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Author Topic: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records  (Read 10338 times)

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Offline outfidel

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"Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« on: November 19, 2008, 03:43:09 PM »
Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, Cedric the Entertainer as Willie Dixon, Mos Def as Chuck Berry, Columbus Short as Little Walter, Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, and Beyonc? Knowles as Etta James. Rated R. Opens Dec 5th.

Check out the trailer:

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Offline Mr.OMuck

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2008, 05:25:44 PM »
WHY, WHY, M@#$%^&*&ING WHY, Don't they just bloody dub the original music in? So STUPID!! AAARRGGGHHH!
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Offline waxwing

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2008, 06:51:23 PM »
Just don't expect too much historical accuracy, either. The review I read mentioned they wrote out one  Chess brother and created a fictitious affair for another one. Well, it's entertainment after all, for the masses that is.

All for now.
John C.
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Offline Rivers

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2008, 08:47:08 PM »
Review on NPR tonight. Mixed, the expression 'damning with faint praise' came to mind. Howlin' Wolf nowhere to be seen, fuh.

[edit: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97823203  I see Wolf is mentioned on the NPR website review. It didn't come across on the radio version. I was probably concentrating on avoiding pissed-off truckers stuck behind me in the Austin rush hour traffic. Personally I think Wolf was and will always be far and away Chess's biggest star]
« Last Edit: December 05, 2008, 09:07:39 PM by Rivers »

Offline Mike Billo

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2008, 09:52:54 AM »

    Some of the clips I've seen make it pretty obvious that this is, yet another, case of actors, holding musical instruments and pretending (quite unconvincingly) to play them.


  Of course, I realize that they're acting (which is, by definition, pretending) and a certain amount of "suspension of disbelief" is required from the viewer, but how hard could it be to find somebody who's actually played the guitar, at least, somewhat?

   It's embarrassing to watch.
 
   

Offline sands4us

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2008, 08:59:35 PM »
It is HOLLYWOOD. Movies are vehicles for celebrities and geared toward mass appeal.

No it isn't a documentary and it will be bastardized to bring in box office.......

BUT! it will expose a lot of younger folks to some great old music. Remind others of music they listened to a long time ago. For most it will be a couple hours entertainment ...for others I am sure it will open a door to discovering the originals.

Don't all us Guitar Geeks throw out the baby with the bath water. Will it bring a modern day Renaissance to Blues and Rhythm and Blues? I doubt it!

Will it turn a bunch of people into new blues lovers? Will it encourage people to buy some of these classics? I am sure it will and isn't that a good thing?

Isn't it great that millions of young kids who like Beyonce will see her in this and be exposed to Etta James music

"http://www.youtube.com/v/UxqpALfYhtQ&hl=en&fs=1"

Stephen
« Last Edit: December 07, 2008, 09:07:03 PM by sands4us »

Offline waxwing

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2008, 09:04:54 AM »
Yeah, and for decades there will be forum threads about that affair that Leonard Chess had with...  because that's all the research all these new 20 something fans will do.  Shades of devils at crossroads.

All for now.
John C.
"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."
George Bernard Shaw

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Joseph Heller, Catch-22

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Offline Stuart

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Offline CF

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #8 on: December 08, 2008, 11:44:30 AM »
Without commenting on a movie I haven't even seen yet I would suggest that any attempt to make profound music more palatable will likely only be a failure for the true appreciation of that music.
This thing can only point people in a deeper direction.
I'm assuming 'Ray' & 'Walk The Line' made this Chess movie a possibility. But Muddy Waters & Howlin' Wolf & Little Walter are a bit harder to sell to the public than the already famous & beloved Ray Charles & Johnny Cash.
 
   
Stand By If You Wanna Hear It Again . . .

Offline arlotone

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #9 on: December 13, 2008, 06:29:35 PM »
WHY, WHY, M@#$%^&*&ING WHY, Don't they just bloody dub the original music in?

Agreed. I heard an interview with Mos Def on NPR. They cut in a clip of him singing "Nadine" and it was just flat and dull compared to the original. Sadly, the actor didn't seem to know much about Chuck Berry, either, let alone how to hold the guitar convincingly.

Offline CF

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #10 on: December 14, 2008, 07:39:38 AM »
Quote
Some of the clips I've seen make it pretty obvious that this is, yet another, case of actors, holding musical instruments and pretending (quite unconvincingly) to play them.

I've always hated this, even as a kid. Did ya all see Sean Penn in that Woody Allen flick 'Sweet Lowdown' er something?? Man, he did not look like he was playing the guitar at all, real bad. Good movie tho'. Probably the best I've ever seen would be Raplh 'Karate Kid' Macchio in the infamously historically innaccurate 'Crossroads'. I've been told Ralph actually plays so there you go. You would think that with all the bozos who play guitar nowadays that they'd make an extra effort to get someone in there to train these actors. Or, hell, watch some videos of guitar players.
Stand By If You Wanna Hear It Again . . .

Offline Rivers

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #11 on: December 14, 2008, 02:16:21 PM »
Johnny Depp gets a lot of points for actually playing country blues, with fingerpicks, on an old National, in the French movie Chocolat.

Offline Chezztone

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #12 on: December 14, 2008, 06:43:23 PM »
Yes, I agree, Crossroads has a lot going for it and it stands up well after a few decades.
As for Cadillac Blues and another fairly recent blues-related movie, Honeydripper:
First, if you are interested in blues, and you are if you're reading this, then you have to see them. It's not every day that a major blues-themed movie comes out so go, there are a lot of things you will enjoy. And rent Honeydripper.
But a problem I have with both of them is that they treat blues as the prelude to rock 'n' roll. That is as idiotic as treating Shakespeare as the predecessor to some modern novelist. Of course he influenced the modern novelist, but that is not what is important about him. And despite what these films say, blues is fabulous and important music regardless of what came after it. But you know that. I'll write a longer review of both films. But in the meantime, go see them and enjoy the music and the stories and the settings and all that. Cheers, SC
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Offline Mr.OMuck

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #13 on: December 14, 2008, 08:28:33 PM »
Yes, yes, yes. Slowly I turned, step by step.....This f**kin' business of Blues being important because it was the progenitor of Shlock & Drool, makes me leap outta my feakin' skin! And Chezz, your Shakespeare analogy is right on the money! But this manner of thinking is endemic in our culture. It has freakin' pervaded every aspect of existence. Nothing has any value at all, it only has TRANSITORY value, value as something that leads to THE NEXT BIG FREAKIN" THING! YOUNG! NEW! BETTER! The three stooges of American thought!
Here's my analysis, and anyone doing their doctorate in cultural history, art history or sociology can give me a footnote:
Culture was INFECTED by rapid advances in early twentieth century technology! Because technology and streamlined production methods created the expectation of a limitless horizon of technological ADVANCES & IMPROVEMENTS the idea that ALL aspects of human experience were subject to advances and improvements took hold at the deepest levels of consciousness. It is not unrelated to other notions of perfectibility that our species has occasionally invented; the idea of Paradise for example. So whereas during the renaissance artists and scientists were looking for that which reconfirmed, restated and reconfigured what they thought of as the eternal verities, at the same time as they introduced radical new discoveries and procedures, in the post technological revolting :P epoch, the old is ASSUMED to be inferior. It is presumed to exist ONLY for the purpose of being supplanted.
The problem is that this line of reasoning falls apart when it comes to matters of art. Stravinsky, great and innovative as he was, was not an Improvement on Bach. Neither is Picasso an improvement on Van Gogh or Masaccio, or Giotto, let alone Michaelangelo.
James Joyce did not produce a better work than Milton (though he's right up there).
And No Rock n' Roll can seriously claim to have surpassed the great Blues players in terms of the music's complexity, intensity, diversity and ability to move the heart and soul and inspire the mind. Its no accident that the greatest artist Rock & Roll produced was the one who naturally gravitated to the renaissance model of thought, and spent as much time looking back as forward. I'm not including obvious links like Chuck, Bo, Ike James Brown , Fats Domino,  Little Richard.et al. Next generation...you guess.


My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)

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Offline dj

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Re: "Cadillac Records" -- movie about 1950s Chess Records
« Reply #14 on: December 15, 2008, 04:09:30 AM »
Quote
and spent as much time looking back as forward

Elvis impersonators are the greatest artists rock & roll has produced?    :P

Seriously, O'Muck, I think renaissance composers thought late medieval composers were thoroughly odl-fashioned, baroque composers thought the same of the renaissance guys, the early classicists thought the baroque guys were old farts, and on and on.  Nothing is new under the sun.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2008, 04:17:12 AM by dj »

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