List Price: $14.98You Pay Only: $6.99 You Save: $7.99 (53%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Lions Gate
EAN: 0707729114499
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Lions Gate
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Lions Gate
Region Code: 1
Release Date: August 14, 2001
Running Time: 150 minutes
Sales Rank: 4152
Studio: Lions Gate
Theatrical Release Date: November 01, 1998
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Product Description:
They were the rhythm and blues sensation five singers who created a sound and style that redefined the boundaries of popular song. But there was a price to be paid for their meteoric rise and when the pressures became to great to bear rivalries threatened to tear them apart forever. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 12/21/2004 Run time: 150 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com:
Conceived as a television miniseries, this portrait of the epochal Motown vocal group scores as one of the most detailed re-creations of the '60s pop milieu ever filmed. Told largely through the eyes of founding member Otis Williams (Charles Malik Whitfield), The Temptations portrays its protagonists as soul Everymen whose early triumphs closely followed, and helped expand, Motown Records' emergence as 'the Sound of Young America,' providing an inspirational fable for black Americans.
Inevitably, of course, the story is also a cautionary tale about the price of success for both the Temps and their mentor, Motown founder Berry Gordy (Obba Babatunde). With hit records and tours, Williams and his partners grapple with drugs, alcohol, depression, jealousy, and delusions of grandeur. In particular, the galvanic lead singer David Ruffin (Leon) serves as both a focal strength and potential destroyer for the group, as his ego combines with a mounting cocaine habit to create a monster. At the same time, Gordy's eventual decision to leave his and the label's home, Detroit, for Los Angeles marks a loss of innocence for the group and their label-mates. The film provides ample insider detail about how the former Ford assembly-line worker created and controlled his unique hit factory.
Based on the biography coauthored by Williams and former manager Shelly Berger, the project gets a vital boost from behind the camera, thanks to executive producer Suzanne DePasse, herself a former Motown exec, and director Allan Arkush (Rock 'n' Roll High School). That lineage probably pulls some punches in terms of individual characters and Gordy's machinations, but it also affords The Temptations its convincing detail, as does the generous running time--a mixed blessing, due to the original two-part broadcast, which might have benefited from tightening for this video version. Giving the show its greatest kick are the group's original hits, performed and choreographed convincingly in lip-synched sequences. --Sam Sutherland
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - The Temptationd DVD
GREAT entertainment if you love the old Motown, Soul, and Volt-Stax Mussel Shoals studios music sound. Also good if just interested in some of the early roots and groups of this phenomonon. It gives a look at a number of the Motown artists we all know about as real people with the same joys and struggles that we all share.
I saw part of this movie\mini series on cable one night and as soon as it went off got on Amazon to see if it was available. I think just about any music lover will enjoy this.
Rating: - Love It!
I purchased the VHS version several years ago and watched it last night for the first time in a long time. I remember having seen the movie when it was originally broadcast on NBC back in the late 90s.
For anyone who is a fan of Motown, the Temptations, music from the 50s-60s era - this is a must see! The movie begins in 1957 and chronicles the history not only of the Temptations but includes a lot of Motown history as well. The music is out of this world!
Because I'd seen the show when it was originally aired on TV, I realized that some key scenes had been excluded from the VHS; this was very disappointing. Note that the special was broadcast on two nights at 2 hours each and the VHS is only 2-1/2 hours long, you can figure that quite a bit had been cut. The pacing seems too quick on the VHS and you get the feeling that you missed something. Case in point: There is a scene that had been cut from the VHS that shows Paul Williams in the early years refusing a beer and drinking milk instead. But in the VHS version, the viewer is unaware of Paul's uncharacteristic descent into alcholism until later when his problem is obvious and one of the band members comments that Paul used to refuse to drink. When Otis informs the band (then called the Elgins) that they needed to come up with a new name before Mr. Gordy would allow them to audition, the boys banter names back and forth along the sidewalk in front of Hitsville U.S.A. Their struggle to think of a name was the scene ... Read More
Rating:  - Great biography of one greatest R&B Group of the sixties
This is a great movie if you like biographical drama of the entertainment industry. It filled,with drama, musical numbers performed by the actors who portrait this famous group. There is love, unity, friendship, egoism, etc. This is real story of a group's humble beginnings to their ending. You love the music, the drama and the actors.
Rating: - The Temptations
The Temptations were one of my favorite groups growing up in the Detroit area. When the movie came out I had to see it and absolutely loved it. I had always wondered what had happened to everyone in the group so many years later. It tells how they got started, all the obstacles they had to overcome to make it to the top. It tells about all of their lives and what happened to them all and what stardom did to many of them. It is a great movie with great music! I thoroughly enjoyed it and wanted it for my collection. It's a very good movie.
Rating: - The Temptations ( T.V. Movie )
This made for T.V. movie should have been on the silver screen. I couldn't tear myself away from it. I have seen the Temptations in concert several times and this movie shows the human side of these superstar performers. I will watch this movie over and over again. If you love the Motown magic you won't be disappointed with this movie.
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