MovieChat Forums > Lady Sings the Blues (1972) Discussion > beatdown *spoilers*

beatdown spoilers

posted 20 years ago by jaystats2
37 replies | jump to latest

One of the most harrowing and disturbing scenes in this film, is where Piano Man(Richard Pryor) is beaten to death by the two thugs. I saw this film with my parents when I was like 7 or 8 , and that particular scene haunts me to this very day. The sudden, violent transition from Billie and Piano Man getting high and goofing-off, to the brutal, slow-motion beating, was way too intense for me as a kid- hell, adults too for that matter. Diana Ross' performance along with the supporting cast(Pryor, Williams)are in my opinion, timeless pieces of work. I've been waiting for the DVD release of this one for the last six years and my collection won't be complete until I have it.

[–] Akira081971 19 years ago

The scene you described and also the lynching scene are moments I will never forget and still haunts me. I believe I was seven years old (Thanks Mom and Dad!). But as my sister said (particularly of the lynching scene) it's real and, unfortuately happens. Turning away from something bad doesn't make it go away.

It still bothers me though. I don't know if I can watch the movie without having it affect me the same way.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] sammy_weir 19 years ago

I totally agree. I think I was 10 when I saw the movie and it still freaks me out thinking of it.

[–] chalik360-1 19 years ago

I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I had to be about 8 when I first saw this movie. There were many scenes in this movie that was just disturbing to me as young child. I hated it but liked it at the same time. It was kind of weird. The opening scenes where Billie is in the strait jacket, when shes attacked by the rapist, when shes zoned out on the toilet seat. For awhile, I was scared to look at Diana Ross. *lol*

[–] jaystats2 19 years ago

Hey Chalik,
The scenes that you mentioned were very disturbing to me as well. How about the scene when Billie's bus is mobbed by the Klan and her bandmates are trying to keep her down..such profanity! Up until then I didn't think that anybody else on Earth cussed except for my parents. Diana Ross also did a great job in the heroin withdrawal scenes. She must have done her research..very convincing.
-Jay

[–] chalik360-1 19 years ago

Jay,

Actually she did do research for the role. I read somewhere sometime ago, that she spent time in a rehab center to get the act of drug addict down pat. The klan scene was another disturbing scene for me, or when shes flipping out in the dressing room and starts scrubbing lipstick all over the mirror. Hit me up on Yahoo messenger as chalik360.. i can talk forever on this movie.

[–] 10066126 19 years ago

Unfortuamtely these scenes did not happen in real life; in Billie Holiday's life. As this is supposed to be a biopic, they are just darn irrelevant.

[–] rodmcd2 19 years ago

The scenes may be irrelevant to Billie Holidays acutal life. However they were very relevant scenes in the movie version of Billie Holidays life. Also, I don't feel the scenes took anything away from Billie Holidays actual life. The film is BASED on the life of billie holiday.

[–] 10066126 19 years ago

Actually nothing in the film is accurate at all. In fact just read any biography on her and you'll see how inaccurate this horrible film is. Don't even get me started on how unfit Diana Ross was for the part.

[–] chalik360-1 19 years ago

Who cares? Why even waste your time and energy visiting a forum dedicated to the movie if you think its so horrible??? The people in this forum share an interest in the movie, were now here to make every hate it because you dislike it.

[–] 10066126 19 years ago

Dearie that's what this forum if for. For those who both like it and hate it. you liked it, I hated it for the simple reason that I'm an avid Billie Holiday enthusiast and this movie missed a great opportunity to make a great movie about a great artist.

[–] chalik360-1 19 years ago

A forum, for people who hate it? Ive heard it all. I'm done with this one. I happen to be an avid fan of Billie Holiday but havent seen too many films about her dropping. So.....

[–] 10066126 19 years ago

Even 'though there are no films about her, at least there are a wealth of books about her. Mostly contradicting the film's portrayal of her as a victim. Just because there aren't many films about her doesn't mean one should put up with this one; which I must say sucked big-time.

[–] gabnelson 19 years ago

Enough already about how terrible this movie was. Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, and Richard Pryor played the hell out of the roles they were given. I was born in 1975 and this film brought me to Billy Holiday. I first fell in love with Diana Ross's versions of her songs. Then my mother advised me that Diana's adaptation of these jazzy tunes was vastly different from the real Billy Holiday. At this point I researched and came to love the authentic renditions by Billy Holiday even more! How many people my age can say that with all this hip hop, booty shaking crap out there. I feel fortunate to have been able to view this movie and I would really like to be referred to websites and specific bios about the real Billy Holiday's life. I've heard that Lewis McKay represented many men rather than one, but my love for this movie peaked my interest in Billy Holiday who I happen to have a picture post card posted on my desk next to other Black Heros such as Martin Luther King Jr, Josephine Baker, and Ella Fitzgerald.

[–] bratpap97 19 years ago

Inaccurate or not, this is a fan forum to discuss "Lady Sings The Blues" otherwise, hit the highway.

