closetpuritan (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} closetpuritan) wrote,@ 2009-05-06 20:41:00 |
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Cadillac Records
I finally saw Cadillac Records last week, and today I finished watching all the extras and director's commentary. (I was thwarted in my attempts to see it in theaters.) I really liked it, more than I thought I would. Particularly surprising was how good Beyonce was in it. I'd seen some trailers with her singing "At Last" and noticed how she was Beyonce-ing it up/introducing an anachronistic style of singing. I've also noticed it since watching the movie in clips of it that were in the featurettes. And yet, while I was watching the movie I was having hard time hearing the Beyonce-ing of the song, even though I was kind of listening for it. I was also prepared to not like her acting after seeing stuff like this:
But again, even though to some extent I watched the movie looking for that, I did not see it. I also didn't think that she was physically a good fit, even after gaining weight. I coud not believe that the director wrote the movie with Beyonce in mind for the role, since neither her singing style nor her physical appearance seemed right, and she was not a very noted actress at that time (or really even now)--the only other thing she's been in that I know of is Dreamgirls. (A quick check of IMDB reveals that she had been in a few other movies, but just a few, and Dreamgirls was the only one I knew about without checking IMDB.) I tended to agree with other people on the internet that Queen Latifah would have been a better fit. Both her style of singing (I thought she was good in Chicago) and body type would have been a better fit. (Beyonce is in some ways a better fit than Queen Latifah, though: she is the right age, and she has the paler skin that you'd expect from someone whose father was white--although both these things could be fixed with makeup and lighting.) Still, when I saw her on screen while watching the movie, I was registering her as "the Etta character", not "Beyonce", just as my mind would register "the Howling Wolf character" and not "Eamonn Walker". I'm not sure how much credit goes to Beyonce and how much to the director for that, but rather than being as bad as I feared, she was much better than I had hoped.
None of the other actors disappointed, and most of them looked more like their real-life counterparts than Beyonce looked like Etta.
So, about the Howling Wolf character.
Howling Wolf was the coolest character in the movie. Maybe in any movie. In fact, when I grow up I want to be Howling Wolf. OK, maybe not really, but he was pretty awesome.
...Well, actually, he seemed like 80% awesome, 20% hillbilly weirdo.
One thing I couldn't figure out, though, was that they gave Howling Wolf weird mannerisms. I was reminded of Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I don't know if that was the actor's idea or the director's, or what the reasoning was behind it. That was pretty much the entire source of the hillbilly weirdo vibe. Well, probably the raggedy pickup truck we seem him with when he first shows up was somewhat responsible for the weird mannerisms seeming like weird hillbilly mannerisms.
So, about the raggedy pickup truck.
Howling Wolf's character says in his first scene that "I own it; it don't own me." And I looked up some stuff about Howling Wolf, and he did indeed drive to Chicago in his own vehicle:
This site has a clip of Eamonn Walker as Howling Wolf on its main page. In the clip, it shows Muddy Waters deciding to double Hubert Sumlin's pay in order to steal him from Howling Wolf. In fact, he tripled it.
Part of the reason I was looking this stuff up was not just that Howling Wolf as portrayed in Cadillac Records seemed really cool--I was also curious how much of it was true. I felt like his character was too good to be true--like he was the black counterpart of the girl/woman in period pieces who says how she'd like to be independent and go on adventures and have swordfights and make her own decisions and have a careers and basically sounds a little too much like she is not really from the period that she's supposed to be from. But from what I saw when looking up more information about Howling Wolf, the portrayal of his character in Cadillac Records is basically accurate.
Several musicians who played with both Muddy and Wolf say Wolf was a more professional band leader. Wolf paid his people on time and withheld unemployment insurance and even Social Security, which some of his band members are drawing today. Wolf also stood up for his band and wouldn’t be taken advantage of. Jimmy Rogers, who played for years in Muddy’s band, said, “Wolf was better at managing a bunch of people than Muddy or anybody else. Muddy would go along with the Chess company. [But] Wolf would speak up for himself.”
