Smokey Robinson Slams 'Dreamgirls'- Page 2

[Liverpool]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 7:28pm

Smokey sounds a little bit like a whiney bitch.

[bare_nakedlady]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 7:32pm

Where on anything does it say "Loosely based?"

[Kringas]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 7:37pm

You're talking in circles, bare_nakedlady.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 7:40pm

He kind of looks like a whiney bitch, too.

[morosco]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 7:41pm

"What is Lorrell's first line?"

LORRELL- Deena! We made it!! It's so unbelievable. We're gonna be famous...like the Chiffons, the Marvelettes, the Supremes..."

And Deena's line (that was subsequently cut) was in response to a reporter asking her what she plans to do next:

DEENA- Like any other American girl I want to be a star. Wake up every morning and say, "Driver, driver get me the car. I can't walk I'm a movie star." Movies are my new ambition and Diana needs some competition.

[Kringas]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 7:42pm

Thanks, morosco.

Where on anything does it say "Loosely based?"

For starters...

Updated On: 2/5/07 at 07:42 PM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 7:51pm

It doesn't make sense that Smokey Robinson says he's insulted by Jamie Foxx's portrayal of Berry Gordy [sic] then "insists his friend never paid DJ's to play his artist's songs or dealt with organized crime figures as depicted in the film". If Berry Gordy never did that, but Curtis Taylor Jr. does, then isn't that enough to logically conclude that Curtis Taylor is not Berry Gordy?

[Liverpool]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 7:58pm

It's clear that Gordy was a template (just like the supremes were a template) and the writes took creative license from that point.

[withoutlovewithoutU]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 7:58pm

I see Mr. Robinsons point. the film does ham it up quite a bit, but I think he's being a bit dramatic by insisting that the film-makers need to appoligize to Gordy.
I think that people need to take it for what it is... a movie, not a biography, a movie.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 9:06pm

""What is Lorrell's first line?"

LORRELL- Deena! We made it!! It's so unbelievable. We're gonna be famous...like the Chiffons, the Marvelettes, the Supremes..."

And Deena's line (that was subsequently cut) was in response to a reporter asking her what she plans to do next:

DEENA- Like any other American girl I want to be a star. Wake up every morning and say, "Driver, driver get me the car. I can't walk I'm a movie star." Movies are my new ambition and Diana needs some competition. "


So, if this is what they are saying, the Supremes already exist. How can they be playing a group that already exists?

[soulman83]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 10:21pm

I feel like when we have threads about dreamgirls, Margo needs to come along and just put it all into perspective and shut it down! GAH
Updated On: 2/5/07 at 10:21 PM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 10:27pm

soulman: The entire time I was skimming this thread I was thinking the same thing.

Diva: They're not playing the Supremes.

[Kringas]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 10:55pm

It's kind of sad that people think they need to be told what to think about something.

Diva, that's what said in the stage show. Nothing like that is said in the movie. Did you read the whole two pages?

Updated On: 2/5/07 at 10:55 PM

[CFK]

Posted: 2/5/07 at 11:17pm

Wow let's show some respect. Smokey Robinson was one of the most integral parts of Motown Records (A Vice President actually). He's not a "whiney bitch". He has every right to be pissed at how the movie portrayed his boss and friend. It's too bad the movie went "there" with its comparisons as opposed to the stage show that didn't quite ram it down the audiences' throats.

EDIT: To day that Berry Gordy did work with cars before he founded Motown, and also to clear up that fact that I know Dreamgirls are not the Supremes...

Updated On: 2/5/07 at 11:17 PM

[Jinks]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 12:10am

Ask yourself: If the Supremes had never existed, would this story ever have come about? There's your answer.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 12:47am

There would have been something very similar. DREAMGIRLS wasn't conceived to tell the story of the Supremes.

[roquat]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 1:01am

Let's see...

Mary Wilson did not, in real life, have an affair with James Brown, Marvin Gaye, or any of the other real-life soul singers James "Thunder" Early is based on...

Florence Ballard did not have an affair with Berry Gordy (she couldn't stand him)...

Diana Ross did not (psychologically, at least) break away from Berry Gordy...

Along with the other major plot points already mentioned, is this enough to emphasize that "Dreamgirls" is FICTION??????!!!!!

[Kringas]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 9:25am

Listing all the ways the Dreams and the Supremes are different is kind of irrelevant. No one has claimed this is the story of the Supremes, but to keep ignoring the word "loosely" in loosely based is getting a little ridiculous.

In the movie Curtis pops outside Rainbow Records and asks if anyone in the crowd can type. He's also seen winning some payola money in a prize fight. Neither of these things happen in the stage version and both can be found in the history of Gordy and Motown.

In the stage version, the Dreams are from Chicago. In the movie, their from Detroit, the birthplace of Motown and the Supremes.

Exact Supremes album covers (some actually listing Supremes songs) were recreated for the film, as were exact Supremes costumes. This also doesn't happen in the stage version.

In the film, there's a character clearly based on Michael Jackson for whom Deena has affinity. Granted, this goes absolutely nowhere in the film (and is found nowhere in the stage version) and can be included for no other reason than to reinforce the Supremes parallel once more.

Yes, Dreamgirls isn't an exact retelling of the Supremes story, but it's silly (and frankly, a tad deluded) to act like Condon did not make them his point of reference for the film. The people who lived through that era (like Robinson) probably see even more of the deliberate parallels that Condon added for the film. I can certainly understand why a couple of noses would be out of joint.

Yes, the stage version makes a good case for the Dreams being based on any number of girl groups from that era, but the filmmakers made a conscious choice to beef up the Supremes parallels.

Updated On: 2/6/07 at 09:25 AM

[Kringas]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 9:30am

BC: Well I had seen the original, I was there at opening night in the back row, and then I saw it a number of times after that, I was just blown away by it. And there are a lot of things that were discarded, like I mentioned before, you take something that is operatic and make it into something more real. The original staging was almost abstract, there were no realistic sets, it was a series of rotating lighting towers that kept moving and creating new performance spaces, so you want to take advantage of what film does which is to be a realistic medium, which meant instead of living in an abstract parallel universe, where on stage the ‘Dreams’ say, ‘we’ll have this new sound and one day we’ll be as big as the Supremes’, as though The Supremes existed, I think here, it was really more of setting it in Detroit and reminding everyone of the backdrop of first peaceful civil rights marches, and then the riots and then the destruction of the inner cities that happened in the late 60's and early 70's. Racist comedians that preceded them as they have their first performance in Miami, really making a point for people that don’t know, really reminding them of the fact that this breakthrough happened against very difficult circumstances, and what pioneers these people were. I think the show happened so soon after the events it depicted, it all felt like part of the same thing. We have 25 years distance on it, and that seemed to be an advantage.


Emphasis mine.
An Interview With Bill Condon

[Kringas]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 9:34am

ON: Any projects in mind already that might throw you out?

BC: I am actually going to start on something new. I am going to direct this time. It's called "Dream Girls" and it is based on a show the played in New York in the 80ies. A story on the rise of the Supremes I just have to find a new Jennifer Holliday.

Emphasis mine.

Interview With Bill Condon