Ray [Blu-ray]

Excellent movie

Ray is a 2004 film based on the true story of Rhythm & Blues Musician Ray Charles Robison raised on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida and went blind at the age of 7 shortly after seeing his younger brother drowning in a small washing tub , inspired by his hard working mother who insisted he makes his own way into the world and learned piano at an early age from a local and grew up to be a pretty good piano , keyboard player touring chitlin circuit till he gained a reputation making it world wide playing and singing classics that are played on the radio today : Rhythm & Blues , Jazz , Rock & Roll , Gospel and Country .I bought the DVD when first released from Amazon and now again on Blu Ray for an Excellent price just under $ 8 dollars and recently upgraded to a 65 inch Sony 4K TV with an Excellent picture , A film directed and intro by Taylor Hackford with an Excellent performance by Cast especially Jamie Foxx did such a great job acting and playing the piano just like the real Ray with special features and interview with the real Ray and Jamie Fox with complete music performances from the movie including Ray & Raelettes performing Hit The Road Jack , Stepping into the part , A revealing look at Jamie Foxx's transformation into Ray Charles including a Jam session between the actor and the real Ray , Ray Remembered : Friends & Fellow musicians remember Ray Charles . Feature commentary with director Taylor Hackford , A look inside Ray , The Filmmakers Journey , The Woman of Ray and Ray and American Story , Ray is an Excellent Movie for a Great Price .

Rarely as in “Ray” does a movie transport the viewer this deep into the visceral experience of the arc of a talented, but tempted and troubled genius from origin to discovery, success, decline, failure, redemption, and finally to legacy. I’m sure it took nothing short of the most talented screenwriters and production artists to make it happen, but it wouldn’t have happened without the deservedly Oscar-winning performance of Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. If there is a better biopic of a musical legend, I haven’t yet seen it.

It was a compelling story with a great soundtrack and great acting.

The movie Ray Charles is musically explosive! Great movie. Ray had a sad childhood. And his mother died way too young. She didn’t get to see her son become successful nor did she get to enjoy his prosperity. Nothing is more sad. No wonder he ended up using drugs to try to escape his deep seated pain! He ended up marrying a great Christian woman. I LOVED this movie! First time I saw it was 12/25/2022. This movie is great! It will make you cry, laugh and sing! Triple whammy. I grew up in San Francisco and saw RC live in the city I was born in and love. Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington should have won an Academy Award for great acting! Ray Charles will always be the “King of Blues & Gospel!” He had God given talent. Like the best of us singers.

By this point it's pretty hard to do something original with a biopic, and now that I've seen several of them (particularly the musical kind) a pattern has emerged. Typically, they will pick a time period in a person's life/career and focus on a certain personal struggle and how they overcome it. With musicians, this often involves women and substance abuse. 'Tis the same story with Ray Charles. RAY focuses on Ray Charles' beginnings in the music business up through the point at which he came clean off of heroin (around 1966). To round out the narrative, there are flashbacks to his childhood and an extended coda which ties up a significant plot point from before and serves as an epitaph to his life and career (the film came out several months after his death). Because so many biopics follow the same formula, what distinguishes them from one another (other than the subject) is the quality of the performances and the ingenuity with which they are put together, and RAY certainly stands out from the rest thanks in large part to an excellent central performance by Jamie Foxx. The way he inhabits Ray Charles is uncanny at times, although the straightforward dramatic scenes verge on mimicry in a way that stands out more when juxtaposed with the performance scenes. For me, the performance scenes work better because Jamie Foxx was able to capture a realness and immediacy that comes from someone who is intimately familiar with performing music on the stage (as Foxx is also a singer). Beyond that I thought that the editing, particularly in the musical sequences had a certain kinetic energy that brought the performances to life. However, I found it a little distracting that Ray Charles' voice was coming out of Jamie Foxx's body when there was a few early scenes where Jamie Foxx used his own voice to sing. Even still, I got used to it after a while. In general, I thought that everyone gave a good performance, and the film had an excellent ensemble cast. One thing I also thought was done rather well was the hallucinogenic nature of the flashback scenes, which added a layer of artfulness as inner turmoil, with Ray Charles feeling guilty about how his younger brother died. What I felt didn't always work was the general formula and obligatory dramatic moments which hit again and again just how dependent Ray became on heroin. I got a little tired and frustrated with it in WALK THE LINE (although that came out the following year, and followed RAY's playbook) and felt the same way here. Yes, it was a compelling arc to have in a general sense, but it's something that's been played out a little bit too much, in my opinion. Despite the formulaic nature of the plot and story, I had a great time with RAY because of the talented actors who brought it to life, and the energetic and soulful musical numbers. RAY might rely a little too heavily on formula, but at least it's a winning one.

One of the interesting and unique remarkable storyline by the greatest artist in the early 50's Ray Charles. And the best actor and role playing by Jamie Foxx. The 50's look was amazing. Ray Charles had drug problems before and his haunted by his brother's accident. And the songs are really good and you can sing to it. One of my favorite song is Messin' Around and a lot more. There was a lot of actors and actresses I've seen. Great performances and roles by Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell, Warwick Davis, Regina King, Larenz Tate, Terrence Howard & Bokeem Woodbine. Highly recommend.

Have watched many, times. It's fabulous