Pros: Ensemble cast, photography, musical editing, master recordings, Ray Charles' own motivations, Jamie Foxx, Sharon Warren.
Cons: A curious number of jaded critics find the film a mass of cliches. A Pity!
The Bottom Line: Despite crabbed criticism, RAY is a highly entertaining, theatrically honest exploration of a savant's tragic and crushing roots. If there's justice, it should have a basket of Oscar Nominations.
Certainly, in our politically correct New World Order, being black can't be its own excuse.
That a surprising number of reviews give RAY so-so or failing marks (while, to be fair, hyping Jamie Foxx's astonishing title role performance) does not suggest there is an undercurrent of criticism concerning "Family Values" about Director Taylor Hackford's superb new Musical Bio-Pic.
Or does it?
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Ray Charles (1930 - 2004), an American cultural icon, was a musical savant who excelled in a number of popular music forms, from Blue Grass, Gospel, Blues, R & B, Jazz, Rock and Roll, to what-have-you, tending to link each mode with another. Ray Charles created (or put his stamp on) such popular classics as "I Gotta Woman," "Georgia on My Mind," What'd I Say?" "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Hit the Road, Jack" [my favorite], and a definitive pop rendition of "America the Beautiful." Charles made a transition from one popular style to half a dozen others with seeming ease, and he became successful at each. Charles was one of the early Post World War II black artists to "cross over" to the mass American audience. He led teenagers of all stripes through several dance crazes, and "Ray," as he became known, was among the first black popular musicians to break the color bar in the Deep South.
And yet, this long, highly entertaining picture of Charles' life, from his childhood to about age 48, is being attacked for using bio-pic, musical, social and/or racial cliches by near 50% of Metacritics:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/ray/
Let's take a look ourselves at RAY:
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In 1930, Ray Charles was born Ray Charles Robinson, near Albany, Georgia, to a sharecropper's teenage daughter, Aretha Robinson, who raised him and his younger brother by taking in washing. According to him, when he *"was about five," Ray Charles witnessed the accidental drowning of his brother in Arethra's wash tub. Six months later, he began to go blind from what would now be called Childhood Glaucoma. He never forgave himself for his brother's death, nor the grief it caused his mother, but he received challenges from her tough love training, and solace from having learned to play stride piano from an old man, Mr. Pitman (Willie Metcalf in the picture), at a local juke joint. When she had done for him what she could, his mother placed little Ray in Florida's St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind, where he was encouraged to learn other musical instruments and a certain amount of rough music theory. After his mom's death (at age 31) when he was 14, he struck out on his own along the "Chitlin' Circuit," playing piano for country bands. In 1948, aged 18, Charles got a job with a black band in Seattle, and he was on his way.
Ray Charles, an orphan living in the dark with guilt, was easily cheated and exploited, which taught him over time to become a hard businessman, insistent on a "best deal," and quick to move on, sometimes leaving behind those who had shown him kindness. He found comfort in easy sex, marijuana, and harder drugs. Though he married a most forgiving ward of the Pentecostal Church, having two children by her, and keeping the appearance of a conventional marriage, he engaged in numerous one night stands "on the road," had several mistresses, and fathered an additional ten+ children from all over the World.
Several weeks ago, I went to a sneak preview of RAY, directed by Taylor Hackford, known best for AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, 1982. (But also for HAIL, HAIL, ROCK 'N ROLL, 1987, and DOLORES CLAIBORNE, 1995.) Starring an incomparable Jamie Foxx (COLLATERAL, Mann, Summer 2004), the filmed life of the veteran musical icon -- in my mind, at least -- presents one of the best bio-pics of a popular entertainer ever made. Oscars are, or should be, written all over it.
Hackford's RAY, a 16 year labor of love and admiration, made with the cooperation of Charles and his son, Ray Charles, Jr., proves to be a highly successful attempt to understand the contradictions in the life of this marvel.
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The picture begins during the middle of the Depression with the musical tinkling of a Southern "bottle tree," and the mysterious figure of a woman wreathed, as it were, in seven veils. It is Aretha Robinson (Sharon Warren) putting out sheets on a clothes line. As the final sheet is whipped away by the breeze, this extraordinarily noble looking, rail-thin young mother looks directly into the camera and introduces us to the Picture, and in a sense, to Ray Charles Robinson:
"Don't nobody turn you into a cripple."
