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.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- 1998, This singing group were a rhythm and blues sensation, five singers who created a sound and style that redefined the boundaries of a popular song. But there was a price to be paid for their meteoric rise, and when the pressures of staying in the spotlight became too great to bear, egos flared, giving rise to rivalries that threatened to tear them apart forever. But through it all, from triumph to tragedy, The Temptations forged a musical legacy that brought the country together….and audiences to their feet.*Special Stars- Terron Brooks, Christain Payton, Charles Malik, OB Woodside, Obba Babatunde, Jennifer Lewis, Alan Rosenberg, and Leon.*Theme- Family and artistic talent, when nurtured will produce greatness.*Based on- Detroit's Motown Records history.*Trivia/location/goofs- TV NBC miniseries re-cut to a feature film.*Emotion- An unforgettable film of good acting, interesting story and drama for anyone to watch. This film was full of great musical performances. It told the plain truth about the times that gave a chance for inner city Detroit black youth to get into the music business producing their huge success. A feel good movie.

Jeffrey R. Dzik The Temptations lives and story as a group had so many ups and downs, joys and tragedies, achievements and disappointments, it made for such a wonderful movie. I have seen it dozens of times, moved to joy, tears and getting up to sing every time. I want to come to the defense of Otis Williams. When one writes a movie, a play or a book, it is written by someone who sees the events as THEY see it. May not always be factual or how the other members or their families saw the events or the feelings they had towards them. Writers and producers will rearrange some events and perhaps toy with the time lines a bit for dramatic purposes. You can't take any biographical movie and be certain all is totally accurate. I don't think, according to various sources I have read, that the movie was that far from the way it happened. You have to make a movie in a reasonable amount of time otherwise it'll run for hours, as long as this one was. The actors were fabulous and they did such a masterful job dubbing and choreographing the music. If indeed, some events were altered a bit, I believe their achievements were well laid out and the tragic demises close as to how it happened. I am a big Motown fan and R & B fan of the mid 60's, 70's and early 80's. I developed a much larger appreciation for the Temptations with this movie and have loaded their Anthology album on my I-Pod. I thank the producers and Otis Willialms for that. The other members no longer with us are sorely missed. I am a huge fan of all who did lead in many of their hits; Eddie, David and Dennis.

justincward The TV movie story of the street-doowop to soul-superstar Temptations from 1958 to 1995 when bass singer Melvin Franklyn died. Strict historical accuracy is not what this film is about, but what is accurate is the reconstruction of the act and the music, which is what matters in a movie. The first half is full of vignettes of the (black) music biz in Detroit in the early Motown days, which is genuinely moving in a few places; and although the second half tends towards the schmaltzy, it's good to be reminded of the seminal records that the group continued to put out after David Ruffin parted company, and of the way that members of a group that big have deeper bonds than most people, including their own families. It's told from the viewpoint of Otis Williams, who is the only Temp to survive all incarnations of the group, so he naturally he tends to get an easy ride, but it does acknowledge (in the great end sequence) that the David Ruffin lineup was the best there could be. The scene where he and Eddie Kendricks sing to the punter in the supper club is a killer. Well worth the two-and a half hours running time, which is not something you can say of many TV movies this long. Better IMHO than 'Walk the Line', which was no turkey itself. If you love Motown, don't miss it.