I finally got a chance to see Ray yesterday. It was an excellent portrayal of the first few decades of the life of Ray Charles. By the time I ever heard of him, he was already an old guy who had already made much of the music he was ever going to make. This film was a very in-depth, and from what I hear, rather accurate portrayal of his rise to fame and fortune. I highly recommend it for anyone remotely interested in him.
Jamie Foxx did a wonderful job as Ray. According to the DVD extras, he really went the extra mile to ensure accuracy. He is apparently trained as a classical pianist and learned all of the music so he is actually playing in the movie. As an added twist, he wore prosthetics over his eyes which effectively made him blind for 14 hours a day during shooting. So not only did he really have to learn to move around as a blind man, he learned to play the music without seeing anything. Ray Charles had 15 or 20 years to get good at it and another 40 to perfect it. Jamie Foxx did at least a portion of it in maybe a year.
The version I saw was extended beyond the theatrical release. However, it was released on the same DVD, so you choose when you start the movie which version you want to see, and as it turns out, there is a disconcerting pause each time you see an extra scene. It's even more unnerving since the extra scenes are what are listed in the 'deleted scenes' on the DVD, so you are seeing things that might not match in timing, lighting, etc.. There's even one that has several versions of the same scene and comes across more like a blooper reel. Although the extra scenes made for a somewhat jarring viewing, I did enjoy the extended musical numbers. The movie was somewhat disjointed for me anyway, since due the Mizz's short nap, I ended up seeing the movie in two halves anyway, separated by several hours. If all the scenes didn't work together just so, it wasn't really my worst problem.
[Incidentally, this movie must have made an impact on me, as I had a dream that I was going blind last night. It was obvious where it came from, as it very much mirrored the scenes in the movie depicting the onset of Ray's blindness. My chief concern seemed to be that I could no longer drive myself around. However, unlike Ray, my oncoming blindness was cured by putting in new contacts. I was happy that I could drive again. I can't decide if I was really a medical mystery and the doctors thought I was going blind too, or if I was just an idiot who forgot to put in his contacts. Profound, huh?]
Jamie Foxx did a wonderful job as Ray. According to the DVD extras, he really went the extra mile to ensure accuracy. He is apparently trained as a classical pianist and learned all of the music so he is actually playing in the movie. As an added twist, he wore prosthetics over his eyes which effectively made him blind for 14 hours a day during shooting. So not only did he really have to learn to move around as a blind man, he learned to play the music without seeing anything. Ray Charles had 15 or 20 years to get good at it and another 40 to perfect it. Jamie Foxx did at least a portion of it in maybe a year.
The version I saw was extended beyond the theatrical release. However, it was released on the same DVD, so you choose when you start the movie which version you want to see, and as it turns out, there is a disconcerting pause each time you see an extra scene. It's even more unnerving since the extra scenes are what are listed in the 'deleted scenes' on the DVD, so you are seeing things that might not match in timing, lighting, etc.. There's even one that has several versions of the same scene and comes across more like a blooper reel. Although the extra scenes made for a somewhat jarring viewing, I did enjoy the extended musical numbers. The movie was somewhat disjointed for me anyway, since due the Mizz's short nap, I ended up seeing the movie in two halves anyway, separated by several hours. If all the scenes didn't work together just so, it wasn't really my worst problem.
[Incidentally, this movie must have made an impact on me, as I had a dream that I was going blind last night. It was obvious where it came from, as it very much mirrored the scenes in the movie depicting the onset of Ray's blindness. My chief concern seemed to be that I could no longer drive myself around. However, unlike Ray, my oncoming blindness was cured by putting in new contacts. I was happy that I could drive again. I can't decide if I was really a medical mystery and the doctors thought I was going blind too, or if I was just an idiot who forgot to put in his contacts. Profound, huh?]
1 comment:
Looks like you did an admirable job with the Mizz-ter this weekend. Your posting reminded me that Franny (and her brother) fessed up years later some of the things they did as kids (although at a more advanced age than Mizz) to "push my buttons".
Janet and I are looking forward to seeing Mizz (and parents) soon. Janet spent a good deal of time today buying some clothes for the young man.
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