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Ray (2004)
Director: Taylor Hackford
Writers: James L. White (screenplay)
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
I believed Jamie Foxx was Ray Charles. If the actor in a bio-pic can make me believe I'm seeing the actually life of a famous person, and not watching an actor...then the movie works for me. Ray works for me.
Jamie Foxx captured the mannerisms and vocal inflections of Ray Charles to a tee. Foxx sounded a lot like Ray too, both in speaking and on the songs that Foxx actually sang.
What I liked best about this movie was it completely captured the feeling of the time era that was being depicted. It immersed itself in the past. I especially liked the archival film footage. So many 'period piece' films only go so far in recreating the sights & sounds of the era being presented. The inclusion of archival color film stock from the 50s of New York and Seattle was very neat to see. I freeze framed the actual scene of Seattle in the 1950s and studied the buildings and signs.
In period piece movies, I listen to the dialogue that the scriptwriter wrote for the actors...I can tell a good scriptwriter has an ear for the lingo of the past, and will not use modern day phrases. This movie captured the way people talked in the 50's beautiful and I felt like I had a time machine back to the early days of Ray Charles' life. That's high praise, because so many other film makers don't pay attention to the small details.
BTW, very cool, that both Ray Charles and Loretta Lynn got their start in my state of Washington! That's because we're super hip out here
Director: Taylor Hackford
Writers: James L. White (screenplay)
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
"The life and career of legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s & 1960s."
I believed Jamie Foxx was Ray Charles. If the actor in a bio-pic can make me believe I'm seeing the actually life of a famous person, and not watching an actor...then the movie works for me. Ray works for me.
Jamie Foxx captured the mannerisms and vocal inflections of Ray Charles to a tee. Foxx sounded a lot like Ray too, both in speaking and on the songs that Foxx actually sang.
What I liked best about this movie was it completely captured the feeling of the time era that was being depicted. It immersed itself in the past. I especially liked the archival film footage. So many 'period piece' films only go so far in recreating the sights & sounds of the era being presented. The inclusion of archival color film stock from the 50s of New York and Seattle was very neat to see. I freeze framed the actual scene of Seattle in the 1950s and studied the buildings and signs.
In period piece movies, I listen to the dialogue that the scriptwriter wrote for the actors...I can tell a good scriptwriter has an ear for the lingo of the past, and will not use modern day phrases. This movie captured the way people talked in the 50's beautiful and I felt like I had a time machine back to the early days of Ray Charles' life. That's high praise, because so many other film makers don't pay attention to the small details.
BTW, very cool, that both Ray Charles and Loretta Lynn got their start in my state of Washington! That's because we're super hip out here