At first watch, I wasn't sure if this was actually based on true events, or how historically accurate it was. There was just so much talent there that it's kind of hard to believe they all went through just this one record company. There was, of course, Waters, but there was also Chuck Berry, Etta James and many others.
I liked the performances of the actors. Jeffrey Wright plays Muddy Waters. Mos Def plays Chuck Berry. (Now that I think about it, I probably wrote about this movie already before because I remember really liking his work at the time.). And Beyonce Knowles plays Etta James. It was a real treat watching her. I always enjoyed the few songs that I knew of hers, such as "At Last" and "I'd Rather Go Blind", and Beyonce's performance really added to my appreciation. "All I Could Do Was Cry" was really great, and I'm going to try to get that song and check out more by James.
As a frustrated director, this movie gave me ideas as to how I would approach a musical historical biopic type movie. I don't want to write it here because I'm paranoid even though no one reads this. But I will say I did not like "Bohemian Rhapsody" all that much. I wanted to learn more about the songwriting process of Queen, and I don't feel like we really got that from that film. Not that we got much from this film either.
Actually, one of the things I wish we kind of learned about was where the talent came from. Of course, it would probably mostly come from practicing, right? But who knows? Did these musicians actually practice all that much? Were they just blessed? Where did they get their guitars or harmonicas? And how did they find the time to hone their craft? What did they have to sacrifice in exchange?
When I was in college, I thought about becoming a musician. I hung around other musicians, even though they weren't necessarily into the genre I was into, which was heavy metal at the time. I kind of had to weigh the risk of what it would take to pursue my dream. I considered dropping out of college and devoting all my time into the music business. I was close to getting gigs here and there but I just never got the time to really practice. I was a drummer and it was tough for me to just practice all day because I had neighbors sharing walls one either side of our house. So it was a challenge to get better and learn songs and book gigs which would hopefully lead to more opportunities.
So I guess that is kind of what I'm looking for in these types of movies. Instead, the characters just kind of come out of nowhere, already skilled and talented. They even barely make any mistakes in their performances. But they don't show who helped them and gave them a chance. They show the business side of it once they were already good, but they don't really show the root of recognizing that talent and nurturing it. They also don't show the opposite side. Were there potentially great people out there who just couldn't pursue their dream because they had to get to work and earn money and make a decision. So instead of becoming a famous musician, they ended up getting a job and where they were overworked and underpaid for many years and now can only reminisce and wonder about what might have been as they write on their blog that nobody reads.
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