Georgia on my mind

5/4/13, Ray, Best Actor, Best Sound Mixing, 2004

Two Taylor Hackford movies in a month....well, I liked this one a ton better than the other one (White Nights). Ray is a bio-pic of Ray Charles, showing scenes from his childhood in Florida and the strong influence his mother had on him, especially when he became blind as a child. The movie doesn't paint Charles as a saint, and he frequently demonstrates jerk tendencies, but there is no denying the talent that he had for music. Jamie Foxx won the Best Actor Oscar and he was amazing, there were times he really seemed like he was Ray Charles. Charles' story reminded me a little of Buddy Holly's in that he had to fight to get the music he wanted to play heard, but he also developed a strong business sense over time. I bet they would have made some good music together. Hackford shows Charles warts and all: infidelities and heroin addiction. Kerry Washington is Della Bea Robinson, Charles' wife, and Regina King as one of his mistresses, Margie Hendricks. Ray Charles is one of America's music icons and this movie gives the viewer a great taste of the music he recorded and little peek inside the music business in the early part of the century (a look at a young Atlantic Records when it was 'independent' and the genius that was Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler).