Product: Cadillac Records [Blu-ray] (2008)
Rating: 2.0
VH-1-esque waste of time
I will say up front- I am a huge Chess Records fan. I don't think you can like anything even approaching rock music without loving at least SOMETHING that label put out. I think labels like Chess and Stax did as much to change people's attitudes about race as MLK or the sit-in movement. So it is in my mind criminal to not only tell this story without the panache it deserved, but it also misused two fantastic actors- Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright, whom I have loved and wanted to see more of since "Basquiat".How could it go wrong? By taking the same well-worn paths as every other movie set in a time period that necessitates a careful attention to production. Period films in my mind often fail (me anyway) because of the picturesque yet somehow lifeless sets. I know that most people may not pay attention to these things, but it always bugs me when its done wrong. I couldn't help but think of the film "Far From Heaven" with its super-saturated colors and period angles, and how those types of techniques would have been perfect for a film like this. Those pink cadillacs, those candy-colored dresses- a sense of a color and a sense of place would have rescued this from the VH-production values that stultify the story.And what a story it could have been. Muddy Waters ascent from sharecropper to music legend is a drama in and of itself. Why did it not move? Why were the characters seemingly so two-dimensional? Why did one not get a sense at all of the hardships that Muddy faced, and the dramatic difference in his lifestyle after his success? Why were the filmmakers so easily satisfied with showing a few muddy fields and a couple dirt roads? Why was the second Chess brother left out? Why did one not get a sense of the Chess brothers as people? And why the horrible, typical slide guitar incidental music that's used in every drama set in the south, no matter how far from the Delta it may be?I hope at some point that someone else makes this story walk. Its a story that should be told. Chess Records and its legacy should make the pulse race- not fill one's nostrils with the smell of Hollywood. Maybe Beyonce's fee used up all the budget that could have gone into the production design and a better story. If you like Chess then you will see this, but you won't be moved if you are anything like me.