The Gospel According to Al Green (25th Anniversary Edition)

Robert Mugge

BY David DacksPublished Mar 3, 2009

This documentary, originally produced for BBC's Channel Four, has been hailed as one of the finest treatments of soul music ever put to camera. Mugge's film succeeds due to strong basic ingredients elevated by some incredible performances. The straightforward structure tells the story of Green's sudden rise to fame and his choice to leave it all behind for a life as a gospel singer and preacher. The live footage — shot at a party on an Air Force base — demonstrates Green's career struggles at the time. At the centre of it all is a remarkably lucid interview with Green about these defining moments of his life. The use of a "rock critic" as a voice of history and context is dated but so is the story itself. Since this film, Green has gone back and forth between secular and religious music, which ruins the all too perfect narrative, but at least the director acknowledges as much in his commentary.
(Acorn)

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