Product Description

Experience for yourself the powerful true-life story of Tina Turner -- rock 'n' roll's remarkable and talented superstar. Laurence Fishburne (THE MATRIX) and Angela Bassett (HOW STELLA GOT HER GROVE BACK) deliver winning performances as Ike and Tina Turner -- whose turbulent relationship eventually forces Tina to leave and face the fear, pay the price, and find the courage to believe in herself. Don't miss WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT -- the amazing and uplifting story of one of the world's most exciting, high-energy entertainers!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3408 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-08-24
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 118 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Tina Turner, that dynamic diva of pop/soul/R&B from the '60s to the '90s, sings like a woman whose life story is every bit as rough and tough as her voice. And What's Love Got to Do With It, based on her autobiographical account (in I, Tina, written with Kurt Loder) of her years under the iron fist of her abusive husband and musical partner/Svengali Ike, is further proof of what we've always known about Tina: She's what you call a survivor. The movie is sort of the Disney version of Tina Turner's story--a glossy but thoroughly enjoyable, old-fashioned showbiz biopic with laughs, tears, great music, and outrageous (but faithful) period decor, costumes, makeup, and hairstyles. Our Heroine triumphs not only over the rigorous demands of her career in the music business, but finally manages to bust out of her troubled, violent marriage as well and become her own person. This is a movie that'll have you shouting at the top of your lungs: "You go, girl!" --Jim Emerson

From The New Yorker
The film version of Tina Turner's life isn't bad, considering that her story inconveniently lacks the tragic ending that filmmakers usually require to give shape to the rambling, unstructured existence of a musician. Tina, at fifty-three, is still performing and recording, and in the absence of the snuffed-out-in-her-prime option, the screenwriter, Kate Lanier, and the director, Brian Gibson, have constructed the movie as a kind of feminist survival story: Tina (Angela Bassett) rises to fame as part of a husband-and-wife act, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, but then breaks away from her brutal, domineering spouse (Laurence Fishburne) and climbs back to the top of the charts on her own. Much of the movie is grim and disturbing: Ike abuses Tina in just about every way a man can abuse a woman, and the domestic-violence scenes are intense, harrowingly graphic. The movie has a manic-depressive rhythm that keeps the audience absorbed: Gibson alternates scenes of Tina's misery with rousing, superbly staged musical numbers. Bassett scrupulously imitates Tina's spectacular dance moves, but there's no let-it-rip joy in her performances, and not much sex either. Fishburne's astonishing portrayal of Ike is what holds the movie together. The actor builds, in precise increments, a devastating portrait of a macho control freak; he even finds a kind of ghastly humor in the character's madness. Also with Jenifer Lewis and Vanessa Bell Calloway. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

What's Love Got To Do With It? A lot, it turns out
This was a very dramatic movie, that was overall pretty good, but like Ike Turner, it got a little heavy handed at times. As a biography it ranks up there with Walk the Line, but perhaps a slight notch below Ray.

The opening scene with the young Anna Mae Bullock (Rae'ven Kelly) singing in the church choir was priceless. She showed great potential and promise and energy--as a rock and roller, not a holy roller! As the choir director escorted her to the door, pulling her by the ear, you just knew that she was going someplace. Someplace else.

Great performances by Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne, and all the supporting cast. Angela, who graduated from Yale with a B.A. in African-American studies in 1980 and Yale drama school with a Master of Fine Arts Degree in 1983, sure doesn't show it here, as she becomes a shy but talented teenager named Anna Mae Bullock from Nutbush, Tennessee. She received an Oscar nomination, but lost out to Holly Hunter for The Piano. As an aside, Fishburne turned down the role five times, when he thought that either Halle Berry or Whitney Houston were being cast, but upon hearing that Angela Bassett was going to do it, he finally accepted. As Ike and Tina Turner, they have some very dramatic and harrowing scenes, and they both deliver stellar performances.

Great music, and really spectacular concert scenes that captured the excitement of their performances. The title song was used especially well, as a comment on Ike and Tina's relationship, and the fact that she had really moved on. I liked the wild fashions, especially the ones that Ike wore as the 70's raged on. 70's fashion can really make you look like a clown, but it showed how like a chameleon, he changed his look to match his surroundings, and went with the flow of the fashion. Lots of great costumes on Tina, the band, and the back up singers, the Ikettes.

But for all the great music, they left out a song and performance that was really special, and I wonder why they left out the Ike & Turner version of the Otis Redding song, "I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)". You can hear it on their 1968 Blue Thumb album entitled "Outta Season". Even better, see it in The Rolling Stones concert documentary Gimme Shelter. No, they didn't do it at Altamont, but were on tour with The Stones and their raunchy, sexually charged duet really brought down the house at Madison Square Gardens. Tina and the WLGTDWI? film makers might have thought it too risque, or that it would disrupt the narrative they were fashioning; but I think it would have shed a little light on certain aspects of their relationship, as well as showing what an incendiary act the Ike & Tina Turner Review could be.

A very fine film that tells the story from Tina Turner's point of view. She has lived an incredible life, and her story makes for a very dramatic and compelling narrative. She has come such a long way since she was that little girl from Nutbush, Tennessee, Anna Mae Bullock, who was thrown out of the church choir.

I, Tina by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder (Hardcover - Sep 1986)
Takin' Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner by Ike Turner, Nigel Cawthorn, and Little Richard (Hardcover - Sep 15, 1999)
Private Dancer (1990) This is the Post Ike record that features the song WLGTDWI? that gave this film its title.
Rhythm Rockin' Blues (1951) Rocket 88 (some say it's the first rock 'n roll song ever recorded) along with other Ike Turner music, can be heard on this record.
The Color Purple (1985) (as Larry Fishburne) .... Laurence Fishburne played Swain in this adaptation of the book by Alice Walker.
Malcolm X (1992) .... Angela Bassett portrays Dr. Betty Shabazz, wife of Malcolm X.
The Matrix (1999) .... Laurence Fishburne was Morpheus. How cool is that?
Mystery Men (1999) .... Lucille, The Shoveler's Wife, is played by Jenifer Lewis, who played Zelma Bulluck, Anna Mae's mother, in WLGTDWI? Jenifer also played Real Estate Agent Toni Childs' mother Verreta, who embarasses her daughter with her Fresno manners on the sitcom "Girlfriends."
The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - Criterion Collection (1970) Besides the Stones and what happened at Altamont, there is some fine footage of Ike & Tina Turner performing I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now) that is much sexier than anything in WLGTDWI?
Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa (Remastered Edition) - Subtitled - 1951 by Akira Kurosawa (Remastered Edition) - Subtitled - 1951 ~ Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura (DVD - 2008)

Tina Turner Rocks!
I enjoyed watching this film as it gave me the insight to one of my favorite legends. Due to what Tina has endured, it was impossible to watch it a second time. However, this will be in one of my all time favorites, as it had a happy ending! Isn't that why we all go to the movies?! Thank you.

Go Tina, Go!!
This was an amazing movie. Angela Bassett really did her thing in this movie. It is a must see!!
Purchase it now!!!

Toya