What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) * * *

Directed by:  Brian Gibson

Starring:  Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Jenifer Lewis

Tina Turner barely acknowledged her ex-husband Ike Turner's passing in 2007 and based on the evidence in this film, it's no wonder.   Tina endured years of physical and emotional abuse at Ike's hands before finally walking out for good and pleading with the owner of a local hotel to allow her to stay there even though she had no money.   She promised to pay for her stay once she got on her feet and made some money, and true to her word, Ms. Turner repaid the hotel every nickel.   When she divorced Ike, her only condition was that she wanted to retain her stage name of Tina Turner while foregoing any financial compensation from Ike.  Born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee in 1939, Tina Turner explained that she earned the name and it was still a good one.   In 1984, she hit number one with "What's Love Got to Do with It" and the rest is music history.   Ike slid into obscurity and drugs before his death at age 76.  

What's Love Got to Do with It features two outstanding, riveting performances by Laurence Fishburne as Ike and Angela Bassett as Tina.  Both received deserved Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively as the famed duo who created some legendary music and a tenuous marriage ruined by Ike's drug use and beating on Tina.   Ike discovered Tina and employed her as a backup singer before promoting her to lead after beginning a relationship with her.   It wasn't hard for the impressionable Tina to be starstruck over Ike.  He was a talented guitarist and a smooth talker who was also jealous, insecure, and fueled by drugs and alcohol as Tina's star rose and he was forced to take a back seat to her in his own band.

What's Love Got to Do with It focuses sometimes repetitively on Ike's abuse, but the most rewarding scenes involve Tina learning to stand up to Ike and in the movie's most satisfying payoff, Tina backs Ike down when he threatens her with a gun backstage and goes on stage to belt out tunes like only she can.