Doesn't tell you anything the much shorter 1979 documentary "Paul Robeson, Tribute To An Artist" failed to mention and it does it tediously with, as the previous reviewer noted, poor sound and print quality, talking heads that are allowed to go on too long and stuff about musicology and Othello that are pretty dull. C plus. PS...Just once in these too hagiographic looks at this man of principle and integrity I would have liked it if someone had asked Robeson or one of his acolytes if he regarded Stalinist Russia with unbridled admiration or harbored some doubts.
4 Reviews
Why Am I the first to Review?
kacarrol-783-57728527 September 2021
This phenomenal story of the life of this larger than life icon was made in 1977. It is now September 2021 and I am the first to review it? The footage must have been in hiding most of the time. There is so much in this documentary to prove that this man was much more than that heavenly, thunderous voice we all know from "Showboat." An ultimate intellectual, elite scholar, superb athlete, world renowned actor, vocal activist, civil rights leader, loving husband and more...Paul Robeson...a great man we all should know!
An interesting documentary with serious technical problems
richard-178727 September 2021
I am only the second person to review this documentary on here. I wonder why. I just saw it tonight - 27 Sept 2021 - on TCM, whom I thank for showing it.
I've admired Robeson as a singer for decades I"m not old enough to have seen him on the stage in "straight" shows, but he was evidently very impressive there as well. His phenomenal speaking voice, rich, low, with remarkable diction, suggests that he could have been formidable.
It's a shame that his few movies don't do him justice, but there just weren't good roles for Black male leads during his heyday.
This 90 minute movie is a mixed bag. There are certainly some interesting scenes and material in it. But the sound - at least on the copy TCM showed - varied from poor to inaudible, and the color was not much better. I gather that it was a very low-budget movie reproduced on inexpensive film stock that has not aged well - at least in the case of the copy TCM ran. This would seem to be producer/director Gil Noble's only movie, so I suspect it was a labor of love, the offshoot of a tv series he did devoted to Black affairs. The page here on IMDB devoted to it covers just the bare minimum and is, I suspect, recent.
In the end, readers of this review will want to know if it is worth their time to watch the movie. I would definitely say yes. If you know nothing about Robeson other than what you can find on Wikipedia, it's a good way to go further. Just be prepared for some bad sound and poor visuals.
I've admired Robeson as a singer for decades I"m not old enough to have seen him on the stage in "straight" shows, but he was evidently very impressive there as well. His phenomenal speaking voice, rich, low, with remarkable diction, suggests that he could have been formidable.
It's a shame that his few movies don't do him justice, but there just weren't good roles for Black male leads during his heyday.
This 90 minute movie is a mixed bag. There are certainly some interesting scenes and material in it. But the sound - at least on the copy TCM showed - varied from poor to inaudible, and the color was not much better. I gather that it was a very low-budget movie reproduced on inexpensive film stock that has not aged well - at least in the case of the copy TCM ran. This would seem to be producer/director Gil Noble's only movie, so I suspect it was a labor of love, the offshoot of a tv series he did devoted to Black affairs. The page here on IMDB devoted to it covers just the bare minimum and is, I suspect, recent.
In the end, readers of this review will want to know if it is worth their time to watch the movie. I would definitely say yes. If you know nothing about Robeson other than what you can find on Wikipedia, it's a good way to go further. Just be prepared for some bad sound and poor visuals.
How can one watch this?
chicagohowards3 July 2022
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