In a wiry and intense performance, Keitel plays an ambitious Manhattan record producer named Coleman Buckmaster, who is about ready to unveil a great new musical discovery when his superior orders him instead to concentrate on promoting a talentless, folksy act called the Pages. Coleman is then caught in a fight for his principles, as the movie delves into age-old dilemmas of art vs. commerce and of maintaining personal integrity vs. selling out.
The "new musical discovery" in the story is played by real-life R&B band Earth, Wind and Fire, and their soundtrack album, which includes the hit song "That's the Way of the World," went triple platinum. The film itself, however, came nowhere close to the album's success.
Written by former New York Times sports reporter Robert Lipsyte and directed by Super Fly (1972) producer Sig Shore with documentary-style camerawork, That's the Way of the World was released by United Artists in the summer of 1975. Reviews were mixed, though the Los Angeles Times deemed it "a fairly gutsy expose... a witty morality play satirizing the corruption of the recording industry." But the film never found an audience and was pulled after a very limited distribution.
Subsequently the movie was acquired by Bryanston Distributing, re-titled Shining Star (after another hit Earth, Wind and Fire song), and re-released in the spring of 1977 with an ad campaign that tried to imbue a "Star is Born"-type aura. But again the film flopped to mixed reviews, with The New York Times calling it "choppy-looking... unconvincing... stereotypical characters... long on soul but short on art." The Village Voice praised the movie for its sophisticated look at music industry corruption, but still considered it a failure overall. In 1982, however, The Village Voice reappraised the film, calling it "a genuine sleeper."
By Jeremy Arnold
