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That's the Way of the World is a 1975 film produced and directed by Sig Shore, starring Harvey Keitel, and features the music of R&B/Funk group Earth, Wind & Fire (who also appear in the picture as a fictionalized version of themselves). The film depicts the music business and the life of record executives. A soundtrack by Earth, Wind & Fire released in the same year eventually became one of the group's landmark albums.
Coleman Buckmaster (Harvey Keitel) also known as "the Golden Ear" is a producer extraordinaire for A-Chord Records. In the midst of working slavishly to complete the debut album of "the Group" (Earth, Wind & Fire), Buckmaster is forced to put their project on the back-burner in favor of a new signing to A-Chord, "the Pages," Velour (Cynthia Bostick), Gary (Jimmy Boyd) and Franklin (Bert Parks). According to label head Carlton James (Ed Nelson), the Pages represent good, ol' fashioned, wholesome family values. According to Buckmaster, they represent everything wrong with the music business: a soulless pastiche of cheese-on-white-bread, and he wants nothing to do with them. However, due to his contract, he is forced to turn the flat song of their demo, "Joy, Joy, Joy" into a workable hit. In the meantime, he ends up in a relationship with Velour, seemingly also against his will, but he is able to use the relationship to his and the Group's advantage.
Original Release
06/01/1975
US Release
06/01/1975
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Harvey Keitel | Coleman Buckmaster |
Ed Nelson | Carlton James |
Cynthia Bostick | Velour Page |
Bert Parks | Franklyn Page |
Jimmy Boyd | Gary Page |
Michael Dante | Mike Lemongello |
Maurice White | Early |
Earth Wind & Fire | The Group |
Valerie Shepherd | Ellen |
Herb Downer | Player |
Directors
Writers
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Harvey Keitel | Coleman Buckmaster |
Ed Nelson | Carlton James |
Cynthia Bostick | Velour Page |
Bert Parks | Franklyn Page |
Jimmy Boyd | Gary Page |
Michael Dante | Mike Lemongello |
Maurice White | Early |
Earth Wind & Fire | The Group |
Valerie Shepherd | Ellen |
Herb Downer | Player |
Francesca De Sapio | Amanda |
Charles McGregor | Mantan |
Fred Versacci | Ferrara |
Murray Moston | Buck's Father |
Sig Shore | Norman Shulman (as Mike Richards) / Norman Shulman |
Charles Stepney | Johnny Lyman |
Linda Fields | Annabel Lee |
Nick Lapadula | Al Rapp |
Steve Shore | The Kid |
Frankie Crocker | Frankie Crocker |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Ron Gorton | Producer |
Sig Shore | Producer |
Phillip Fenty | Producer |