Who really cares?
Who is willing to try?
To save a world that is destined to die?
-- MARVIN GAYE

Two giants of music, Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin, are the subject of documentaries on PBS.  The result is an immersion into two hours of unadulterated soul and into an era when soul music shaped American culture and society.   

“Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On” is an insightful, one-hour film that explores the passions, genius and demons of Gaye, the R&B superstar who, in a career that spanned two decades, elevated both the languages of social consciousness and lust in popular music.

Director-producer Sam Pollard successfully meshes the artistry and pathos of Gaye, who was born April 2, 1939 in Washington, D.C. His upbringing marked the start of his lifelong struggle to reconcile his connection to the spiritual and secular worlds. His father, the Rev. Marvin Gay Sr., was a complex character who was a traveling preacher, a strict taskmaster at home and also a cross-dresser.

Gaye was drawn first to music by singing in the choir as part of his father’s ministry, and then in high school, he formed corner doo-wop groups with his friends. After a brief unsuccessful stint in the Air Force, the free-spirited and rebellious young man wound up in Detroit with Berry Gordy and the budding sensation of Motown Records.

At first, Gaye was trying to sing standards in the manner of Frank Sinatra, but after seeing more successful acts like Martha Reeves get hit after hit, he wrote “Stubborn Kind of Fella” and got on the Motown Sound bandwagon. Smokey Robinson says of those years that Gaye would “Marvinize” whatever song he sang. He was prolific and became a sex symbol after being paired in a series of romantic ballads, most especially with Tammy Terrell, a young, spunky singer, who died at the age of 24.

“You have this picture of him as this wonderful romantic figure, but in reality Marvin was going though all kinds of hell,” says biographer David Ritz. “And he had a very complicated relationship to women, especially to his wife, Anna.”

With footage of Gaye performing and interviews with the man himself plus family members, biographers and dozens of fellow artists, Pollard weaves a narrative from these early years, though the success of Gaye’s masterpiece, "What’s Going On?" in 1972, to the final decade of his life -- during which his two marriages failed, he became deeply addicted to drugs, and he became a recluse, first in Hawaii and then in Belgium.

When he made his comeback to the United States in 1982 with his hit “Sexual Healing,” it was like a star burning brightly before its death. “He knew he was loved by many people; he needed to love himself,” says Smokey Robinson of this period of Gaye’s life. 

The same conflicts Gaye had with his father as a child came full circle on the day before his 49th birthday on April 1, 1984 when, after a fight, his father shot him three times at the home Gaye had purchased for his parents in Los Angeles.

PBS is also repeating its airing of “The Queen of Soul,” which chronicles, in a brief fashion, the career of Aretha Franklin, who honed her regal soul sound in the Detroit church of her famous father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, and then went on to sing jazz and then her signature soul hits during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Including interviews with Franklin, family members, fellow musicians and lots of vintage footage, this show offers a taste of the impact that Franklin has had on popular music in an era of advancement for African-Americans and women. In contrast to the documentary on Gaye, “The Queen of Soul” is not as in-depth, probing or poking. As it details the life of a living artist, it leaves room for Franklin’s continued contribution.

“With respect to things that I’ve done, I’ve got a million songs to sing,” Franklin says in the documentary, “and a lot of things that I’d like to do.”

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Writer-director David Mamet may not have planned it this way, but it turns out that his new movie “Redbelt” hits on timely themes for today’s Americans, who are feeling the financial crunch of shady home foreclosures, lost jobs and increased costs that are straining families and communities.

The film gets to the meaty money issue through the story of a jiu-jitsu master named Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who is struggling to keep open his Los Angeles studio, where he teaches martial arts for a living. His wife, Sondra (Alice Braga), also runs her own fledgling but more profitable business producing fabrics and garments. When, by chance, Mike saves a celebrity from a beatdown in a bar, it leads to a series of events that threaten to throw his already tenuous finances and family life into chaos.

In constructing this story and its many interlocking pieces and circumstances, Mamet uses the fight metaphor to, of course, talk about Terry’s physical and financial challenges. But he also draws in the elements of principle and courage. Even though Terry is surrounded by the world of competitive Brazilian jiu-jitsu, promoted by his brother-in-law, he doesn’t believe in fighting for money. He thinks that type of competition sullies the sport and the purity of each fighter’s motive. How he decides to reconcile his principles with his need for cash is an important part of this theme.

Throughout, there is nothing common about how Mamet handles “Redbelt.” Even though it is about a sport, it is not all about glory-versus-defeat in the manner that we’ve come to expect of Hollywood sagas about boxing or the gridiron. Even though it is about deceit and tragedy, there are no caricatures of virtue or evil. Without hitting us over the head, it explores how lives are shaped by a job or the need for money. Though the focus is often quick violence, the pace of “Red Belt” is slow, giving it the feel of a fable, especially when combined with Mamet’s stage-like settings that draw us close to the action and interpersonal relationships.

This is the most physical yet role for Ejiofor, who, with each varied film role, seems to get better and better as an actor -- or maybe he is just getting more opportunities to show what he can do. As he did in “Dirty Pretty Things” and “Kinky Boots,” Ejiofor puts us into this story and his character completely. If there is any lapse, it is because Mamet stumbles at times with awkward direction or dialogue that slips from his usually remarkable efforts.

Ejiofor's character, Mike, also needs a bit more grounding, so that we understand more about his single chocolate-chip existence in the sea of whites, including white Brazilians. It just would have added to the story to see or even scan a picture of his mother, father, sister or brother at some point so we could understand with greater depth where he is from -- and indeed, where he got his fight.

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Esther Iverem is the author of "We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986-2006."