Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues: A Musical Journey, Vol 4: Warming by the Devil's Fire (Grade C+)

Director: Charles Burnett
Topic: Gospel v The Blues (sort of)

sez says: I've loved this series--and I plan to see all 7 segments.  But if this had been the first one I saw I might not have been as enthusiastic.  It is not bad--but it is not great either.  Burnett uses a supposed story of a young boy being sent 'home' to the south, to be 'saved' (ie baptized in the family church.)  His uncle, a blues man, waylays the boy to show him what he is gong to be saved from--ie the blues.  We follow these two along (shot in full color, setting the 1950s) and as Uncle tells the story of the blues, B&W footage of real blues singers in the real 1950s is shown.  Simple structure..but a little hokey.  And while the blues were being juxtaposed to 'the church' there was a lack of clarity about what, exactly the topic was.  Anyway there was some nice old footage, and a wide variety of music (a lot of WC Handy in particular)  and that is worthwhilein my book--but probably not so much in everybody's book.  (Grade C+)