It may be 30 years old but as a biopic of Tina Turner, one of the greatest singers of all time who redefined herself having escaped an abusive marriage, What’s Love Got To Do With It still packs an emotive punch.
Abandoned by her mother as a child, Anna Mae Bullock shone in the local church choir. Moving to St Louis as a teenager, Anna Mae (Angela Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, London Has Fallen) soon attracts the attention of band leader, Ike Turner (Laurence Fishburne – The Matrix, The Mule). Dominating everything around him, Ike controls Tina as a singer, a wife, a mother, a woman. As his drug habit spirals out of control and with it an uncontrollable rage, professional jealousy results in increasing violence towards her.
Unflinching in its depiction of domestic violence and abuse, director Brian Gibson’s film may take liberties with actual events, but it remains a potent exploration of Tina Turner the woman and years of stoicism in the name of her children and refusal to abandon them as her mother had years earlier.
Nominated for 2 Oscars in 1994 – best actress and best actor.
Rating: 70%
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