Product: Cadillac Records [Blu-ray] (2008)
Rating: 4.0
Blues hits Tinsel Town!
The movie tells a good story and gets at many of the critical elements of the blues in Chicago in America in the 1950s, which is certainly worthy of motion picture treatment. So understand that.But see that it does so without dealing with the fact that Chess was run by the Chess brothers. The film says `so long' to Phil Chess and focuses on Leonard Chess, who by most accounts was in fact the determined driving force behind Chess Records, the fabled label of Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Etta James and many others. Details subordinate to an attempt to achieve an overall truth.For eample, there is a common story that holds that the great Muddy Waters was in a do-rag white-painting the Chess studios at the time the Rolling Stones appeared to record there; that is not how things are depicted in this film. That story may not be true either - in any case, it might not have helped this film, which is a fairy successful music biopic, to have included such a detail.The reason I write this is that I started out writing a book called `Sunnyland Blues' because, in a late night kitchen chat, Sunnyland Slim somewhat disgustedly described the Chess brothers' methods of ensnaring artists. The method had to do with `giving' artists Cadillacs [clearly something at the center of `Cadillac Records'] in lieu of true royalties. Sunnyland actually introduced Mudy Waters to the Chess bros..but the film depicts things differently.Slim seemed to hold a respect for Chess's accomplishments. From a long-view historical perspective, what the Chess brothers did is something like a blessing - it could have been more, and it could have been more equitable. You decide. Check out this flick.