ARETHA ...the untold story
kerson but calling it off shortly
rwards. Yet despite all the drama Aretha’s life, the film has been used of failing to lay bare her ier tragedies.
hen it chronicles her descent alcoholism, it is said to lack feeldue to the absence of the childd trauma from which it stems. ritics say there is even a lack
motion in the climax, in which tha, played by Jennifer Hudson, pares to perform Amazing Grace e defining project of her career.
retha died in August 2018, aged from a tumour on her pancreas.
ong those visiting her on her thbed were Stevie Wonder and tical activist Jesse Jackson.
S President Barack Obama paid ute, saying she had “helped define
American experience”. he film ends with 2015 footage of ama moved to tears as he watches tha perform her hit (You Make Feel Like) A Natural Woman.
ith her song Respect, from which film takes its title, adopted as an hem of the civil rights movement,
tha took great pride in the historiand social legacy of her music. n her autobiography, Aretha:
m These Roots, she called the g “an ongoing blessing in my life”. he wrote: “It was the need of a na, the need of the average man and man in the street, the businessn, the mother, the fireman, the
her – everyone wanted respect.”
Jennifer sang with Aretha, she embodies her
amazingly
Racism
retha’s life had been shaped by
segregation and racism of the p South – another area the biopic ccused of overlooking. efending her decisions, director
l Tommy said: “The thing that t coming to me was the idea of a man who has the greatest voice in world – but who still doesn’t know
t her voice is.
She was able to musicalise her d experience… there is a handful eople on Planet Earth who were
n the gift of that sound. Aretha’s legacy plumbs the depths the highs of humanity and she
us that every part of being a an being is okay.” riter Tracey Scott Wilson added: e wasn’t born the Queen of Soul.
became the Queen of Soul. The ney is how does she become it.” raising Hudson’s portrayal, she
ed: “Jennifer knew Aretha and g with her, so Aretha chose nifer to play her.
It’s amazing how she can embody physically and vocally.”
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