By Glenn Dunks

Tina Turner does not like to talk about herself and her life with abusive ex-husband and artistic collaborator Ike Turner. She notes this in Tina, a new HBO documentary about her life. But she is aware that public interest in it, which is why she has to keep on telling us all about it. This is show business after all, and if she doesn’t, somebody else will. First it was People magazine. Then it was Kurt Loder’s I, Tina. That was followed by a film adaptation, What’s Love Got to Do With It?

One would have hoped that that film would have been the end of it for Turner, her story of abuse and late career triumph captured on film to great acclaim and with an Oscar-worthy performance by Angela Bassett. Nearly 30 years later, however, Tina is back as the subject of T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay’s documentary. Whatever the directors’ reasons for doing so, I am unsure. But for Turner herself at least, she has decided to take this opportunity to bid farewell to her fans and to (hopefully) put her story to bed.