Starring: Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Tate Donovan, Mary J. Blige, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Brenda Nicole Moorer
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Musical bio-drama directed by Liesl Tommy. Respect (2021) follows the rise of Aretha Franklin’s (Jennifer Hudson) career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to becoming an international superstar and legend.
Best Quotes
C. L. Franklin: They want to hear you sing. You want to sing?
Young Aretha: Yes, please.
Dinah Washington: I said to them, “I’m so happy to be performing in England. But just remember there’s only one Heaven, one Earth, and one queen. Me. Dinah Washington. That Elizabeth on y’alls throne is an imposter.”
Party Guest #1: You didn’t.
Dinah Washington: Oh, yes, I did.
C. L. Franklin: For those of you visiting my home for the first time, this is my daughter, Aretha. She’d like to sing a little something for you. What would you like to sing, Ree?
Party Guest #2: How old is she?
Party Guest #1: She’s ten, but her voice’s going on thirty, honey.
Barbara Franklin: [singing] How is Aretha doing?
Young Aretha: [singing] Aretha’s doing alright.
Barbara Franklin: [singing] Just alright?
Barbara Franklin: If you ever don’t want to sing, don’t.
Young Aretha: I love singing.
Barbara Franklin: No, I know. I know. Your daddy doesn’t own your voice, Ree. Nobody does but God. And you don’t ever have to fear any man. You understand? You are so worthy, Ree. Don’t you ever let anybody tell you otherwise.
Young Aretha: Yes, momma.
Barbara Franklin: [to young Aretha] I am always with you. Even when I’m not there.
Young Aretha: What if I wasn’t here?
C. L. Franklin: What do you mean by that?
Young Aretha: I don’t know.
C. L. Franklin: [to young Aretha] Do you think you can stay silent forever, Ree? Hmm? Look at me. We must honor the gifts that God has given us, Ree.
James Cleveland: Don’t let nothing come between you and your music, Ree. Music will save your life.
Martin Luther King Jr.: Some people think that we are crazy for taking on this fight. But the forces against us are strong, and they are determined to stop us. But we are just as determined to go on! Non-violently, with love. As long as it takes to win our freedom. And Jesus is here with us every single step of the way!
Aretha Franklin: Singing for the movement, and sending people into battle with a song is not enough anymore. I need to be with them.
Aretha Franklin: [referring to her children] Every time I come back, they want me less.
Mama Franklin: That’s not true. They talk about you all the time. Every night, I show them where you are on the map.
Ted White: What are you drinking?
Aretha Franklin: Iced tea.
Ted White: Just iced tea?
Aretha Franklin: With a little bourbon.
Ted White: Yeah, you look like a bourbon girl.
Ted White: I’d like to take you out.
Aretha Franklin: I’d like you to take me out.
'You have to disturb the peace when you can't get no peace.' - Aretha Franklin (Respect) Share on X
C. L. Franklin: I’ve always seen Aretha as more than a gospel singer.
John Hammond: Well, clearly from her demo, she’s so much more.
John Hammond: Prove yourself as a jazz artist, and everything else will follow.
Aretha Franklin: I understand.
John Hammond: She sounds wonderful, doesn’t she?
C. L. Franklin: She does.
John Hammond: Like a black Judy Garland.
Dinah Washington: [to Aretha] Don’t you ever sing the Queen’s songs when the Queen is in front of you!
Dinah Washington: You want to take me on?
Aretha Franklin: No.
Dinah Washington: Liar. You wouldn’t be here if you wasn’t trying to replace me, and every other b**ch out here singing.
Dinah Washington: How many albums have you had?
Aretha Franklin: Four.
Dinah Washington: And no hits. You out here, but I can see you still that little girl in your daddy’s living room. You’re singing everything and anything.
Dinah Washington: What do you want to sing?
Aretha Franklin: I don’t know.
Dinah Washington: You don’t know?
Aretha Franklin: I want hits. I just want hits.
Dinah Washington: [to Aretha] Honey, find the songs that suit you. That move you. Until you do that, you ain’t going nowhere.
Dinah Washington: [to Aretha, referring to her children] Child, you ever going to tell us who their daddy is?
C. L. Franklin: [referring to Aretha] It’s important that you understand that this behavior is not a reflection of her upbringing or her race.
John Hammond: Well, I’ve worked with Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Aretha is a saint in comparison.
C. L. Franklin: You told me before we came out here that you had it under control.
Aretha Franklin: I have control.
C. L. Franklin: You keep complaining that you don’t have any hits. This is why you don’t have any hits.
Aretha Franklin: [to C. L.] That is not why I don’t have hits. You don’t pick good songs for me.
Ted White: Listen, [to Aretha] you want to use me for my body, you can use me, baby. You can wring me dry. You and me, we’ve been through it. So we can skip all the flowers, and the promises, and the love bulls**t, and just have some fun.
Ted White: I want one thing from you.
