Ray (Widescreen Edition)
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Actor: Clifton Powell, Harry J. Lennix, Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Regina KingBrand: FOXX,JAMIE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 152 minutes
Published: 2005-02-01
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-01
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Ray (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: Great performance by Jamie, great re-introduction to Ray Charles but bad script!
Summary: 4 Stars
One thing I have to say about the movie about music legend Ray Charles: Jamie Foxx sure as hell portrayed him the best I ever seen, just looking at him, you forget Jamie's in the movie except for a few scenes.
Another: Ray Charles has a RICH BODY OF MUSIC! From jazz (which wasn't covered that much in the film to blues (either swing, gut-bucket or bump-n-grind), from rock & roll to pop, from country to standards, the man knew how to sing a song and play a piano and did both with feeling, grit and revelation. Ray Charles probably was never an activist or a politician or even a man who thought of himself as a renegade, but no one can deny that Ray Charles' WHOLE existence WAS and IS a revolution! Revolutionary for the way he made everyone look at music different.
He just didn't sing a jazz song, he is jazz, he didn't just sing the blues, he LIVED it (as is apparent from his book and the movie), he didn't sing a soul song (he's all full of soul), he didn't just sing a rock & roll song (his whole existence WAS rock & roll!), he didn't just sing country, he was the storyteller to people's lives, he didn't just sing a standard, he became the standard. No one has influenced many as much as Ray Charles Robinson has over the last 50 years of the 20th century and a few years into the new millennium.
Now onto the bad news: this movie just didn't cut it overall. Oh there were fine acting by both the lead actor and some of the leading ladies including several unknowns. For instance, Regina King deserves huge kudos for her role as legendary Raelette Margie Hendricks. Another woman who gets my appreciation is Sharon Warren who played Aretha Robinson, Ray's beloved mother. And last but not least Kerry Washington who played a convincing Della Bee Robinson (Charles' second wife) to the hilt. But the rest of the film and the male actors' roles were off.
For instance, they didn't discuss how Ray learned how to read and write music (through Brailie) and how he studied music through Chopin and Beethoven (though he did play a little of Beethoven in one of the spots of the film), how he played with a lot of bands and his first recorded material - all in Florida before a SIXTEEN-year-old Ray moved to Seattle to continue his professional career as a musician.
They had the brother death scene wrong also. In his book, Ray and his brother were playing when George falls in the tub. Ray of course thought he was playing at first but then realized how serious it was and he tried to pull him out of the water - but the boy was too heavy for Ray and he called out his mother. How come in the movie Ray just stood there and Aretha had to find out by herself? Is Taylor Hackford sure Ray approved of all of this? I'm sure because he was about to go to the Pearly Gates, he didn't care just as long as people remember who he was and what he did for people and the music industry.
Few more scenes that have me shaking my head is who is that woman who first guided Ray and his first trio, the McSon Trio? It was never explained, I don't think, from Ray's perspective. And who was that midget? Nevertheless, he moved on to form his own band and toured with Lowell Fulson. Both of them toured together. And it was around Lowell that Ray started to get noticed. When he moves to Atlantic Records after a stint with Swing Time Records, it takes him a few tries before he began the path where he transformed the music scene. Also, RAY AND QUINCY JONES were working together in the '50s. In the movie, it's like suddenly Quincy wanted to work with him - and the film had it in 1961 when he's perfoming in the Newport Jazz Festival though he was already performing there since the mid-'50s when he got really noticed.
Also Ray played alto sax a few times. It was never covered. And also the managers were a little confusing. I kept hearing Joe or Roy Adams' name all the time but didn't know anything about that Jeff dude but I guess people need to be more open about this. Anyway, the scenes that had me a little mystied, they made Ray's saxophone player and best friend David "Fathead" Newman seem like a heartless (least from the surface) and loudmouthed junkie when he was really more. When I heard Fathead was actually shyer than Ray, that's when I raised my fist. Another, where was the other woman that helped raise Ray while his mother was going through a lot of mess? Mary Jane?
And really, why did they have to lie about what happened when Ray refused to play at a segreated Georgia hall? In the movie (and in certain urban legend stories that came out afterwards), after Ray refused to play because the place was segregated, somehow Georgia banned him from playing. According to what I read on the net, Ray wasn't banned from Georgia at all! But he had to pay compensation for his actions. Nevertheless, he wasn't the first artist to refuse to play at segregated places. Do you remember Sam Cooke? The man demanded that both black and white audiences sit in front of him and not so apart. From Ray's view, he wanted the black audience closer to him rather than on top and while that sounds boring, hey, that's what happened. They (the filmmakers) blew it up to proportion (just check out the ending, what a travesty!).
And also, Ray never fully explained WHO or WHY got him into heroin. My guess is that David probably helped him get stoned and he learned on his own. The amazing fact is that when he was stoned and doped, he was making some of the greatest music ever made and he never missed a gig - astounding because most rock star junkies often will think of excuses why they can't go onstage and then later we find out that it was either crack or coke that kept him or her in there. Ray Charles never used an excuse. No matter if he was using during or not, Ray Charles made sure he was there for every studio gig (even if he was late) or rehearsal hall and just on time for a concert. And also astounding is that in 1966 he beat it cold turkey.
