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Monday, January 30, 2012

MOVIE REVIEW
Sing Your Song
Tireless Warrior Fights Another Day For A Better Future


Activist, humanitarian, musician and actor Harry Belafonte standing behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in an undated photo.  HBO Documentary Films
  
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        FOLLOW                                            TWEET
Monday, January 30, 2012

Now a tender 84 years of age, the legendary Harry Belafonte would be forgiven (and well within his rights) for taking a back seat and retiring into the sunset from his many years of impassioned activism.  Susanne Rostock's indispensible documentary "Sing Your Song", a film Mr. Belafonte narrates in the first person, is packed with a kaleidoscope of the activist-singer-actor-humanitarian's endeavors.  The film is open and candid about the political views of Mr. Belafonte, his conscience, his position as a restless warrior against injustice, war and inhumanity around the world, and his personal life.

Debuting last year at Sundance, "Sing Your Song" plays like a movie memoir, also detailing the Harlem-born entertainer's film, television and singing career.  No stone is left unturned in an always engaging and revealing documentary that lets you take stock of Mr. Belafonte's immense body of work on and off the screen.  At the same time however, "Sing Your Song" does not completely preach to the choir of Mr. Belafonte's millions of fans and admirers.  In a couple of instances the all-purpose public figure's harshest critics are his own children, whom in standard one-shot portrait-style close-ups rebuke (albeit gently) their father for being largely absent during their childhoods, something their introspective father admits and solemnly regrets. 

Ms. Rostock takes care to include the more controversial (by some standards) aspects of Mr. Belafonte's public life, most notably the furor unleashed when white actress and singing sensation Petula Clark touched Mr. Belafonte on the left arm in 1968 during "Petula", a national television music special.  The incident caused a racist backlash against Ms. Clark and the NBC network by many whites in the South and elsewhere.  "Sing Your Song" also explores the romance Mr. Belafonte's on screen character has with Joan Fontaine's in the film "Island In The Sun" (1957).

Filled with often powerful archival footage, "Sing Your Song" is a detailed, illustrious record of touchstone moments throughout decades of American and world history, as well as a chronicle of Mr. Belafonte's symbiotic connection to those events, and his relationships with women, film stars (mentor Paul Robeson, Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston), human rights leaders (Dr. Martin Luther King) and heads of state and government officials (Nelson Mandela, Hugo Chavez, Bobby Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt) and the common man and woman.  Ms. Rostock's riveting and encompassing documentary leaves you with the feeling that Mr. Belafonte, already with decades of hard work and significant accomplishments behind him, is ready to roll up his sleeves for a few decades more.

"Sing Your Song" is not rated by the Motion Picture Association Of America.  The film contains numerous bloody and graphic images.  The film's running time is one hour and 39 minutes.

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