ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke

The doc definitely has good intentions, but it's just too short to cover anything effectively, especially when a good portion of the interviewees have nothing important to say (especially Renee Graham and to a lesser extent Kevin Powell). There is a war onscreen between wanting to be a respectful biography of one of the more overlooked parts of the civil rights fight, with first hand stories from people who lived and loved with Cooke; people who were there and have actual knowledge of Cooke and his feelings. On the other team, you have a couple of "activists" who are more concerned with finding ways to talk about racism at large and not specifically to Cooke's story. They talk like they read a book and are now experts with authority to talk about who Cooke was and why he did things. Why are we listening to Powell talk about the "magic" of "blackness" and Graham's wild speculations when we have Cooke's cousin, peers, and actual friends? You fucking have Jim Brown there, why are you talking to some moron with a grudge when you have one of Cooke's real confidants? You're giving me some ass on a soapbox when you could be giving me more from Smokey Robinson. In the end, this doc feels more like the first class of Cooke 101, but the professor keeps letting loud students take over the lecture or like there was a ten episode series that they just clipped the bits about Cooke out of and packaged it up. They clearly had more than enough material to do both, but instead lead a battle between the man and the message.

The doc definitely has good intentions, but it's just too short to cover anything effectively, especially when a good portion of the interviewees have nothing important to say (especially Renee Graham and to a lesser extent Kevin Powell). There is a war onscreen between wanting to be a respectful biography of one of the more overlooked parts of the civil rights fight, with first hand stories from people who lived and loved with Cooke; people who were there and have actual knowledge of Cooke and his feelings. On the other team, you have a couple of "activists" who are more concerned with finding ways to talk about racism at large and not specifically to Cooke's story. They talk like they read a book and are now experts with authority to talk about who Cooke was and why he did things. Why are we listening to Powell talk about the "magic" of "blackness" and Graham's wild speculations when we have Cooke's cousin, peers, and actual friends? You fucking have Jim Brown there, why are you talking to some moron with a grudge when you have one of Cooke's real confidants? You're giving me some ass on a soapbox when you could be giving me more from Smokey Robinson. In the end, this doc feels more like the first class of Cooke 101, but the professor keeps letting loud students take over the lecture or like there was a ten episode series that they just clipped the bits about Cooke out of and packaged it up. They clearly had more than enough material to do both, but instead lead a battle between the man and the message.

Will change ever come

Will change ever come

Queria viver num mundo onde não fossem necessários documentários como esse. Que grandes pessoas como Sam Cooke e Nina Simone fossem lembrados por suas obras e por suas lutas fora do palcos. Mas o mundo que vivemos é aquele onde há o apagamento da história negra. O mundo onde um ídolo de todo um povo é assasinado e nada é feito. Como alguém chega a falar no documentário imagine se Frank Sinatra ou Elvis tivesse sido assasinado, a comoção que teria e como as autoridades reagiriam. Mas com Sam Cooke não só apagaram sua morte, mas quem ele era como pessoa e artista. O homem que morreu duas vezes. Novamente Netflix mostra que seu forte é seu catalogo de documentários, pois o resto só piora.

Queria viver num mundo onde não fossem necessários documentários como esse. Que grandes pessoas como Sam Cooke e Nina Simone fossem lembrados por suas obras e por suas lutas fora do palcos. Mas o mundo que vivemos é aquele onde há o apagamento da história negra. O mundo onde um ídolo de todo um povo é assasinado e nada é feito. Como alguém chega a falar no documentário imagine se Frank Sinatra ou Elvis tivesse sido assasinado, a comoção que teria e como as autoridades reagiriam. Mas com Sam Cooke não só apagaram sua morte, mas quem ele era como pessoa e artista. O homem que morreu duas vezes. Novamente Netflix mostra que seu forte é seu catalogo de documentários, pois o resto só piora.