[–] Mincom 18 years ago

I would rate the scene where Richard Pryor is beaten up there with the fatal encounter in Cooley High as the two movie scenes that I've always found the most disturbing(and I saw them both as a relatively young child in the early 1980s)

[–] koffeenkreame41-1 12 years ago

^^Agreed! Those scenes were so sad and so unexpecting.

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit' me!" Hudson in Aliens.

[–] BERGDORF 19 years ago

OK...I saw LSTB when I was 8 yrs old at a drive-in theater with my mom & some family friends....I have never watched it again. I can not watch it again. The death of Piano Man has never left me. It is amazing how I only saw it once and can remember EVERY scene so vividly that it still haunts me to this day and I am 40 years old. The scenes of her drugging & withdrawing, the scenes in the south, the bus scenes with the Klan, the rape scene, the ending....all of it was so intense that I am actually afraid to watch it again. But now I am curious about the DVD being released...SHOULD I, COULD I?. Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly an exceptional piece of movie history, for it to have affected so many of us for so long....how many movies have done that?

"WE DON'T LIVE IN THAT KIND OF A WORLD THELMA"

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] jaystats2 19 years ago

Hey guys,

I just received my copy of LSTB on DVD and I love it. There are deleted scenes, the making of, and commentary from director Sidney J. Furie and producer Berry Gordy. Paramount did a fantastic job with the transfer too, the whole package was nicely done.. with love as Louis Mckay would say.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] 19 years ago

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[–] jaystats2 18 years ago

Amen.

[–] chalik360-1 18 years ago

1. Crying when he gets slapped in the face by Hawk (Robert L. Gordy)

2. At the celebration of Billie at Dean and Dean's, "even the hoes got uniforms"

3. Why did he have those clog style flip-flops in the beach scene and the beatdown scene? *lol*

Add yours please....

Hey, Jay! Im back from Iraq!

[–] jaystats2 18 years ago

Hey Man,

Happy to hear that you made it back safely. Yeah that was a crack-up. The look on his face when Hawk slapped him.. He was like " you hit me man, I'll get you **gga", then all of a sudden he watered it down with, " Hawk, we've always been cool man". In the California scenes, why did my man have a cigarette holder and a beret on his head? I'm really gonna miss Rich man, he was truly one of a kind.

[–] chalik360-1 18 years ago

... *lol* *giving you dapz* Im sayin, was dude a piano player or an artist(painter)???? Even in the commentary they made mention of his cigarette holder and beret.

Oh another funny was at the Sunray soap commercial. He was straight wilin out!

Thanks for the well wishes, I made it back just in time for the holidays.

S..

[–] thatsnumberwang 18 years ago

I find it pretty amazing that many of you recall seeing this movie when you were 5, 7, 8 etcetera. I'm sure this is going to upset you, but I have to question the wisdom of parents that would take their children to a movie about a heroin junkie that included not only a rape scene but also intense depictions of drug use and racial violence and multiple deaths. Not only that but a woman picking up dollar bills with her cha-cha.

Some of you even admit that you are AFRAID to watch this movie again because of the impression it left on you.

What worries me the most is, having seen it now for the first time...It's very tame compared to a lot of movies out there now. And just imagine what all the parents nowadays are letting their kids watch.

[–] chalik360-1 18 years ago

Well I seen it for the first time on a Sunday when I was like 7, and it was on regular TV.. in fact all we had back then was 5 channels.

[–] juanrgrullon27603 18 years ago

Even though "Cabaret" is one of my favorite movies of all time and there is no question that Liza Minelli was amazing as Sally Bowles, how did Liza end up winning the Oscar as best actress of 1972 over Diana Ross? Diana's portrayal as Billie Holiday in "Lady Sings the Blues" has to be one of the top five female performances of all time. Does anyone else agree? It's ok to disagree too!

[–] thatsnumberwang 18 years ago

I agree that Diana gave a terrific performance. I think Cabaret was just a zeitgeist steam train that year. Which is not to say Liza wasn't good in the role...It would have been a tough call for me if I was an academy member voting that year.

saucybetty.blogspot.com

[–] superstar-28 17 years ago

Liza Minelli played Liza Minelli in Cabaret... Watching Diana Ross in Lady Sings... was not like Diana Ross at all, there was NO Diana in the movie... she didn't talk like herself, have the same facial expressions as herself, move the way Diana moves.. sing the way Diana sang (now, she might not have sounded like Billie, but what other musician has transformed their singing style in a movie the way Diana did?) - I forgot I was watching Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues, and I really think that that is what makes a great actress...

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] LadyLovie 15 years ago

I was young myself 6 or something when it came on t.v. I remember the rape scene disturbing me.

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you are N0T the father!

[–] sirrap2 13 years ago

The Piano Man murder scene didn't bother me much. What was really disturbing to me, as an adult, was the lynching scene, the KKK attack scene, the dressing room scene with Hawk, Billie & Piano Man in which shortly after Billie learns about the passing of her mom.

HATERS BEWARE!!