All the beauty, tragedy and eventual triumph of RAY are in that brief sequence.
At odd psychological moments throughout the picture, we return to his rural beginnings for lessons in why Ray Charles was the person he became. No matter how high he goes, no matter what he creates, Ray Charles is comforted by dreams, and plagued by nightmares -- sometimes waking nightmares -- of his start in life.
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Getting off the bus in Seattle, in one of those "truth is stranger . . . " moments -- perfectly represented in all his blind, awkward charm by Jamie Foxx -- Ray meets another, slightly younger future music giant, Quincy Jones (Larenz Tate), and learns about the Northwestern music scene, including the welcome sexual exploitation, but unwelcome financial cheating of a manager, Marlene (Denise Dowse). He soon finds that by deftly touching the forearm of younger women he meets ("Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand"), he can gain an understanding of their attractiveness while impressing them with his romantic approach. Presently, the band's diminutive frontman, Oberon (Warwick Davis) clues him into what is being done with his finances, and he shares with Ray the pleasures of pot.
Now applying a mother-taught "sixth sense" to surrounding experience, and switching managers, Ray Charles Robinson continues on the road to Chicago, ultimately demanding that his salary be paid in single dollar bills, we come to know other musicians who were later identified with Charles, such as "Fathead" Newman (Bokeem Woodbine), who takes the rap for (reluctantly) introducing him to heroin. After moving on musically from the model of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown, simplifying his given name and making it unique, Ray Charles senses his national career take off in New York City by his association with Ahmet Ertgun (Curtis Armstrong) and Jerry Wexler (Richard Schiff -- without his WEST WING beard!), whose Atlantic Records produce many of Ray's early hits. Helped by brilliant sound engineer [the late] Tom Dowd (Rick Gomez), the heads of Atlantic continue to encourage his recording career with rare prescience until he seizes a chance to "own his own masters" at ABC Records, in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, his interest in Gospel Music has led him to the young woman (Kerry Washington) who would become his wife, Della Bea Robinson. The need to do ballads on the road prompts him to hire a songstress (and mistress), Mary Ann Fisher (Aunjanue Ellis), for whom he creates "Mary Ann." In changing times, he forms a trio, improvising "What'd I Say" as a musical lesson for his tyro "Rae-lettes," one of whom, Marge Hendricks (Regina King), becomes another mistress, and mother of a child.
Contrary to the opinion of some critics, nothing "by the numbers" is involved in this developmental pattern. We never question how James C. White's screenplay and the expertise of Hackford's creative team visualize, over 152 minutes, these relationships on screen, though they obviously ignore a child fathered by him as a teenager, and at least eight others by various women in later life. Ray Charles evidently approved of their dramatic and musical simplifications, for he "saw" the finished cut before he died of cancer last June. He had also encouraged the picture during 13 years of its maturation and lent Hackford the use of his precious "Masters" for the sound track.
Thank that act (one of at least shrewd kindness) and the State of Louisiana, where most of the film was shot (giving a generous "bonus for job creation"), in holding the actual cost of RAY to a little over $30,000,000, insuring a gross profit by its second weekend.
[Hackford told us a story that, a year before his death, quite possibly aware of a prognosis for his cancer, Charles brought his dozen children together for the first time in LA. (Ray Charles, Jr., then 51, and intimate with his father's business dealings, musical career and hectic life, had never heard of some of them.) Charles gave them all a big dinner and wrote each, symbolically, a cheque for a million dollars. Not perhaps fully the love and time they would have preferred but possibly what American Society had taught him ("do-ra-mi") was the requisite substitute. As Hackford remarked, doing duty to all those relationships would have required a mini-series. He chose to be dramatically representative of Ray Charles' strength and weaknesses.]
While dramatizing his transforming influence on popular music, on dance styles, on other musical stars, and upon Civil Rights, RAY does not hold back from frankly, but not judgmentally, disclosing how Charles discarded not only women encountered, but mistresses, old factotums, or business partners -- if someone more useful came along.