Aretha Franklin: What?
Ted White: To hear you sing. Just for me.
Aretha Franklin: What will I get in return?
Ted White: The best night of your life.
Ted White: I want you to think about me when you sing tomorrow.
Aretha Franklin: You’re not coming home with me?
Ted White: No.
Aretha Franklin: What about the best night of my life?
Ted White: I didn’t say it would be tonight.
Ted White: First, I’ve listened to all your albums. Including this one. More than once. Secondly, I love music. I take it seriously. I managed my first artist when I was fifteen. Thirdly, what you experienced yesterday, seventeen takes on one song? That happens to me every time I hear you sing. My brain gets all muddled.
Aretha Franklin: Well, first, my apologies for putting you through so much pain. And secondly, you should have never told me about your Achilles heel on our first date.
C. L. Franklin: I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, and I don’t care. Just leave. Now.
Ted White: Aretha asked me to come, and Aretha can ask me to leave.
Aretha Franklin: I want him to stay.
C. L. Franklin: This is my house. Since when do you get to tell me who gets to be in my house, Ree, huh?
Ted White: Reverend, we have to figure this out. I’m not going anywhere.
C. L. Franklin: You can’t see through this hustler?
Ted White: You’re the greatest hustler I ever seen. Every night, she picks herself apart because of you. She thinks it’s her hair, her body, her voice. She worries about failing you, but it’s your failure!
Erma Franklin: Nobody can tell you anything, Ree. You’re so jealous.
Aretha Franklin: Jealous? Of you two?
Carolyn Franklin: You think you better than us?
Erma Franklin: That’s exactly what she’s saying!
Aretha Franklin: I need a change. I want to sing what I want to sing, and I want to dress like I want to dress. And I want Ted to manage me.
C. L. Franklin: He’s not worth the s**t at the bottom of my shoe. So that means that you think I’m worth less than that. After all we’ve been through. After all that I’ve done for you.
Aretha Franklin: I have to do this, daddy.
C. L. Franklin: You are going to beg me to take you back. But I won’t. I won’t.
Aretha Franklin: You keep beating up these club owners, there won’t be any clubs left for me to sing at.
Ted White: No one disrespects us.
Jerry Wexler: A lot of these guys out here will say anything to get in your drawers, but that’s not me. I’m sorry. Alright, I’m crude. And you’re a church girl, and I should watch my mouth. I’m sorry. You do talk, don’t you? Not just sing? You are the sweetest thing, Aretha.
Aretha Franklin: I’d like you to call me Miss Franklin.
Jerry Wexler: Okay, Miss Franklin. What songs would you like to sing?
Aretha Franklin: I want hits.
Aretha Franklin: [to the band] It’s too busy. Let the song do the work.
Tom Dowd: Yeah, stop showing off, guys.
Jerry Wexler: Yeah, boys, if you’re trying to impress me, it’s not working.
Jerry Wexler: It’s like the perfect mixture of gospel, blues…
Jack Frank: [to Aretha] And sex. Baby, that’s some of the best singing and playing I’ve ever heard.
Aretha Franklin: This was the best I ever sounded. Couldn’t you hear that?
Ted White: We’ll finish this in New York. With my musicians.
Aretha Franklin: Your musicians ain’t s**t. You’re not about to mess this up for me.
Aretha Franklin: You can’t treat me like that.
Ted White: I know. I got demons too, Ree. Can you help me fight mine the way I help you fight yours? Please. I’m so sorry.
Aretha Franklin: I will help you, baby.
Aretha Franklin: Ted is nothing like daddy.
Carolyn Franklin: The way you two go at it?
Erma Franklin: Just like momma and daddy.
Aretha Franklin: Momma and daddy didn’t fight.
Erma Franklin: [referring to their parents fighting] Aretha, we used to climb up on the roof, and sing as loud as we could to drown them out.
Carolyn Franklin: How could you forget? I still have nightmares about it.
Erma Franklin: Well, I was glad when momma finally left.
Smokey: Nobody is talking about Motown anymore. All they want to talk about is Aretha Franklin. You did it, Ree.
Aretha Franklin: I did it.
Smokey: Yes, you did.
Ted White: [as Aretha blows out her birthday candles] What did you wish for?
Aretha Franklin: More hits.
Carolyn Franklin: You genius you.
Erma Franklin: You really feeling this one, aren’t you, Ree?
Aretha Franklin: I love it.
Erma Franklin: I can tell.
Aretha Franklin: I’m still trying to figure out who I am. I’m not sure yet, but I’m trying to find the answer.
Fan: When you sing, I feel like you are talking about my life. It helps me, because it is hard out here. But I feel like you understand, and, well, I just have to thank you.
Aretha Franklin: Stay strong.
Aretha Franklin: Jerry.
Jerry Wexler: Oh, I love when you call me Jerry. It means you’re not mad at me.