I finally saw Cadillac Records last week, and today I finished watching all the extras and director's commentary. (I was thwarted in my attempts to see it in theaters.) I really liked it, more than I thought I would. Particularly surprising was how good Beyonce was in it. I'd seen some trailers with her singing "At Last" and noticed how she was Beyonce-ing it up/introducing an anachronistic style of singing. I've also noticed it since watching the movie in clips of it that were in the featurettes. And yet, while I was watching the movie I was having hard time hearing the Beyonce-ing of the song, even though I was kind of listening for it. I was also prepared to not like her acting after seeing stuff like this:
As for Beyoncé—oh my goodness. She hasn't yet understood what it is to be an ensemble actor; she always seems to be revolving by herself on a dais. But what a resplendent dais it is. Here, as in Dreamgirls, Beyoncé's conscious display of vocal virtuosity becomes a part of the character she's playing. Every one of Etta's songs is delivered with the subtext, "Watch me while I nail this song." And as calculated as her display of vulnerability may be, damned if we can stop watching. (From a review on Slate.)
But again, even though to some extent I watched the movie looking for that, I did not see it. I also didn't think that she was physically a good fit, even after gaining weight. I coud not believe that the director wrote the movie with Beyonce in mind for the role, since neither her singing style nor her physical appearance seemed right, and she was not a very noted actress at that time (or really even now)--the only other thing she's been in that I know of is Dreamgirls. (A quick check of IMDB reveals that she had been in a few other movies, but just a few, and Dreamgirls was the only one I knew about without checking IMDB.) I tended to agree with other people on the internet that Queen Latifah would have been a better fit. Both her style of singing (I thought she was good in Chicago) and body type would have been a better fit. (Beyonce is in some ways a better fit than Queen Latifah, though: she is the right age, and she has the paler skin that you'd expect from someone whose father was white--although both these things could be fixed with makeup and lighting.) Still, when I saw her on screen while watching the movie, I was registering her as "the Etta character", not "Beyonce", just as my mind would register "the Howling Wolf character" and not "Eamonn Walker". I'm not sure how much credit goes to Beyonce and how much to the director for that, but rather than being as bad as I feared, she was much better than I had hoped.
None of the other actors disappointed, and most of them looked more like their real-life counterparts than Beyonce looked like Etta.
So, about the Howling Wolf character.
Howling Wolf was the coolest character in the movie. Maybe in any movie. In fact, when I grow up I want to be Howling Wolf. OK, maybe not really, but he was pretty awesome.
...Well, actually, he seemed like 80% awesome, 20% hillbilly weirdo.
One thing I couldn't figure out, though, was that they gave Howling Wolf weird mannerisms. I was reminded of Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I don't know if that was the actor's idea or the director's, or what the reasoning was behind it. That was pretty much the entire source of the hillbilly weirdo vibe. Well, probably the raggedy pickup truck we seem him with when he first shows up was somewhat responsible for the weird mannerisms seeming like weird hillbilly mannerisms.
So, about the raggedy pickup truck.
Howling Wolf's character says in his first scene that "I own it; it don't own me." And I looked up some stuff about Howling Wolf, and he did indeed drive to Chicago in his own vehicle:
Wolf finally started recording in 1951, when he caught the ear of Sam Phillips, who first heard him on his morning radio show. The music Wolf made in the Memphis Recording Service studio was full of passion and zest and Phillips simultaneously leased the results to the Bihari Brothers in Los Angeles and Leonard Chess in Chicago. Suddenly, Howlin' Wolf had two hits at the same time on the R&B charts with two record companies claiming to have him exclusively under contract. Chess finally won him over and as Wolf would proudly relate years later, "I had a 4,000 dollar car and 3,900 dollars in my pocket. I'm the onliest one drove out of the South like a gentleman." It was the winter of 1953 and Chicago would be his new home. (Quote from Cub Koda's guide on Ask.com)
This site has a clip of Eamonn Walker as Howling Wolf on its main page. In the clip, it shows Muddy Waters deciding to double Hubert Sumlin's pay in order to steal him from Howling Wolf. In fact, he tripled it.
