In the opening scenes of this movie we are given an inside glimpse of what it was like being the poor son of Polish Jewish immigrants in Chicago in the portrayal of a young Leonard Chess. For they are sure to find, as our former Mayor David Dinkins elegantly put it: “A gorgeous mosaic.” There is a richness here that inevitably results when a film maker – who is, at their best, a celluloid dramatist – takes an honest look at the cultural complexity of the United States of America. This film however, does not stop at portraying the most obvious aspects of race prejudice and the discriminatory treatment that results from it, but also looks at questions of class and ethnicity and subtly meditates on how they have shaped the contours of American culture. In this film the muses are served in fine fashion even while the harsh realities of the sharecropper south where hunger, poverty and random white violence were omnipresent, and the dangerous cities of the north with its seductions of vice and the catharsis of violence, are graphically portrayed. And it does so without ever becoming preachy the play remains the thing, and the imperatives of dramatic art are ever observed. Griffiths racist propaganda film Birth of a Nation was “history written by lightening,” Cadillac Records is history written with enlightenment.Ĭadillac Record’s is remarkably candid in portraying the racist social etiquette and oppressive political system of white supremacy that it supported. And if Woodrow Wilson – a former US President and Princeton history Professor – thought D.W. I am especially thrilled when I see another important slice of black life successfully portrayed on the giant silver screen, where it literally becomes larger than life. The much celebrated Afro-American novelist Ralph Ellison, reflecting on the birth of Be-bop in Harlem’s “Minton’s Play House,” observed that “Music gives resonance to memory.” And as this movie is about the migration of Mississippi country blues musicians to the great city of Chicago, we have a treasure trove of sound portraits that mirror their journey.Īs a student and teacher of history I am intensely interested in historical drama and fictions. But the ultimate time machine is the music they played back then. A period piece set in the racially tumultuous era between the end of the great depression and the outbreak of World War II in the early 1940’s, and the turbulent 1960’s when the walls of segregation – which had defined the lives and art of the bluesmen in fundamental ways – came tumbling down, we follow the lives, loves and musical careers of the legendary Mississippi bluesmen who created the “ Delta Blues.’ And one of the many achievements of this remarkable movie is the way it shows how their sound was the bedrock upon which a multi-billion dollar industry was built, as the musical styles that became world famous as Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll, and Hard Rock all evolved from these blues roots – what the perceptive music critic Robert Palmer calls “ Deep Blues” in his authoritative book by that name.Īs in any historical movie the sets, costumes, language, etc play a critical role in the ability of the film to transport us back in time. New York ( Tadias) – Ever so often a movie comes along that captures the spirit of an age, Parkwood Pictures’ Cadillac Records is such a movie. The legendary artists of a Chicago music label. Above: In Cadillac Records, Beyoncé Knowles plays Etta James,
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |