What's Love Got to Do with It

What's Love Got to Do with It is a 1993 American biographical film based on the life of American singer-songwriter Tina Turner. Directed by Brian Gibson and written by Kate Lanier, based on Tina's 1986 autobiography I, Tina, it stars Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as her abusive husband Ike Turner. What's Love Got to Do with It premiered in Los Angeles on June 6, 1993, and was theatrically released by Touchstone Pictures on June 25, 1993. Although the Turners disapproved of its inaccuracies, the film was critically and commercially successful, grossing $61 million on a $15 million budget. For their performances, Bassett and Fishburne received nominations at the 66th Academy Awards for Best Actress and Best Actor. Bassett also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. Plot Raised in Nutbush, Tennessee, in the early 1950s, Anna Mae Bullock returns home from church one day to see her mother Zelma leaving, and taking her elder sister Alline with her. She is distraught over her mother leaving and is consoled by her grandmother Georgeanna. Six years later, a teenage Anna Mae relocates to St. Louis, where she reunites with her mother and Alline. While in St. Louis, Alline takes Anna to a nightclub at East St. Louis, where she sees bandleader Ike Turner perform with his band Kings of Rhythm. After nights of seeing women in the crowd coming onstage to sing with Ike, Anna finally gets her chance to perform for Ike and impresses him so much that he offers to mentor her and produce her music. As the first frontwoman of Kings of Rhythm, along with the formation of a backing girl group (later known as the Ikettes), Anna develops a local popularity at the St. Louis club scene. The two record a hit song, "A Fool in Love" and develop a romance. Anna becomes pregnant with their son and learns, while in the hospital, that her name has changed to Tina Turner after the radio station announces the name "Ike & Tina Turner" following the playing of "A Fool in Love". The couple drives to Tijuana to get married and soon after the Ike & Tina Turner Revue becomes a national sensation and relocates to Los Angeles. Upon learning that Ike & Tina have moved to Los Angeles, Ike's former girlfriend Lorraine Taylor makes an unexpected visit to their new home and drops off their two sons, which further complicates matters at home.