"Ray" Delivers
In spring of 2003 my wife (then my fiance) and I showed up to BB King's in Time Square with tickets to see Ray Charles. I was feeling a kind of "prom night" excitement, as I had always loved Ray's music but never seen him live, which I was sure would be one of the best musical experiences of my life. I was upset when the show was cancelled that night on word that Ray was ill, but I shrugged it off thinking that there would be other days. Ray died shortly thereafter, and I'll always regret having come so close but missed the chance to hear him the way I feel he must have really needed to be heard, live on stage and in touch with his audience.
The theatrical release of the biopic "Ray" coincided with the leadup to the birth of our baby daughter, so we missed seeing it in theaters. I was skeptical that anyone could bring Ray to the screen, a skepticism that was deepened by my apprehension that Jamie Foxx, whom I've always thought of as a "lightweight" comic actor, wasn't up to the material. We watched the DVD last night and I'm happy to say that I was wrong. There is some canned dialogue and some prefab montage sequences that have become intensely cliche in "life of" movies, but in general "Ray" does justice to its subject on two counts: 1)it gives some sense of just how innovative Ray Charles was as a musician and performer, and of how important his legacy is to American music in general; 2)it is candid and relatively unsentimental about the darker aspects of Ray's life, particularly his drug use. Ray comes across as both a genius and a human being. We see how destructive his drug use was to himself and those around him, at the same time we are moved by the intense pain from which it was understandable he would choose to escape. Moreover, Jamie Foxx does such an uncanny job of "channeling" Ray's voice and mannerisms that at moments it is eerie. "Ray" is a very good if not quite great film that pays tribute well to one of America's greatest artists.
The theatrical release of the biopic "Ray" coincided with the leadup to the birth of our baby daughter, so we missed seeing it in theaters. I was skeptical that anyone could bring Ray to the screen, a skepticism that was deepened by my apprehension that Jamie Foxx, whom I've always thought of as a "lightweight" comic actor, wasn't up to the material. We watched the DVD last night and I'm happy to say that I was wrong. There is some canned dialogue and some prefab montage sequences that have become intensely cliche in "life of" movies, but in general "Ray" does justice to its subject on two counts: 1)it gives some sense of just how innovative Ray Charles was as a musician and performer, and of how important his legacy is to American music in general; 2)it is candid and relatively unsentimental about the darker aspects of Ray's life, particularly his drug use. Ray comes across as both a genius and a human being. We see how destructive his drug use was to himself and those around him, at the same time we are moved by the intense pain from which it was understandable he would choose to escape. Moreover, Jamie Foxx does such an uncanny job of "channeling" Ray's voice and mannerisms that at moments it is eerie. "Ray" is a very good if not quite great film that pays tribute well to one of America's greatest artists.
posted by Madman of Chu | 6:23 PM | Permalink
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6 comments
6 Comments:
I'm glad I talked myself into going to that Billy Idol concert way back when. Now, I'll never have to feel the sting of your bereftness, Madman.
My dad read your post and told me that he and my mom had seen Ray Charles perform in the late sixties/early seventies at The Coconut Grove. His review of the performance? "Fantastic."
Dear Kate Marie,
I'm jealous, your parents saw Ray in his glory days.
Wonderdog, I don't envy you the bad karma you earned by conflating RC with BI.
Dear Madman,
Yeah, my parents lived through the glory days of music and nightclubs in L.A. They also saw people like Tony Bennett and Judy Garland. AND my dad was one of the only males in the audience at an L.A. studio when Elvis performed for Ed Sullivan's show the first time (that particular performance was broadcast from L.A., though Sullivan, of course, did his show from New York).
Tim D., a good friend to many of us here at Rumpus, has a GREAT Billy Idol story. Many moons back, Tim's late father came to LA to visit and they went to see a taping of the Tonight Show. Johnny's musical guest that night. . yep. . Billy Idol. Tim's consternation melted away on the drive back as his dad was singing "White Wedding" and saying "That guy was pretty good"!
That IS a great story -- I'd never heard that before.
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