Film of the Day: 29
Ray (2004)
"I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water." - Ray Charles
To understand this statement, you can simply just listen to any one of his songs. Yes, any one, as he truly put his heart and soul into every song he sang. He was beyond influential and was the first to combine R&B and gospel music (which was not easy at the time).
He was born on September 23rd, 1930 in Georgia, America and died today in 2004. His interest in music began with a man named Pit (at Mr. Wiley Pit's Red Wing Cafe), who used to play the piano and also look after Ray's brother George.
Ray encountered endless amounts of problems in his life. At the tender age of seven, he went completly blind shortly after witnessing his four year old brother drown (a memory that haunted him all throughout his life).
On his way to stardom he had financial problems at first, racial problems even women problems, being married twice with many girlfriends and 12 children. And not to mention a drug addiction to heroin which lasted for 20 years, and it is all shown in this terrific film titled Ray.
In the film, we don't get an actor playing Ray Charles.Instead we get Jamie Foxx, who transforms himself into Ray Charles and it really feels as though we are watching the real Ray in his life. Jamie Foxx truly got the rhythm and movement of Ray down to a T, even his famous humongous smile. He sounds, moves, looks, acts and re-acts just like The Genius of Soul himself. It is the performance of Foxx's career and one of the best performances of the decade. But also the film itself certainly sets the right mood for the film and it never falls short of a terrific biopic, along side Walk the Line.
Jamie Foxx went on to win the Oscar for the role (along with a nomination for Collateral the very same year), unfortunately by then, Ray Charles had already passed away.
Ray had even been in a few movies; most notably the hilarious classic comedy The Blues Brothers from 1980 with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. In 2004, the magazine Rolling Stone ranked Ray Charles number 10 on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and fellow super star Frank Sinatra went on to call Ray Charles “the only true genius in show business”.
To understand this statement, you can simply just listen to any one of his songs. Yes, any one, as he truly put his heart and soul into every song he sang. He was beyond influential and was the first to combine R&B and gospel music (which was not easy at the time).
He was born on September 23rd, 1930 in Georgia, America and died today in 2004. His interest in music began with a man named Pit (at Mr. Wiley Pit's Red Wing Cafe), who used to play the piano and also look after Ray's brother George.
Ray encountered endless amounts of problems in his life. At the tender age of seven, he went completly blind shortly after witnessing his four year old brother drown (a memory that haunted him all throughout his life).
On his way to stardom he had financial problems at first, racial problems even women problems, being married twice with many girlfriends and 12 children. And not to mention a drug addiction to heroin which lasted for 20 years, and it is all shown in this terrific film titled Ray.
In the film, we don't get an actor playing Ray Charles.Instead we get Jamie Foxx, who transforms himself into Ray Charles and it really feels as though we are watching the real Ray in his life. Jamie Foxx truly got the rhythm and movement of Ray down to a T, even his famous humongous smile. He sounds, moves, looks, acts and re-acts just like The Genius of Soul himself. It is the performance of Foxx's career and one of the best performances of the decade. But also the film itself certainly sets the right mood for the film and it never falls short of a terrific biopic, along side Walk the Line.
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| Ray Charles Robinson |
Ray had even been in a few movies; most notably the hilarious classic comedy The Blues Brothers from 1980 with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. In 2004, the magazine Rolling Stone ranked Ray Charles number 10 on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and fellow super star Frank Sinatra went on to call Ray Charles “the only true genius in show business”.
Hi son....I see you're doing your homework....
ReplyDeletejust picked another good one.
Ray Charles is the Music Man himself, and although this singer is from another era, his music is still appreciated today.
I did see the movie and both myself & your mom liked it a lot.....a great portrayal of a true Legend!