Product: Cadillac Records [Blu-ray] (2008)
Rating: 3.0
Enjoyable
Cadillac Records tells the story of Chess Records, a Chicago studio that recorded blues greats Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and helped launch rock n' roll by recording Chuck Berry. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess and Jeffrey Wright gives a solid performance as the Mannish Boy himself, Muddy Waters. The movie shows the early success Chess had with blues records and then how they suffered when rock n' roll took over and the blues recordings stopped selling. The last third of the movie also touches on the British invasion with the Rolling Stones recording one of Muddy's songs at Chess studios and getting a hit record out of it while Muddy struggled to earn a living.Cadillac Records is a well done music movie. Its pace is even and the performances are good all around. The music is recreated by the actors who do a great job for non-singers (excluding Beyonce of course). Because it's a story that takes place over many years their isn't time for much character development so we never find out anything revealing about Leonard Chess or Muddy Waters although we do get a glimpse into the struggles of Little Walter and Etta James. The biggest failure of the movie is the attention to facts. There's no mention of Leonard Chess's brother Phil who co-founded Chess Records and Leonard and Etta James did not have a romantic relationship. There are other inaccuracies as well. If you can overlook these flaws I found Cadillac Records to be an enjoyable movie.