The Temptations

1998

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
8.4| NA| en| More Info
Released: 01 November 1998 Ended
Producted By: Hallmark Entertainment
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Biography of the singers who formed the hit Motown musical act, The Temptations.

Genre

Drama

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Director

Allan Arkush

Production Companies

Hallmark Entertainment

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The Temptations Audience Reviews

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
dunsuls-1 Being a white kid from Brooklyn there's no way I can know how accurate this movie is although it's based on a book by a real member of the group and withstood court suits from other family members of the group.Once I heard a quote,"If it ant't that way,it should have been"and so it is with this film.Released in 1998 and running 150 minutes it was first a TV miniseries and now a DVD.Besides the great music of the Temps,the acting is so fine it's divine. Leon IS David Ruffin and Terron Brooks IS Eddie Kendricks .Everyone else is fine as well.The movie starts out at HS in Detroit and ends with a funeral of a member with a cameo of Smokey singing at the burial.In between is the story of 2 groups members forming what became the temps and all the ups and downs that went with it.You listen to the music and stay for the story.The story only touched briefly on the various infidelities of members while focusing more on the group dynamics and lack there of.My favorite scene was the group stopping down south on a bus tour at a segregated HS dance,complete with a rope across the gym to keep whites and blacks separate while both sides enjoyed the music.Sad to think it was once really like that.
anne-hapeta In my opinion, this movie was so captivating, my soul soared every time they sang,my heart sunk every time when chapters in their lives were going pretty bad, i felt their joy and even their pain its just like i said its Captivating. I have a younger sister shes only 13 yrs, shes very much in to R&B and Hip hop but the reason why i mentioned this is because after watching this movie, she not only boasted about the movie to her friends but she also sings the songs while walking to school, i just thought that was nice to see and at least the lyrics she was singing was clean lyrics and not hardcore cursing with the hip hop she listens too lol. Just want to say is there anyway The Temptations would come to little ole New Zealand, you have such a Fan club :)
DarthBill Colorful looking TV miniseries about the life and times of the Motown super group known as the Temptations, arguably the greatest group to have come out of the Motown era, specifically focusing on the "Classic 5" line up: Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams (no relation to Otis) who, at the peak of their popularity, could win over any audience. But fame & fortune came at a price, as each of these five young men would learn the hard way. And when push came to shove, when the pressure of living in the spotlight got to be too much, tempers flared, egos clashed, giving rise to rivalries that threatened to destroy the group. Throughout it all, from tragedy to triumph - and there was plenty of both - these gifted singers still forged one of the greatest musical legacies the world has ever known.Adapted from the autobiography by Otis Williams, the group's De facto leader and the only surviving founding member, the film comes from his perspective and focuses a great deal on him and his best friend, the group's bass singer Melvin Franklin. So naturally, we are probably meant to sympathize with him most and Melvin (let's face, nobody sees themselves as a bad person and even when admitting their faults, they'll only make themselves out to be so bad). The once lovably laid back and very funny David Ruffin is predictably portrayed in an unflattering light once his ego inflates to paramount proportions after fame goes to his head, which understandably upsets his family and relatives to the point that they sued Otis Williams and the film's production company, because lets face it, no one likes to see their son/brother/father/grandfather/uncle portrayed in such a way, regardless of what his personal habits may have been. Hell, David Ruffin is more or less the poster child for how fame/success can ruin a man, and his own life became so wrought with problems (ranging from ego management to the painful cocaine addiction that eventually destroyed him) that you could probably make an entire film focused solely on him. It really is a shame that the real Ruffin wasted what little time he was going to have with his ego and personal problems getting in the way of his career, because he was a great singer and a great showman. Also sad to see is the tragic fate that befell Paul Williams, who's alcoholism (brought on in part by sickle cell anemia, which the film fails to mention) also got in the way of both his career and his life, which came to an end at 34 (Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin and Melvin Franklin all made to at least 50).The film does not really give much focus to Dennis Edwards, the large, powerfully built Contours singer who replaced David Ruffin as the group's lead singer in the late 1960s, leading them through the psychedelic, funk and disco periods, and little is said of the problems that later arose between him and Otis Williams, though they do give screen time to his anger over being asked to sing the first verse of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", since his own father died really died on the 3rd of September.Naturally, there are liberties taken to fit the running time. Perhaps the most offensive liberty taking concerns the death of Melvin Franklin - in the film Melvin is shown dying while visiting his mother with Otis, when in reality Melvin died in a hospital after slipping into a coma. This was reportedly done because the miniseries was put together not long after Melvin had died and it was just too personal for them to really face. Another inaccuracy is that Dennis Edwards is shown touring with Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin before the group' reunion tour in the early 1980s, when in reality he didn't start touring with them until after the group was inducted into the rock & roll hall of fame in the late 80s. On top of that, Kendricks and Ruffin didn't start touring together until after the reunion tour. How many other liberties are taken is anyone's guess, though the film remains entertaining and still gives an overall general overview of the group's history while also serving to showcase the group's music to a new generation.
TimeaSiesta Charles Malik Whitfield, D.B. Woodside, Terron Brooks, Christian Payton and Leon had their singing and stepping roles down absolutely cold. It was hard to believe they weren't the original Temptations. Scenes and voiceovers depicting how Berry Gordy's successful Hitsville USA machine worked provided good background. While it was run as a serious business, one can also see that it functioned like a fraternity, with major love and minor hate relationships, a place where everyone in all the departments rated every aspect of everyone else. An act had to have genuine talent to become a part of the fold. There was brief mention of a few other Motown solo and group acts; that brevity was a plus because that left more time to know and understand the prime characters. I only wish there had been more, and/or more lengthy, runs of their legendary songs showing their syncopated moves. The reprise of their signature number at the end of the film was an outstanding enhancement. The film triggered a wide range of emotions in the various fates that befell the group's original members - emotions capably shown by the actors in their roles, also emotions among the viewers watching them: surprise, hope, excitement, pride, shock, pity, and sorrow, among others. The never-ending shifting sands of whether David Ruffin would stay in the group or be out for his own reasons or the reasons of others eventually became a bit tedious. Also, the periodic revolving door among the Temptations and the opportunistic creation of counterfeit groups boasting the same name frequently required good concentration to keep all the individual players straight. However, on those two points, Otis Williams who wrote the book was there, and the film's executive producer Suzanne De Passe was there, so those events deserved their screen time. As one of the frequent writers of material for the group, William "Smokey" Robinson was portrayed by an actor and also actually appeared himself. The real-life Smokey's presence was a spectacularly captivating musical moment; the song he wrote and sang near the film's end could very well be the greatest musical tribute of all time to a departed loved one. "The Temptations...Forever" is a recurring theme during the film. This movie's story line and the performances of the five lead actors will help ensure that it stays that way.