Film Review: Tina – The extraordinary legacy of Tina Turner

In 1981, long before the #MeToo era, People magazine published a tell-all interview with Ms. Tina Turner. Back then, domestic abuse was almost always swept under the rug, across the board – never mind when it was a black woman levelling allegations. The interview saw Tina open up about the harrowing experiences she suffered at the hands of her then-husband, Ike Turner.

Turner has made it adamantly clear over the years that all she ever wanted to do was to leave the memory of Ike and the trauma he unleashed on her life behind. But her attempts to do so – one being the interview with People, another being the biography I, Tina, and the subsequent Angela Bassett-led film What's Love Got To Do With It – often made the situation worse, and the legacy he left on her life followed Tina around like a spectre for a large portion of her career, even after their split. Speaking up aggravated the media coverage of the rock and roll legend, and despite her obvious trauma responses in interviews, it was an oft-questioned aspect of her life, a laborious chore she had to undertake every time she spoke about her work.

But HBO/Sky Documentaries' Tina tells the story a different way. It manages to avoid the common trope of turning Tina into a tragedy, largely through contributions from present-day Tina, and the expert work of Oscar-winners Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin. There are, of course, tragic moments: Turner – born in Tennessee and abandoned at a young age by her parents – fleeing from Ike after one of his final tirades, ran across a freeway and was nearly wiped out by a truck; in the hospital after attempting suicide, her pulse started when Ike began to speak, not because of love, or divine connection, but out of sheer terror.

The latter instance is juxtaposed in Tina with rare concert footage of a vibrant Turner performing in her typical, glittery getup. It reminds its audience to never forget who Tina is and what she can do, hammering home the unbelievable resilience of her spirit.

In a time when racial discrimination against black women in the entertainment industry was even worse than it is now, it seemed that Tina couldn't – wouldn't – be stopped. After her split from Ike, where she (rather famously) retained nothing save her name, she did a Vegas residency and TV guest slots to pay the bills – and then came her solo record Private Dancer. The chart breaking album sold millions of copies, and Turner carved a record-shattering career for herself as a solo artist. She sold out stadiums of 186, 000 people, won Grammys, and fell in love with herself.

The documentary features interviews with the likes of Turner herself, Oprah Winfrey, Angela Bassett, and others close to the living legend. These interviews place Tina at the centre, allowing her to tell her own story from a position of incredible empowerment, as opposed to desperation.

It contains video footage of Ike being interviewed as well, in clips from the early 2000s. But Tina keeps him firmly in his rightful place: a footnote in the story of an extraordinary woman.

Tina Turner is many things: an artist; a lover; a fighter; a survivor; a business woman; an icon; a sex symbol, even. The white men in rock and roll borrowed from her. She paved the way for black women in music. But perhaps most importantly, Tina Turner is a person. And Tina does a remarkable job of demystifying the icon, without trivialising her personhood.

• TINA airs 28th March at 9:00PM on Sky Documentaries and NOW and will be available on other formats at altitude.film.