Rev. Al Sharpton, Christian McBride on James Brown
James Brown, performing at the Apollo in New York City in the 1960s, in an image from Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown. (Photo: Emilio Grossi/Courtesy of HBO )
With "Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown," Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney has accomplished a feat that some had considered impossible: he captured the complex, culture-shifting life of the Hardest Working Man in Show Business in a single motion picture.
"It was a very, very unprecedented achievement that I doubted could be done because he covered the innovative and, in my judgment, historic, change that Mr. Brown made in music," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. The minister and television personality knew Brown from the time the former was a teenager until the singer's death in 2006 at the age of 73.
Gibney, who lives in Summit, has previously documented the life stories of cultural figures from writer Hunter S. Thompson in 2008's "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuta with this year's "Finding Fela," and is currently at work on a documentary about Hoboken native crooner Frank Sinatra.
"Mr. Dynamite" premieres at 9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, on HBO. Produced by Mick Jagger and made with the cooperation of the Brown estate, the film covers Brown's musical advancements that paved the way for funk and eventually hip-hop, as well as his work in the Civil Rights movement and in American politics of the 1970s and '80s, placing his work in its proper historical context.
In a file photo singer James Brown, left, walks with Rev. Al Sharpton from the White House in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 15, 1982. (Photo: Associated Press )
"My fear, as someone that knew (Brown) well, was that no one could ever capture what he meant in the broad strokes and tell it in one documentary or one setting," Sharpton said. "Alex was able to do that, and it was nothing short of breathtaking to me as one that saw that, because I think a lot of us reduce Brown to one of those areas and never understood the interplay of all of those areas that really reinforced the others.
"The reason why he became such a strong social force is because he was such an innovative force in music. The reason why his music is more significant than his competitors' and his contemporaries' is because he was a social force. And, if you didn't get all of that together, you really didn't understand the magnitude of James Brown."
Playing in the band
Along with Sharpton, Gibey's film features candid and enlightening insight from plenty who knew and worked with Brown, such as former band members Maceo Parker, Clyde Stubblefield, Melvin Parker, Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis, Bootsy Collins and more.
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Rev. Al Sharpton, Christian McBride on James Brown