Ray the Film Ray (Taylor Term Paper

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The central issue in the film is not racism or even the society of the time, though that background is recreated well for the film. Instead, the film offers "a potent sampling of Charles' demons, faults and addictions to go along with the charm, talent and strength of character" (McCarthy 3).

The film is very successful in the way it recrets the music of the time and shows how Charles developed as a singer, and it also gives a good account of the man and of the contrasting aspects of his personality and behavior. Where the film is less successful is in the way it tries to explain these contrasting elements by linking them to one event, the time when young Ray saw his brother die in an accident. Ray feels responsible because he did not step in to save his brother, though in truth he was very young himself and not really able to do much when faced with such a horrible accident. Ray goes blind a couple of years after this event and seems to see his blindness and other problems as punishment for his failure. The filmmakers unfortunately return to this incident in his childhood over and over again, suggesting that virtually everything from his womanizing to his drug addiction can be traced back to this particular event. This places far too much power in this one incident and also tends to seem excessive as the film uses flashbacks to that event as an explanation for virtually everything. As traumatic as the event was, it cannot be seen as the only formative influence on Ray Charles or as so important that it causes all of this problems.

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Charles is seen as someone who was not only greatly influenced by the different musical styles he heard, styles that he found ways to combine, but who was also affected by the events and currents taking palce in his time. As a black man, he was subject to the same racism as other black men, with one difference being the degree to which it was seen in the places he had to play and in the way audiences reacted to him. He traveled from the clearly segregated world of Gerogia to Seattle, where the racism was still evdident though often not as overt. The music business today seems highly integated, at least at the level of the performer, but this was not the case in the 1950s or 1960s. A black artist like Ray Charles would have a successful recording, and it would be covered by a white performer and then played more on the radio. The film hints at many of these issues and is always ready to respond to an instance of racism or any other slight directed at its main subject. The recreatio of the era is well done but necessarily not as compelte as it mgiht be, and the main body of the film is musical rather than political or social. The film is most successful when it does concentrate on the music and the performance, but it hints at many of the problems of the time and how they affected black performers like Ray Charles.

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