Now here's where the movie goes from confusing to downright Disney-appropriate: throughout this movie, Ray flashbacks to his upbringings and it's believed that the reason he fools around with other women, uses smack and dope, and lies to people close to him (his children, wife) is because he can't get over his brother's death. WHAT!?! Or that his mother's advice: "don't be a cripple" was what made him depressed. Now I'm sure Ray was depressed (a reason why people use drugs anyway), but Ray himself said that his brother's death never got him feeling sorry for himself, it was still painful to him but that wasn't what made him use it nor was it his mother (who he admitted after his death, he felt lonely and withdrawn until Aretha's old friend encouraged him to move on). No, Ray Charles kicked the habit because he knew it was destroying his life. I would think that he kicked it because he wanted to show people he was INDEED not a cripple. And one thing that is weird about it, Ray was still using recreational drugs: smoking weed and drinking gin after kicking heroin and defiantly told David Ritz "what I do with my body is my business". Now I understand that the last few scenes were for Hollywood value but the truth is stranger than fiction points it out to be.
Now that last scene was the real pisser: Julian Bond reads the speech during the Georgia State Legistature thing in 1979 when Ray's "Georgia on My Mind" was made into a state anthem (now that's just amazing), it says that Georgia offered him "an apology"... what did the state had to apologize for if they didn't ban him? Ray was just sick of being at a place where he felt segregation was just stupid that he stopped performing there after probably the mid-'60s. I'm sure he still performed in Georgia after 1961. And also, why is Della still with him? Della in truth divorced Ray in 1976 because she couldn't take more of her husband's philandering. Ray had twelve children, why are just two shown?
Another thing wrong with the Georgia thing was there was NO protestors out there when Ray decided not to play there. From what I got, one protestor sent him a telegram, probably a thank you for "sticking up to his guns". Plus, Ray was probably there with one of his sons and we never got to see him perform "Georgia On My Mind" there (and there's actual footage of it that I saw in a special about Ray). So as I said, perfect acting part for Jamie Foxx but not-so-good movie if you term out the actual reality of what Ray did and done after the fact. Here's the real truth about Ray Charles Robinson in summary terms:
1.) Ray actually tried to save his brother from drowning and call on his mom, he did not just stand there and watch.
2.) Ray was a child prodigy much like Little Stevie Wonder but you'll never know that from the film considering the number of flashbacks that only show him playing for the hillbilly band.
3.) Ray was still a teen when he moved to Seattle to make a living.
4.) Ray met 14-year-old Quincy Jones at a nightclub and not a street corner.
5.) Ray had "two" mothers: his birth mom Aretha (whose death was the most painful thing in his life) and his father's ex, Mary Jane (by the way, what happened to his father?).
6.) Ray married two women - one for just a year, and the other (Della) for 22 years (1955-1977)
7.) Ray had three kids with Della and nine children with other women (most notably Margie's son).
8.) Ray didn't get on heroin because of traumatic things that happened in his childhood, he got on it because he wanted to see how it felt and when it got too bad, he quit cold turkey (the man knew how to stick to his word when things got hectic, i.e., his third arrest for heroin possession).
9.) Ray Charles continued to be a top concert draw and superstar after 1966.
10.) Ray was never banned in Georgia, no protestors picketed the concert, and only refused to play it because he wanted the black audience to come down to the audience and not be so on top.
Other than that, it does cover his musical talents, his great business savvy and his unique sense of himself walking and cavorting alone as a blind individual.
For a man who recorded the edgy "What'd I Say" almost by accident, his life was almost off the cliff - that's how edgy he was and he was definitely cutting-edge. What can be understood is that thankfully younger audiences will know who Ray Charles is for better or for worse. He had a great sense of bringing people together. And somewhere in Heaven, the angels are singing "I Can't Stop Loving You" with him. Rest in peace, Brother Ray. You're forever a genius!
Description of Ray (Widescreen Edition)
Dramatization of the life and career of popular musician Ray Charles.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 17-JAN-2006
Media Type: DVD
Jamie Foxx's uncannily accurate performance isn't the only good thing about Ray. Riding high on a wave of Oscar buzz, Foxx proved himself worthy of all the hype by portraying blind R&B legend Ray Charles in a warts-and-all performance that Charles approved shortly before his death in June 2004. Despite a few dramatic embellishments of actual incidents (such as the suggestion that the accidental drowning of Charles's younger brother caused all the inner demons that Charles would battle into adulthood), the film does a remarkable job of summarizing Charles's strengths as a musical innovator and his weaknesses as a philandering heroin addict who recorded some of his best songs while flying high as a kite. Foxx seems to be channeling Charles himself, and as he did with the life of Ritchie Valens in La Bamba, director Taylor Hackford gets most of the period details absolutely right as he chronicles Ray's rise from "chitlin circuit" performer in the early '50s to his much-deserved elevation to legendary status as one of the all-time great musicians. Foxx expertly lip-syncs to Ray Charles' classic recordings, but you could swear he's the real deal in a film that honors Ray Charles without sanitizing his once-messy life. --Jeff Shannon
More on Ray Charles
 Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (CD) |  The Genius of Ray Charles (CD) |  Ray Charles and Betty Carter--Dedicated to You (CD) |
 Genius & Soul--The 50th Anniversary Collection (CD) |  Ray: A Tribute to the Movie, the Music, and the Man (book) |  More Albums by Ray Charles |
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