...fails to give audiences as much frame of reference for the unifying economic, political and atmospheric elements that made the Stax brand of R&B soul music so powerful.

| Original Score: C | Jun 13, 2009

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 1, 2005

you get the feeling that Hegedus and Pennebaker couldn't care less about soul music.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 7, 2004

I would have prefered deeper insights... [but] as a concert film, this one's a blast.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 31, 2004

A disorganized sprawl.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 22, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 16, 2003

Lacks context, depth and a sense of purpose.

Full Review | Jul 11, 2003

There's no problem with a little bias, but Friedman's fan-boy perspective puts the subjects of Only the Strong Survive on too high a pedestal.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 26, 2003

Content to merely serve as a cluttered, heart-shaped scrapbook, missing many more stories than it bothers to include.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 28, 2003

Invaluable as a record of its subjects (including the late, great Rufus Thomas), but it doesn't cohere as a feature...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 15, 2003

... the music is great, but as a film thumbs down.

Full Review | May 12, 2003

A loving look at soul's golden era that leaves you wanting more; a disappointment in some respects because it doesn't craft a more comprehensive, cohesive background.

| Original Score: C | May 12, 2003

The scrappy country cousin to the high-gloss Standing in the Shadows of Motown.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 11, 2003

These survivors share a timelessness and a universality that remain untouched by the fickle shifts of popular culture.

| Original Score: A | May 10, 2003

Fortunately, the performances themselves are beautifully filmed and recorded.

Full Review | May 9, 2003

A film that even with its flaws should be cheered for preserving the later years of these towering musical talents.

Full Review | May 9, 2003

Worth the time and money some of the summer's effects-driven spectacles probably won't be.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 9, 2003

Most of the music is as fine and fierce as you could want.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 9, 2003

With Friedman, the narrator and emissary, tossing questions as squishy as Jell-O and heaping praise on the performers for their unexceptional appearances on the oldies circuit, it's a wasted opportunity.

| Original Score: 1/4 | May 9, 2003