Ray (HD DVD)

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With Ray Charles' personal blessing, Jamie Foxx put forth the performance of his life in the biopic "Ray." Foxx played piano, sang, attended Braille school and wore prosthetics over his eyes that forced him into a state of actual blindness for long hours at a time. Foxx studied with the legendary musician and went to far greater lengths than most actors take to embody the spirit of the young Ray Charles Robinson. For his efforts, Foxx was awarded with a coveted Oscar at the 2005 Academy Awards in the category of Best Actor. It is a performance that allows for a mediocre film to rise to greater heights than it deserved and most certainly if it had not been for Jamie Foxx, "Ray" would have only served to dishonor the man himself.

The pivotal focus of "Ray" is on the decade and a half of time where Ray Charles first signed with Atlantic Records and rose to stardom and his early efforts with CBS Records. The film spends as much time on the musical genius of Ray Charles as it does bringing his womanizing ways and drug usage to light, completely ignoring the era of life where Ray attended a school for the blind and became his own man and overcoming the loss of his mother and his difficult teenage years. We are given some views into the life of a young Ray when he still had his sight and the trauma of his younger brother George drowning in a wash tub. There are delivered through flashback sequences that serve as nightmares for the blind pianist. However, when Ray is away from the piano, we are served with a heroin junkie that openly cheats on his loving wife with various backup singers from his band.

When we are treated with moments of Ray´s musical genius, the songs are the all-too-familiar hits of his career and these flash by incredibly fast and offer little to no deep insight into the song or the reasoning for their writing. The story does provide enough exposition or setting to allow the viewer to deduce why a song came into being, but you really never get a moment to see Ray experimenting or expanding a note or two into a full song. When Ahmet Ertegun (Curtis Armstrong) offers Ray his own song "Mess´ Around," you are shown that Ray can take a few lyrics and a single musical key and compose a hit song. Ray Charles was one of the greatest musical talents of the past fifty years and it is true that Charles could cut a record on one take, but somewhere along the line, the man had to think out a few songs.

The film also takes several liberties with actual events and tacks on a Hollywood ending where everybody can feel good about Ray Charles´ direction in life and leave the theater with a happy ending. When Ray refuses to take part in a Jim Crow concert in Georgia, the film states he is banned from Georgia for life. Ray Charles had to pay a fine. He was never banned from the state of Georgia. This does set up the final scene where Ray´s song "Georgia on my Mind" becomes the state song and his ban is lifted. This did occur in 1979 and Charles performed the song on the floor of the legislative house, but no ban needed lifted. Additionally, his wife Della Bea Robinson (Kerry Washington) was at his side during this happening in 1979. In actuality, Della Bea and Ray had an ugly divorce in 1977; two years earlier. Ray Charles once stated that losing his mother was the most traumatic moment of his life. This is passed over and just mentioned in passing while Ray is courting Della Bea.

There are a few other inconsistencies with true historical fact and you can research the film´s accuracy to great lengths. Some have said that the film portrayed Ray Charles as an easier going sort and that he was much more aggressive and driven in real life. With as much focus that was given on the drugs and the adultery of Ray Charles´ life, the film owed the man some morality and understanding of how great a man he was, despite his flaws. Covering his younger years would have helped to accomplish this, so you cannot fault director Taylor Hackford for wanting to give some sense of humanity and heart to the musician. For all the films inaccuracies and liberties taken, it still delivers a solid look at who Ray Charles was.

The film does do a good job of covering much of Ray Charles´ musical history. A lot of his early hits and the background setting for these songs are provided in the film. We don´t see Ray discover these songs, but we get to see the initial reactions to numerous folk as he performs them for the first time. Ray Charles floors everybody when he comes up with a new song and everybody looks at the artist as if he truly were a god in this film. He was a man who had that type of influence over others with his music and the film does not go overboard in these reactions. The familiar name of Quincy Jones (Larenz Tate) is given some historical background in the film. Seeing another famous person´s early days was a nice addition to the film. For a quick education on the musical history of Ray Charles, "Ray" does succeed nicely.

The actors and actresses are all very good as well. Regina King and Aunjanue Ellis are wonderful as two of the Raylettes that "Let Ray" bed them. They show the musical prowess that interested Charles, but were believable as the ´other women´ in the life of Ray Charles. C.J. Sanders is a good child actor that deserves a pat on his back for bringing the pain and suffering of young Ray Charles to life. When Curtis Armstrong first appeared as Ahmet Ertegun, my first thoughts were of Clint Howard and not of Booger. Well, the former "Revenge of the Nerds" actor did a fine job as the man who helped Ray Charles become a star. Academy Award winner Terrence Howard has a bit part in the film, but shines in the time he does share the screen with Jamie Fox.

Any credit to where the film succeeds should be given to Jamie Foxx. His performance as the legend is so good that it is frightening. I´ve seen some old film footage of Ray growing up and I have my own memories of seeing him perform, whether it be on television concerts or for Pepsi commercials and my opinion is that Jamie Foxx delivered a perfect performance. He is an incredibly talented actor and the fact he sang, played piano and performed without his own sight through much of the film is simply amazing. I´ve seen others say how it was almost like watching Ray when they saw Jamie act. I certainly never had the opportunity to meet Ray Charles, but from what I´ve seen on the TV set, I whole-heartedly agree. When Ray Charles gave his seal of approval for Jamie Foxx, his own words can be quoted and it can be said that Ray, "You got the right one, Baby!"

Video:

"Ray" is presented in glorious HD-DVD with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio VC-1 transfer. Universal has delivered a couple of the better looking transfers on the young format. "The Chronicles of Riddick" and "Serenity" both looked very good. "Ray" is one of the finer efforts from the studio and if it weren´t for some of the artistic choices made in the film, this would be a good title to show off how great HD-DVD can be. However, many of the stock photography used to show the 1950s and 1660s and scenes that were photographed in a manner to blend with the stock photography are low in detail and high in grain. The ´flashback´ sequences where Ray struggles with his childhood are oversaturated and the brown dirt was almost orange in a few sequences. These flashbacks were nicely detailed, but the brighter-than-life colors were disconcerting.

When the film did focus on the then current times of Ray Charles, the picture quality was superb. Detail was sharp and solid and you can see every imperfection of Jamie Foxx´s face. This is one of those transfers where you can see what some actors are complaining of with the higher quality of high definition. Jamie is a good looking guy and has no worries. I did not see any compression artifacts at all. Stubble is one of those things I have learned to pay attention to in a digital image. Stubble tends to dance around and move. Every hair of the stubble on Jamie Foxx´s face stayed in its proper location. It looked quite lifelike and didn´t suffer from posterization. Colors were nicely done, though toned down a bit to match the colors of the era. When stock photography wasn´t used and when the image wasn´t toned down, the source materials were completely absent of dirt and flaws. You can´t fault a film for artistic decisions and "Ray" looks just as good as the filmmakers intended it to.