Wattstax (1973) on Netflix
R19731h 38mDocumentaryMusic
A benefit concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum marks the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots with soul, gospel, funk and blues. Between performances, cameras visit daily life in Watts.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.7/101,206 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
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Plot summary
Seven years after the 1965 riots in Watts, a record company from Memphis stages a benefit concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to mark the anniversary. Seats are reserved and cost a dollar, and the stage is built in the middle of the night after a football game on the field. On August 20, 1972, an orchestra opens the show for 112,000 people, and the performers move through soul, gospel, R&B, funk, blues and jazz. A host delivers stand-up interludes from a bar. Between the sets, cameras move through Watts, recording residents in their daily lives, local businesses and interviews with Black Los Angelians.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Wattstax (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer told Stax Films and Wolper Films that Wattstax could not be released containing Isaac Hayes's performances of "Theme from Shaft" and "Soulsville", because MGM's Shaft contracts barred use of those songs in any other film until 1978. Hayes was pulled off a tour in the Netherlands to film a replacement number, "Rolling Down a Mountainside."
- The stage at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was built in the middle of the night and into the morning of the concert, because the Oakland Raiders and the Los Angeles Rams played there on the night of August 19. As soon as the football game ended, trucks full of long wood-planks drove onto the field.
- When much of the audience poured onto the Coliseum field to dance during Rufus Thomas's performance of "Do the Funky Chicken", Stax executive Larry Shaw immediately asked Thomas to get them back to the stands. One straggler refused to leave and Thomas made pointed fun of him, a moment kept in the documentary.
- The Wattstax concert drew an attendance of 112,000, said to be the largest gathering of African-Americans outside of a civil rights event up to that date.
- Because some artists could not perform at the concert itself, the film shot their numbers afterwards: The Emotions sang "Peace Be Still" from the pulpit of the Friendly Will Baptist Church in Watts, and Johnnie Taylor performed "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" at the Summit Club in Los Angeles.
- The film's interview segments with Black Los Angelenos were not candid: they featured actors discussing predetermined topics. Among those actors was Ted Lange, later one of the stars of the TV series The Love Boat.
- Wattstax was restored and remastered in 2003 using Apple's Final Cut Pro and Cinema Tools to create new film and HD video elements from the original 16 mm film negatives, with a new surround sound soundtrack built from the original audio elements. "Theme from Shaft" and "Soulsville" were restored to the film at that time.
- Every seat at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for Wattstax was reserved and priced at only one dollar each, because Stax Records wanted to make it possible for anyone to attend.
