The Five Heartbeats

The Five Heartbeats
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRobert Townsend[1]
Written byRobert Townsend
Keenen Ivory Wayans[2]
Produced byLoretha C. Jones[3]
Starring
[1]
CinematographyBill Dill
Edited byJohn Carter
Music byStanley Clarke
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox[4]
Release date
  • March 29, 1991 (1991-03-29) (U.S.)[5]
Running time
122 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish[4]
Budget$9-10 million[6]
Box office$8,750,400[citation needed]

The Five Heartbeats is a 1991 musical drama film directed by Robert Townsend, who co-wrote the script with Keenen Ivory Wayans. Produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film's main cast includes Townsend, Michael Wright, Leon Robinson, Harry J. Lennix, Tico Wells, Harold Nicholas, and Diahann Carroll.[1] The plot of the film (which is loosely based on the lives of several artists: The Dells, The Temptations, Four Tops, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke and others)[7] follows the three decade career of the rhythm and blues vocal group The Five Heartbeats. The film depicts the rise and fall of a Motown inspired soul act through the eyes of one of the Heartbeats, Donald "Duck" Matthews.

The film was released to most North American audiences on March 29, 1991;[8] however, it was not made available to audiences in other continents until 2002 when a DVD was released. Another DVD was released in 2006 for the film's 15th anniversary.[9] The movie received mixed reviews from critics.[10]

  1. ^ a b c "VH1.com : Movies : Movie : The Five Heartbeats : Cast & Crew". www.vh1.com. Archived from the original on 26 May 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  2. ^ "VH1.com : Movies : Movie : The Five Heartbeats : Plot". www.vh1.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  3. ^ "VH1.com : Movies : Movie : The Five Heartbeats : Details". www.vh1.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2005. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  4. ^ a b c "The Five Heartbeats". IMDb. 29 March 1991.
  5. ^ http://search.ew.com/EWSearch/ew/search/search.html?search=the+five+heartbeats&x=0&y=0/ [permanent dead link]
  6. ^ "AFI|Catalog".
  7. ^ Erickson, Hal. "The Five Heartbeats: Overview". MSN. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2014-07-30. Retrieved 2019-02-15. Loosely based on the life and times of several R&B; artists (The Dells, The Temptations, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke and others) The Five Heartbeats traces the rise and fall of a popular African-American 1960s singing aggregation.
  8. ^ http://search.ew.com/EWSearch/ew/search/search.html?search=the+five+heartbeats&x=0&y=0 [permanent dead link]
  9. ^ "Answers - the Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions". Answers.com.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference rottentomatoes.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).