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The music of Ray Charles truly shines in this Taylor Hackford directed bio, simply entitled Ray. I never knew Charles's true talent as I was too young and ignorant to ever seek his music out before seeing this film. To me, Charles was just the other blind black musician to play piano, sitting in my mind beside the more popular Stevie Wonder. I actually believe the first time Charles was introduced to me was through a Pepsi commercial in which he crooned, "You got the right one, baby. Ah-ha." Ray Charles, the musician, was never known, nor wanted to been known by me. He sang Rhythm and Blues which I never really got into. He was from the sixties, which would have been fine had he been Bob Dylan, the Stones or The Beatles, which were all artist I believe to be not only true talents and important innovators of music, but also of the important world changing movement of the 1960's. Who was Ray Charles and why should I care? Well, thanks to Mr. Hackford and his film, I now realize that Ray Charles was all of those things I just listened. And then some. Ray Charles was possibly music's first innovator. Forget Elvis, because no matter what barriers he broke with his hip twists, Charles broke two times as many barriers with his gospel rock and roll. Charles became the first black man to successfully invade Country music and more importantly, the first black performer to refuse to play Jim Crow shows in a '60s Georgia. That was an act which would banish the performer from that state for over a decade. Besides all of that, though, Ray Charles was a gifted, talented perfect musician who composed countless tracks that paved the way for particularly every performer on MTV's TRL these days. I'm not saying Charles created R & B, however he sure did make the most impact, while polishing it's sound. Watching Ray, I was struck with jealously and awe at the mindset of a gifted musician and the way they mold their craft. Like Cameron Crowe's Untitled, Ray is a perfect musical that interweaves the creation of the art with it's creator. A scene like the one where Charles just tells his band to follow him as he unveils an impromptu version of 'What I'd Say' - one of modern music's greatest tracks - is so authentic to what's been happening in jazz bars for the past fifty years or so. It clearly shows the pure joy and surprise music brings to life as Charles's band and the audience - on screen and off - sit there smiling while chills of excitement run through our body. Beside the music in Ray, it's other star is Jamie Foxx, who goes from possible mimicry to a complete transformation into Ray Charles. At times during the film it's Foxx who portrays the titled character, yet at other times it's Charles's soul on display through Foxx's body. Jamie Foxx was born to play this role and this is, no question, the greatest performance of 2004. Foxx doesn't make Ray Charles an honorable, god-like man, but instead just a man; a man with many flaws that included infidelity, drug addiction and the inability for his own soul's forgiveness. I think the un-sugarcoated attempt of telling Charles's life is the most honorable aspect of both the filmmakers and Ray Charles, who before his death instructed Hackford to tell the story, "the way it happen." I'm not sure if Hackford's reasoning for Ray was to share the performer's story or to just simply entertain us, but I'm extremely glad the film was made because I now look at Ray Charles in a completely different light. And I have say, I'm really becoming a pretty big fan. - SCF / January 2005 email this review to a friend
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