Film

Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story

Name: Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story
Genre: Music, Documentary
Released: 2007
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson

Musical

A 155-minute love letter to Stax Records, the Memphis soul label that became a cultural force between 1959 and 1975. Anchored by Samuel L. Jackson's narration and packed with archival footage, interviews, and the music itself, this is a film about how a white banker's record company became the spiritual home of Black artistry and civil rights. It's a feast for music lovers and a masterclass in how art and social change intertwine.

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Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)2021

Questlove's Oscar-winning documentary captures the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival with the same infectious joy and historical weight as Respect Yourself. Stunning performances, meticulous curation, and a genuine sense of discovery throughout.

But It's primarily a concert film. If you're looking for deep institutional history rather than performance, this leans harder into the music itself.

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) poster

The Midnight Gospel2020

A trippy animated series about a podcaster traveling through dying worlds, having profound conversations about meaning, mortality, and how to live. Emotionally devastating in ways you won't expect from the candy-colored animation.

But The psychedelic visual style is relentless and might feel grating over eight episodes. It's also bleak in a way that sneaks up on you.

The Wrecking Crew2026

The untold story of LA's session musicians who played on countless hits from the 1960s onward. Like Respect Yourself, it's about the invisible architects of an era's sound, with warmth, humor, and genuine reverence for craft.

But You might recognize fewer of the names than you'd expect. Some viewers find the pacing a bit leisurely.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Play It as It Lays1972

Both are portraits of American ambition and survival in the 1960s-70s. Where Respect Yourself celebrates collective triumph, Play It as It Lays shows the personal wreckage of the same era—the cost of change, the price of freedom.

A haunting adaptation of Joan Didion's novel about a woman adrift in Los Angeles, fragmentary and elliptical, shot with the same grainy 1970s aesthetic as Stax-era footage. It's a film about dissolution and survival during the exact moment Stax was reaching its peak—a devastating counterpoint to the label's optimism.

But It's oblique and bleak, with no plot to speak of. The protagonist's passivity can read as tedious rather than tragic. It's also very much a 1970s arthouse film, which means slow and sometimes cryptic.

The Last Temptation of Christ1988

Scorsese's audacious, theologically complex film shares Stax's willingness to treat sacred subject matter with artistic seriousness and spiritual conviction. It's a film that demands engagement, not passive consumption.

But It's deliberately provocative about religion in ways that genuinely upset people. It's also three hours of intellectual and emotional heaviness.

Muscle Shoals2013

Another deep dive into a Southern recording studio that became a crucible for soul, rock, and country. The same spirit of place and collaborative magic as Stax, with equally mesmerizing performances and storytelling.

But It covers similar thematic ground, so watching both back-to-back might feel repetitive. The Alabama setting doesn't carry quite the historical weight of Memphis.

Our Girl2014

A BBC miniseries exploring the lives of four young women in the 1920s, each discovering music and art as a form of freedom. Gorgeously shot, emotionally intelligent, and genuinely moving about ambition and constraint.

But The pacing is deliberate and the scale is intimate. If you're coming from a big, propulsive documentary, this might feel slow.

Wattstax1973

A concert documentary from the 1972 Stax Records festival in Los Angeles, featuring Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, and others. It's a time capsule of the label's artists at their peak, with genuine cultural energy.

But The film quality is dated and some performances are longer than modern attention spans prefer. It's more concert footage than narrative.

The Two Escobars2010

An ESPN documentary about two men with the same name—one a footballer, one a drug lord—whose lives collide in 1990s Colombia. It's about how art and crime can be intertwined in a nation's identity, with real stakes and moral complexity.

But It's about football and Colombian violence, which might not interest you. The tone is darker and more noir than Respect Yourself.

Lean on Pete2018

Respect Yourself shows music as a refuge and a way out; Lean on Pete shows the other side—the America left behind, the people for whom art and opportunity never arrived. It's about the same historical moment and landscape, but from ground level instead of the stage.

A quiet, devastating road movie about a teenager and his horse, directed by Andrew Haigh, that moves like a country ballad translated to film. It captures American hardship and loneliness without sentimentality, with the same documentary-like eye for real places and real people that Respect Yourself brings to music history.

But It's bleak, slow-paced, and emotionally exhausting. There's no redemption arc or uplift—just survival. The horse is the most emotionally present character, which some find weird.