"Staying the course" (to use a popular cliche of the moment) to success, in the face of change, may be RAY's thesis.
One of the extraordinary features of RAY is the superb production design of Stephen Altman (Bob's Son --GOSFORD PARK, 2001), which allows Director Hackford to illustrate Ray's moves, accomplishments and failings through the mis-en-scene, costumes and dance styles of succeeding decades. Intercutting tweaked Super-8 amateur film with recreated urban settings, Editor Paul Hirsh (CARRIE, 1976) matches Music Director Curt Sobel's progression of Ray's recordings with homage to musical shorts of the time; and stitches hemlessly Florida and Georgia in the late 1940's to Seattle and Chicago in the early 1950's, to New York in the late Fifties, and to LA in the early 1960's. Costume Designer Sharen Davis takes us on a tour of American style from A-line to Nehru Jacket. Also making a contribution is the beautiful period photography of Pawel Edelman (a Pole and a Charles fan, synthesizing his first American picture, to follow THE PIANIST (Polanski, 2002).
RAY, in addition to being a psychological music drama, creates a large part of American Popular Music History in the decades after World War II. It depicts Ray Charles' part in how economically depressed Americans, recovering from the War, gravitated from "remotes," to single records, to dance clubs and halls, to 45 r.p.m.'s and LP's, through the Payola scandal to crossing the color line, to TV Dance Shows, to huge Rock and Roll concerts.
[Another Hackford aside: New Orleans Choreographer Veruel Bagneris pointed out to him that he might chronicle the progress of popular dance in America by following the influence of Ray Charles' music. Hackford took the advice. For instance, early in the film the couples dancing to numbers in the South and in Seattle are very individualistic because, before 1955 or so, Television and the establishment of "American Bandstand" had not yet taught increasingly younger American audiences how to copy (for the most part) the steps and clothing "sold" to them in a given year. That motif is carried on throughout RAY.]
Foxx, who already had a career as a standup comedian, and recently became a supporting dramatic actor (ALI, Mann, 2003) -- if Hollywood continues to find roles which stretch his talent -- becomes a major star in RAY. Not only does Foxx look the part (losing 57 pounds to attain gaunt reality), but his every inflection and gesture (including the stutter and the head-thrown-back smile) have Ray Charles down perfectly. Viewers may also notice, as Director Hackford told us, that it is one thing to lip-sync and pantomime stereo recordings of the 1960's, where a film editor can cut from Foxx at his piano to a rhythm section, "the Rae-lettes" or dancers, in order to disguise a miscue; quite another to follow concentrated earlier monaural recordings of the late 1940's and 1950's, where any mistake becomes instantly a glaring one.
What is more difficult yet for Hollywood is to show an ensemble black cast without stiffness or condescension. Michael Mann's aforementioned ALI (2003), even Spike Lee's MALCOLM X (1992), were criticized rightly on one or another of these points. Known and unknown, this cast is both solid, supple, and almost entirely black: Foxx, Washington, King, Tate, Dowse, Clifton Powell, Harry J. Lennix, Robert Wisdom, Terence Doshon Howard, et. al.
Catch RAY if you get a chance. For someone like myself who has never much cared for R&B, Gospel or Country Music, the musical sequences recreating an America of the late 1940's, 1950's and 1960's were incredible. An education, alone worth the price of admission. The diverse aggregate of talent gives a thoroughly enjoyable experience for its entire length, from Ray Charles' Mother hanging out her shanty town washing in 1948, to SNCC Founder and State Senator Julian Bond (playing himself) presiding over a ceremony recognizing Ray's recording of "Georgia on My Mind" as the State Song, in 1979 .
Finally, among all the Oscar Nominations which RAY deserves, let me single out "Best Supporting Actress" Sharron (now Sharon) Warren for her performance as Ray Charles' Mother. She is on screen less than ten minutes, but the scenes between her and young Ray (C.J. Saunders) are among the most inspiring and heartbreaking I have ever seen in a motion picture. The utter simplicity and conviction of her delivery dismisses any charge of sentimentality. She should have her Oscar (as should little C.J.), one of many which RAY demands.