Part of the reason I was looking this stuff up was not just that Howling Wolf as portrayed in Cadillac Records seemed really cool--I was also curious how much of it was true. I felt like his character was too good to be true--like he was the black counterpart of the girl/woman in period pieces who says how she'd like to be independent and go on adventures and have swordfights and make her own decisions and have a careers and basically sounds a little too much like she is not really from the period that she's supposed to be from. But from what I saw when looking up more information about Howling Wolf, the portrayal of his character in Cadillac Records is basically accurate.
Several musicians who played with both Muddy and Wolf say Wolf was a more professional band leader. Wolf paid his people on time and withheld unemployment insurance and even Social Security, which some of his band members are drawing today. Wolf also stood up for his band and wouldn’t be taken advantage of. Jimmy Rogers, who played for years in Muddy’s band, said, “Wolf was better at managing a bunch of people than Muddy or anybody else. Muddy would go along with the Chess company. [But] Wolf would speak up for himself.”
...
In 1964, Wolf also married his long-time sweetheart, Lillie Handley, whom he had met in 1957 at Silvio’s nightclub in Chicago. Wolf called Lillie “a flower from the first day I met her,” and he doted on her two daughters, Bettye Jean and Barbara. Despite his wild antics onstage, Wolf was a responsible, middle-class family man offstage—honest, hardworking, and upstanding to a fault. He hunted and fished, owned farmland in Arkansas, volunteered with the local fire department, and was a proud member of the local chapter of the Masons.
(from the Howlin' Wolf site)
I had long thought that Howling Wolf had one of the coolest voices of all blues performers. I didn't realize that he was so cool/interesting in real life. So I think I'm going to have to get the Howling Wolf biography Moanin' At Midnight.
It can't be easy for an actor to do Howling Wolf's voice, either his singing or his speaking voice. I learned from listening to the commentary that Eamonn Walker (the actor who played Howling Wolf) had never sang (as a performer, anyway; presumably he had sung at some point in his life :P) before he did this movie.
So anyway, I really liked the movie. People have said that it's incoherent or messy, but what would you expect from a movie about a record company and all the important musicians it recorded? It doesn't have the typical narrative arc that many movies have. Leonard Chess in some ways could be considered the main character, since he's the character who's most consistently present throughout the movie, and for the first half of the film it seems like Muddy Waters is the main character, but there really is no main character. It is almost more like a "slice of life" film (like Aria, Kathy!) than your typical movie. Which sort of makes sense, since it's a biopic and based on a true story and stuff. Except I hesitate to call it a biopic, because usually that applies to a bio of a person, and it's really a bio of a record company. Which is exactly what the title says, but a lot of people bring in their expectations that this sort of film has to be the bio of a [single] person, and it's not. But it does what it's trying to do, and it does it well.
It can't be easy for an actor to do Howling Wolf's voice, either his singing or his speaking voice. I learned from listening to the commentary that Eamonn Walker (the actor who played Howling Wolf) had never sang (as a performer, anyway; presumably he had sung at some point in his life :P) before he did this movie.
So anyway, I really liked the movie. People have said that it's incoherent or messy, but what would you expect from a movie about a record company and all the important musicians it recorded? It doesn't have the typical narrative arc that many movies have. Leonard Chess in some ways could be considered the main character, since he's the character who's most consistently present throughout the movie, and for the first half of the film it seems like Muddy Waters is the main character, but there really is no main character. It is almost more like a "slice of life" film (like Aria, Kathy!) than your typical movie. Which sort of makes sense, since it's a biopic and based on a true story and stuff. Except I hesitate to call it a biopic, because usually that applies to a bio of a person, and it's really a bio of a record company. Which is exactly what the title says, but a lot of people bring in their expectations that this sort of film has to be the bio of a [single] person, and it's not. But it does what it's trying to do, and it does it well.
