I saw “The making of The Five Heartbeats” last night, and while the Dells were heavily involved with the film, it was Robert’s love of the Temptations that inspired the film as a whole. He stated that he took the group’s break up [[or rather David Ruffin leaving the group as he meant to say) very personal as a child. The story he gave was that he’d handpicked David and Eddie Kendricks to serve as technical advisors. The studio voted against it fearing a lawsuit from Berry Gordy, who might have thought the Big Red character was based on him. [[IIRC, he was actually based on Duke records owner Don Robey) He stated that he and Keenan Ivory Wayans, who was originally supposed to play JT, agreed to pay for him to go to rehab upon the film’s completion.

Ultimately, the film was released in March of 1991, and we all know what happened to David Ruffin later that spring. One of the most powerful lines from the doc was Robert quoting Michael Wright saying “we couldn’t save the real Eddie King Jr.”

What do you think? If David Ruffin had been that film’s technical advisor, would he had accepted Robert’s offer to go to rehab on his dime? Could he have saved David, or at least, slowed down the process?