[A final Hackford insight: He told us that he was in a small suburban New Orleans gym, interviewing extras for the picture. At a community theater across the street, during an amateur play rehearsal, Sharron Warren, who had never been in Movies nor on TV, never even walked on a professional stage, happened to hear of the audition. She tentatively entered the gym. Hackford's casting director, Nancy Klopper, mentioned how close Ms. Warren was to Ray's extremely slim mother. Though her reading was awkward because she had never read professionally, they later put her on the short list of "possibles." Her performance justifies their confidence, and then some.]
San Francisco Chronicle Movie Critic Ruthie Stein, who interviewed Taylor Hackford on stage at the Sony Metreon Theater, humorously introduced him as "Helen Mirren's husband." Talented as Hackford has always obviously been, his film career has shown up rather spotty, and that is possibly why he gave so generously of his time. He need not have worried about his 16 year project, for despite criticisms which have been leveled about bio-pic cliches, racial stereotypes, even a suggested "lack of family values," RAY stands on its own merits for the deep insight it gives into the artistic process.
Accomplished as Actress Helen Mirren is, Husband Taylor Hackford will receive full recognition next Spring, I'm sure.
Recommended!
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*For doubters, here is how Ray Charles saw his own motivations, the ones upon which Hackford's film is based:
Autobiography:
When I was a kid three years old, I was already trying -- whenever I heard a note -- I was already trying to involve myself with it. There was this wonderful man named Wylie Pitman who was one of the first people to encourage me. As a youngster I would jump in the chair next to him and start banging on the piano keys while he was trying to practice. And he would say, "Oh no, son, you don't play like that; you don't hit the keys with all your fingers at one time. I'm going to show you how to play a little melody with one finger." He could have easily said, "Hey kid, don't you see I'm practicing? Get away, don't bother me." But instead he took the time to say, "No, you don't do it that way." When Mr. Pitman started playing, whatever I was doing I'd stop to go in and sit on that little stool chair he had there.
Things started changing fast shortly after that. I guess the first major tragedy in my life was seeing my younger brother drown when I was about five years old. He was about a year younger, and a very smart kid. I remember that well; he was very bright. He could add and subtract numbers when he was three-and-a-half years old. The older people in the neighborhood, they used to say about him, "That boy is too smart. He's probably not going to be very long on this earth." You know old folks, the superstitions they have.
Anyway, we were out in the backyard one day while my mom was in the house ironing some clothes. We were playing by a huge metal washtub full of water. And we were having fun the way boys do, pushing and jostling each other around. Now, I never did know just how it happened, but my brother somehow tilted over the rim of this tub and fell down, slid down into the water and slipped under. At first I thought he was still playing, but it finally dawned on me that he wasn't moving, he wasn't reacting. I tried to pull him out of the water, but by that time his clothes had gotten soaked through with water and he was just too heavy for me. So I ran in and got my mom, and she raced out back and snatched him out of the tub. She shook him, and breathed into his mouth, and pumped his little stomach, but it was too late.
It was quite a trauma for me, and after that I started to lose my sight. I remember one of the things they tried to save my sight for as long as they could was to have my mama keep me away from too much light. It took me about two years to completely lose all sight, but by the time I was seven, I was completely blind. That's when I went to St. Augustine's school for the blind.
Strangely enough, losing my sight wasn't quite as bad as you'd think, because my mom conditioned me for the day that I would be totally blind. When the doctors told her that I was gradually losing my sight, and that I wasn't going to get any better, she started helping me deal with it by showing me how to get around, how to find things. That made it a little bit easier to deal with. My mother was awful smart, even though she'd only gotten to fourth grade. She had knowledge all her own; knowledge of human nature, plus plenty of common sense.
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Check out the following Macresarf1 Reviews of musical films, music CD's and matters related to music:
The true story of American musical legend Ray Charles. Ray is born into poverty in rural Georgia and loses his sight at the age of seven, but his adve...More at HotMovieSale.com
Jamie Foxx (Collateral) stars as the one-of-a-kind innovator of soul who overcame impossible odds to become a music legend. Ray is the triumphant and ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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