie. Purple Haze, oops I mean Purple Rain.

LOL!! You got that one Black! Spike was gonna do a flick too? Never knew that. It probably would have been interesting to see how Spike would have handled Jimi's "situaions" from a "Black" perspective. (lol)

SPYZFAN1 said:

Very true.

paligap said:

I wish I could find that song.The string arrangement is very impressive.

DavidEye said:

The Movie was sold outright to Bryanston Pictures in the seventies.They also owned a record company " Brian Records" that had Joy, Joy, Joy, on 45. For reasons best known to themselves Bryanston has not released any of it's many movies since the late 70's early 80's when the owners diversified their business interests.They were apparently the owners of the infamous porno "Deep Throat".