It's difficult to get this wrong. Such are the awesome achievements of the Funk Brothers and so great are the songs they played upon that the only way to balls it up would be to secure interviews only with the most peripheral of people (people who bought the records or went to the concerts and twenty-something pop writers) and to not have the rights to play the music. Being made at the time of a big Funk Brothers show in Detroit and having all of the surviving members on camera makes this well worth seeing.
If I'm honest, it's a bog-standard documentary: snippets of songs, talking heads pieces, the odd vox-pop with modern day soul stars and footage from the reunion show are interspersed with a chronological telling of their story. But that's fine, the very last thing this film needs is someone trying to be too clever. You don't wrap a gold bar in tinsel do you? The tough parts of the story aren't shied away from- Berry Gordy's ruthless and certainly questionable decision to dump the band and relocate Motown to LA or James Jamerson's sad descent into alcoholism and an early death.
What would I change about it? I may have wanted to hear from Berry Gordy- I think that's about all. A great testimony to a fine band.
And, in case you don't know (and shame on you if so) the Funk Brothers were Motown's house band and have played on more number 1 hit singles than the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, the Who and Elvis Presley combined. 9/10
