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 Ray
A Movie Review
By Sally Morem
“No Ray Charles?!?”
Remember that great old Flip Wilson bit about Columbus, Queen Isabellaand Ray Charles?
Columbus visits Queen Isabella to tell her of his crazy  America project:“If I don’t discover America there’s not gonna be aBenjamin Franklin, or a Star-Spangled Banner, no land of the free, and the home of the brave, and no Ray Charles.”On hearing there’d be no Ray Charles, the queen panics. ”No Ray Charles….Ray Charles? You gonnafind Ray Charles? He in America?”Isabella runs through the castle screaming for Ferdinand. ”Chris gon’ fine Ray Charles. He goin’ to America on that boat. What you say?”
Nothing would be more horrifying than an America withoutRay Charles. Fortunately for us, America did have and enjoyRay Charles for over 50 years of pure musical pleasure.
 
With the movie
Ray 
we get to experience the story of thisgreat entertainer and so much of the early music that madehim the superstar he was. Most of us were too young toknow Ray’s early work from the Fifties and Sixties. Thismovie reintroduces such smash hits as “What Kind of ManAre You?” “What’d I Say,” “Rockhouse,” “I Got a Woman,”and, “Georgia on My Mind,” and shows us how they weremade.With a musical biography such as this, the sound qualityneeds to be good.
Ray 
’s is superb. The soundtrack on myDVD played beautifully on my home entertainment center.Each scene is lush with layers of details that bespeaks of anenormous amount of research. The re-creations of asharecropper’s village, a Seattle dive, restaurants, recordingstudios, concert halls, the homes, and the streets of post-warAmerica were spot-on. The costumes, the cars, thegadgetry, the furnishings reminded me of my early childhoodin the Fifties and my later childhood in the Sixties.
Director Taylor Hackford had obtained the rights to a movie about RayCharles 15 years before being able to produce
 Ray
. When work began, Ray participated fully in its development, providing the screenwriters with anumber of very personal memories, many of them very painful.Hackford was probably annoyed at how long it took to get the project off theground. But, he admitted in an interview, that he was very thankful he had towait until Jamie Foxx came along. Jamie was the perfect actor for the role. Not only did he look like a young Ray Charles, he was a trained jazz pianist.He wouldn’t need a double when playing Ray’s tunes. He was capable of capturing the essence of Ray through his own acting and musical talents.Jamie Foxx proved himself to Ray Charles by jamming with him on dualkeyboards in a recording studio. While Jamie played a few jazzy notes, Rayimprovised on the spot. Ray then taught Jamie how to play while wearing a blindfold, a nerve-wracking experience for any sighted pianist. He gutted itout and mastered the basic technique of playing by touch. Hackford said itwas clear right then that Jamie had passed Ray’s audition. Ray had personally selected Jamie to play himself in a movie about himself.
 
Jamie is a smart actor. When invited to keep jamming with Ray to learnmore about him over subsequent days, Jamie refused. He realized he had tocapture the young Ray, not the old Ray. So, he listened over and over to theold songs to capture young Ray’s singing and playing style, and watched oldTV interviews to get the young Ray’s speech mannerisms and movement.With one crucial exception, every one of Ray’s performances in the moviewere played and song by Jamie Foxx. No stand-in, no double, no lip-syncing with Ray Charles records allowed.Makeup artists worked on Jamie’s eyes to make them look like the realwreck of Ray’s eyes. When he takes off his sunglasses, he is able to showRay’s vulnerability. Make up artists and hair stylists helped him captureRay’s changing looks over a 15-year period.Jamie’s achievement is enormous. He had to master the manifold aspects of Ray’s inner and outer life: As a grown man devastated by memories of beinga youngster who had been raised in poverty, who watched his younger  brother drown when he was five years old, and became blind when onlyseven. As a man who then developed into a tremendously capable technicalmusician. As a wonderfully emotive jazz singer who started as a novice inthe music business, became an emerging talent, and then achieved Americansuperstar status. As a tough-as-nails bandleader and businessman. As ahard-core heroin junkie. As a married man who openly cheated on his wife.As a doting father. As a man twisted by the most horrifying nightmares.And as a man buoyed by immense love and acclaim by millions of fans.It is said that the human mind contains a universe of experiences andviewpoints. This was certainly true of Ray Charles, and through the magicof the silver screen, Jamie Foxx was able to make manifest that universe.He well deserved his Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in
 Ray
.
 Young Ray Charles Robinson
began life in Florida. We are shownflashbacks, interspersed with the scenes of Ray as a grown man, of how he began embracing music as a little boy fascinated by his neighbor’s piano playing. The old gentleman had him play a few simple notes while he played boogie-woogie. Notwithstanding his family’s poverty, young Ray enjoyed a very well-rounded musical education. He listened to the
Grand Ole Opry
radio show
of 00

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