Aretha Franklin: I want to use Ted’s musicians, Mr. Wexler.
Jerry Wexler: Mr. Wexler? Oh, God. Aretha, please.
Aretha Franklin: How are you going to prove that you didn’t hit me? You did and everyone saw it!
Ted White: Another man would have killed you by now. Crazy way you act.
Ted White: I Never Loved A Man came from me. My songwriter!
Aretha Franklin: That song wasn’t anything until I rearranged it. And I sang the hell out of it because it was about you. You’re a lying, no good, just useless, psychopath. No! I’m done with you.
Ted White: Yeah, you’ve said that before. You wait until your demons come back!
Aretha Franklin: After living with you, I’m ready for them.
Aretha Franklin: This song goes out to anyone who’s ever felt mistreated.
C. L. Franklin: [referring to Martin Luther King] He kept telling me that they were going to get him. But I said, “Martin, the Lord has more for you to do. You’re going to be alright.” But he knew. He knew.
Aretha Franklin: Why shouldn’t we fight back?
C. L. Franklin: And start a full-on war? You think we can win that?
Aretha Franklin: We’re tired of getting our heads kicked in.
C. L. Franklin: Non-violence got us our civil rights, and our right to vote.
Aretha Franklin: At what price? Our souls? Our dignity?
C. L. Franklin: Have you lost your mind, huh?
Aretha Franklin: Maybe. Maybe I found it.
Clara Ward: Just do your thing, Ree. And you do it as big, and as loud, and as long as you can.
Aretha Franklin: Black people will be free. My daddy says I don’t know what I’m doing. I respect him, of course, but I have to stick by my beliefs. You have to disturb the peace when you can’t get no peace.
Erma Franklin: Aretha, you need to slow down.
Aretha Franklin: You stop for five minutes, they forget all about you.
Erma Franklin: That’s ridiculous.
Aretha Franklin: How would you know, Erma? You barely have one hit.
Ken Cunningham: Ree, you haven’t slept in months.
Carolyn Franklin: And you look like it.
Aretha Franklin: You don’t want me to tell you what you look like, Carolyn.
Aretha Franklin: If I don’t work, y’all don’t eat!
Aretha Franklin: I know how to run my damn business.
Cecil Franklin: You asked me.
Aretha Franklin: Y’all just want to take my crown.
Aretha Franklin: Tell me y’all don’t want what I got.
Cecil Franklin: Alright, forget it! I can’t talk to you when that demon takes hold.
Aretha Franklin: You don’t know what I go through. Y’all don’t know what I’ve been through!
Cecil Franklin: We love you, Ree.
Carolyn Franklin: Why can’t you see that?
Ken Cunningham: After all this time, you’re still keeping stuff from me?
Aretha Franklin: You don’t keep stuff from me?
Ken Cunningham: No.
Aretha Franklin: You should.
Ken Cunningham: Why? I trust you. Don’t you trust me?
Aretha Franklin: Sometimes.
Ken Cunningham: What do I have to do to make it all the time?
Aretha Franklin: Just let me be.
Ken Cunningham: [to Aretha] Don’t go to that dark place.
James Cleveland: [to Aretha] You always did know how to make an entrance.
Jerry Wexler: An all-gospel record has a very limited audience.
Aretha Franklin: I don’t care.
Jerry Wexler: You do care. You sat in that office with me six years ago, and you said you wanted to make hits, and I think you still do.
Aretha Franklin: I’m making this album, Jerry.
Aretha Franklin: All I want to do is drink now, Jerry.
Jerry Wexler: Well, let me get you into a program.
Aretha Franklin: I’m in a program, but I need the church. I need the spirit. It has always gotten me through, and it will get me through again.
Aretha Franklin: This album is not for me, or for you, or anybody else. This album is for God. And you can’t jive God, Jerry. So stop trying.
Jerry Wexler: Oh. I’m not trying to jive you, or Jesus, okay? It’s the gospel record.
James Cleveland: Ree, the spirit is the spirit. It moves when it moves. What you want us to do? Behave like Episcopalians?
Aretha Franklin: You told me once that music would save my life.
James Cleveland: I did.
Aretha Franklin: What if it doesn’t? The demon is strong.
James Cleveland: Ain’t no demon haunting you, Ree. There never was. Just the pain you’ve been running from your whole life. But you got to let it go, Ree. Give it to God. It wasn’t your fault. And He knows that. I don’t know about tomorrow, or the concert, or the album, or the documentary. You’re in church right now. You’re safe. So, Ree, let’s have church.
Aretha Franklin: You taught me every song I’m singing today.
C. L. Franklin: I did my best. But you have exceeded all of my expectations, Ree. I’m about to bust wide open, and you’re just getting started. I can’t imagine what you’re going to do next. Because you can do anything, Ree.
James Cleveland: This is the first religious recording by our First Lady of Soul. Give a warm round of applause for Miss Aretha Franklin.
Trailer: