Then Chuck Berry (Mos Def ) adds a country twang, and suddenly white audiences are dancing to his “Rock & Roll.” Leonard surrounds Etta James (Beyoncé Knowles) with strings, and she crosses over, too. Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker) has a guttural roar. Little Walter(Columbus Short) plays a mean harmonica. The Chess Records label (established in 1950) makes its first serious money promoting Muddy’s music to Blacks, but Leonard and Muddy soon bring others into the fold. Most of the film takes place, as it should, right in the recording studio. As simplistic as this may sound now, you won’t truly appreciate what you see onscreen if you ignore this common frame of reference. “Stop with ‘enough.’ The word is ‘more.’” The Holocaust, never mentioned but always present in the background, has united most Jewish-Americans with African-Americans in the battle against Jim Crow. “This is America,” Leonard insists early on. Leonard has chutzpah, Muddy has talent, and together they agree to gamble big on post-War prosperity. Driving south through miles of open fields on their first road trip together, Muddy asks: “How come you didn’t stay your ass in Poland?” And Leonard answers: “How come you didn’t stay your ass in Mississippi?” Muddy just laughs. While never denying their differences, her primary goal is to illuminate what they had in common.
Writer/director Darnell Martin lays down key events in each life, one after another, creating the parallel rails which kept them on track for 22 years. By the time they meet in Chicago in 1947, Morganfield has created the persona of Bluesman “Muddy Waters” and Czyz has reinvented himself as entrepreneur “Leonard Chess,” but they both know where they’ve come from, and they’re both determined never to fall back. McKinley Morganfield was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi in 1913 Lejzor Czyz was born in Motal, Poland (now Belarus ) in 1917.
The narrative arc of Cadillac Records begins in 1941 with the introduction of its two protagonists. But Cadillac Records won me over completely! So while I enjoyed all of these films, none of them fully satisfied me. Telling a credible story in approximately two hours while still doing justice to great music is always a challenge. Think of similar films before, after, or in between, and I’ve likely seen them, too.
Cadillac records dvd movie#
Since musical bio-pics combine two of my favorite movie genres, I’ve seen all the likely candidates you can name, from The Glenn Miller Story (1954), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993), to Ray (2004), Walk the Line (2005), and Dreamgirls (2006).
Tremendously entertaining, Cadillac Records has powerful resonance it was one of my favorite films of 2008.Ĭadillac Records is a history of Chicago Blues, starring Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess and Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters. Ironically, it didn’t get much buzz when it opened on December 5, and it quickly disappeared from theaters when it failed to receive any major Golden Globe nominations on December 11, but luckily it’s now available to all on DVD.
Summary:Cadillac Records is a musical history of Chicago Blues starring Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess and Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters (with Beyoncé Knowles as Etta James, Columbus Short as Little Walter, and a host of other wonderful actors in key supporting roles). Principal Actors: Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright
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