The rock and roll legend, Tina Turner, (81) did not hold back in the moving documentary about her life that aired March 27th on HBO.
She recalls her broken childhood and her brutal relationship with her cocaine addict husband Ike Turner.
In 1984, she finally emerged as a superstar with 1984’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It”- a song she didn’t initially like.
From Oscar winners Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, the documentary isn’t a concise story of a woman who beats the odds. Instead, it follows her constant battles for control of her life and career.
The interviews were filmed in 2019 in Turner’s home in Zurich. The film chronicles her fight for personal and creative control. “Look what I have done in this lifetime, with this body”, she says. She describes this as “triumphant”.
The film documents Turner’s struggle with public life as a Black-woman musician. There’s no area in the film where Turner sugarcoats her story – even when the story is unflattering to her. The relationship between Ike and Tina Turner was one of the most violent in rock and roll history.
She met her husband when she was only 17 years old and at the age of 20, became the lead singer of his band as well as his wife.
The two rose to fame, owning the musical charts, but finally after 16 years with the man she would later call a “monster”, Tina got the courage to leave Ike. This happened following a flight to Texas that included Ike’s pregnant mistress.
Ike left this world the same way he lived. He died of a cocaine overdose in 2007.
