The Five Heartbeats

1991 • 121 minutes

About this movie

Loosely based on the life and times of several R&B artists (The Dells, The Temptations, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke and others) The Five Heartbeats traces the rise and fall of a popular African-American 1950s singing aggregation. The story is told from the point of view of one of the "Heartbeats," played by Robert Townsend (who also co-produced, directed and co-wrote the script with Keenan Ivory Waynans). The film is an amalgam of anecdotes drawn from real-life experiences: the long struggle upward, the first rush of success, the dishonest record-company executives, the hard-nosed but nurturing managers, the sex, the drugs, the isolation and the precipitous downward slide. The film begins and ends in the 1990s, as the middle-aged "Duck" (Townsend) ruminates on the past and makes the best of the present.

Ratings and reviews

This film captures a good look on the Motown era and has great development that characters experience for fame. This is a good film that show five, great male African-American protagonist's that aren't typically slaves or a manual labor workers. Too bad films like these get bad reviews where having black people being professionals, but a film like Driving Miss Daisy, where Morgan Freeman is some low paid driver, will suddenly be out bursted with four stars reviews. This film does the out of the ordinary for movies with black roles.

I Did Not like part when the brother asked about. His ROYALTIES anx when Our Elder Doo Whop Baba was killed. Was Diana Carolls hudband.

It's a musical, a love story, a coming of age story steeped in Black culture and heritage through the lens of soul music. It's the must see feel good story of a lifetime.