There have been a number of historical music movies in the last few years; these include the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, the thinly-veiled story of the Supremes Dreamgirls, and Ray, the story of Ray Charles. Each takes some liberties with the history (e.g., Ray Charles was never banned from Georgia), but largely the stories are relatively honest.
When we went to see Cadillac Records, I was expecting something in the same vein as these prior biopics. I had the benefit of hearing the 11/28 episode of the NPR radioshow Fresh Air, an interview with Robert Gordon, the biographer of Muddy Waters. So, I will have 2 parts to this review - the film, and the history.
The Story:
Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) is a Polish Jew who immigrated to the US with the hopes of a better life. Before 1950, he runs a junkyard in southside Chicago. Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright, in the strongest role of the film) is a black sharecropper in Mississippi with a smooth voice and a way with a guitar. Leonard opens a club for "colored folk," while Muddy comes to Chicago to make something of himself. He finds a couple other musicians, notable Little Walter, and Chess decides to make a recording of them. This is the founding of Chess Records, the legendary label that revolutionized electric blues, R&B, crossing over of "black music" to the general American audience, and rock&roll. We witness this story, seeing how Chess and Waters found the new sounds of music in players like Little Walter and Willie Dixon. We see how Howlin' Wolf (Eamonn Walker) makes his mark, and we see how all these characters live their lives, right or wrong, with liquor, drugs, cars, and women. We eventually see other luminaries including Chuck Berry (skillfully played by Mos Def), 5 British boys inspired by Muddy Waters by the name of the Rolling Stones, and finally Etta James (Beyonce Knowles). We see the lives play out for these artists - for some, the grave, for others, including Waters, Dixon, and James, a rebirth in Europe.
The story itself is one heard before in many ways - people ruined by money, drugs, the trappings of fame. The drives of the characters to succeed are common - the need to prove one's worth (Chess), the inherent sense of being gifted (Waters), the need to leave one's past behind (James and Little Walter). It's not a bad story, it's not (entirely) a false story. Perhaps it's simply a story we've been hearing as of late. Still, it is well-presented.
This is a film driven by its characters, its actors. Brody does a relatively good job with his role, even if it is made somewhat one-note (leave your poor Jewish past behind). Wright really leads the roles here, able to demonstrate a simple man's complicated life - a man who loves his music 1st, his wife (Gabrielle Union in a role that shows her the woman's dedication, though the potrayal perhaps is a bit too refined), his fame, and the power that fame can bring. He, like many in the film, sings his parts, exuding the slow burn needed to pull off the role. Columbus Short pulls off Little Walter, the little boy who never knew how to grow up. There are 2 great supporting roles - you can see the humor of Chuck Berry pop off the screen in Def's portrayal, and Eamonn Walker's Wolf is an imposing beast, snarling yet seductive, the Big Bad Wolf of fairy-tales made real-life.
Perhaps weakest of these roles, regretably, is Beyonce as Etta James. This is not entirely her fault; the role as written also as a one-note, a little girl in a woman's body, a bastard child who can't live up to her mother's sordid past, someone looking for a daddy as much as love. For me, Knowles fails to sell the role - unlike Wright, this is an actress playing someone who is hurting. It's not horrible, it's just not as good as some of the other players.
If I left it at that, this would be a fine film, something enjoyable, with good music; something that makes you realize the impact of these musicians on so much of what we know as today's "culture." And in that way, I can praise it and recommend it. It is a movie worth seeing.
But it's not a history.
Darnell Martin, the writer/director with a strong history in TV including Oprah's There Eyes Were Watching God, reportedly used published biographies of Chess and Waters to write the script. One of the opening screens puts in giant text that the film is based on a true story. Sadly, there are multiple confabulations. To start, Chess Records was started by the Chess brothers, and by some accounts the other brother, Phillip, was critical to some things like Little Walter's harmonica in on the recordings by Waters. Second, and more importantly to me, the romance implied between Leonard and Etta never occurred. The fact is, this single contrivance is too much so; why does there have to be a romance between these two characters to complete the film? It adds very little but distraction and burns critical time when other luminaries - Bo Diddley, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Koko Taylor - could have been shown, perhaps to provide even more education and inspiration to the viewer. Hopefully, Hollywood will one day be able to show that platonic relations can exist between a man and a woman as much as two men.
Still, despite these blocks, it is a work of artistry. As such, I endorse it with few reservations. For Wright's acting, Union's touching dedication, Walker's beastliness, Def's humor, and the fantastic music, go see it. Then go find out about the real stories.
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