The Five Heartbeats
| The Five Heartbeats | |
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| Directed by | Robert Townsend |
| Produced by | Christina Schmidlin Robert Townsend Kokayi Ampah Loretha C. Jones |
| Written by | Robert Townsend Keenen Ivory Wayans |
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| Music by | Stanley Clarke |
| Cinematography | Bill Dill |
| Edited by | John Carter |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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122 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $8,750,400 |
| The Five Heartbeats (Music from the Motion Picture) |
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| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | April 2, 1991 |
| Genre | R&B, soul |
| Label | Capitol |
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| Allmusic |   |
The Five Heartbeats is a 1991 musical drama film directed by Robert Townsend, who co-wrote the script with Keenen Ivory Wayans. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film's main cast includes Townsend, Michael Wright, Leon Robinson, Harry J. Lennix, Tico Wells, Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, and Diahann Carroll. The plot of the film (which is loosely based on the lives of several artists: The Dells, The Temptations, Four Tops, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke and others) follows the three decade career of the rhythm and blues vocal group The Five Heartbeats. The film depicts the rise and fall of a Motown inspired soul act through the eyes of one of the Heartbeats, Donald "Duck" Matthews.
The film was released to most North American audiences March 29, 1991 however it was not made available to audiences in other continents until 2002 when a DVD was released prior to another DVD release in 2006 for the film's 15th anniversary. The movie received mixed reviews from critics.
In the early 1990s, Donald "Duck" Matthews browses a Rolling Stone magazine, noticing an article questioning the recent exploits of The Five Heartbeats, The Temptations, and The Four Tops and why the groups disbanded.
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Wikipedia