Cadillac Records (Cadillac Records, 2008) is a movie that came out when I was starting to get interested in the blues. He became my first blues guide: Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Etta James. That’s how I met them — here, in Cadillac Records from director Darnell Martin. She is also the author of the script.
In the opening credits, in which the rotating plates are replaced by cars, the mood is set. Clearly, it will be a story about music with a beautiful entourage. The quality and splendor of the Cadillac Records picture give the impression of almost Disney innocence. If a character’s costume doesn’t look perfect, then a catastrophe has occurred in history. The rest of the cars, clothes – as if only from the store, which is why the film looks kind of plastic.
Muddy Waters got on a train in Chicago after he first heard his performance on the record.
The movie tells the story of Chess Records studio and label, which published black music. Music that existed long before the appearance of this Chicago studio. But the surge of interest in the so-called. “racial” music and its evolution occurred in the years of Chess Records — 1950s-1960s — in the years of the evolution of blues into rhythm and blues, rhythm and blues into rock and roll and soul.
The main characters are Leonard Chess and Muddy Waters. They go through the whole picture as friends and business partners. They create a Chicago sound. They get high and money from it. They are watching their creation change. They let him go into the big world with maternal anxiety.
Chess (Adrian Brody) is a producer who knows what can be sold and how to record it. Who knows how to instill in his musicians — yesterday’s handymen and peasants — confidence in success. The label is his second family. Waters (Jeffrey Wright) is an outstanding guitarist, singer and a broken guy. He will not refuse female attention, while he is a good family man. Wright conveys the habits and facial expressions of his hero well.
Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker) is a creepy black giant who has just arrived in Chicago to join the Chess label. He doesn’t say much, but three words are enough for everyone to understand him. I liked the casting work, Walker is a good example. Howlin’ Wolf was 191 centimeters tall and weighed 136 kilograms. Walker — a man of similar dimensions — accurately conveyed the character set by the script.
Leonard Chess shows his wife the sign of his new studio
The rest of the central characters are performed by the stars of the modern r-n-b and hip-hop scene for 2008. I saw it as a handshake of musicians from the 1950s and 2000s. Little Walter (Columbus Short), Willie Dixon (Cedric “The Entertainer”), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Etta James (Beyonce Knowles) — that’s who appears in the film, marking milestones on the timeline of the narrative with their appearance. Milestones of popular music.
These characters are played by professional musicians, not actors. But how painstakingly they approached — the uncontrollable aggression of Little Walter, the reasonableness of Willie Dixon, the irony of Chuck Berry, the explosiveness at the same time as the fragility of Etta James. The scenario images are clearly visible and look like a continuation of the flawless pictures with guitars and cars. They seem to be written according to stereotypes about legendary musicians. Therefore, the heroes are shallow.
For example, judging by the film, Howlin’ Wolf intimidates others, looks askance and does not like Muddy Waters. But this gifted band leader, who did not study at school, worked all his childhood in the field, sang in the church choir, knew how to manage the affairs of his group. He was taught to play guitar by delta blues classic Charlie Patton. Performing at the Mississippi Delta juke Joints, Wolf accumulated an unimaginable $ 4,000 and already with this capital went north to develop a musical career. A man who could not read and write. A man who went to school after forty years and caught up on these skills. And then he studied to be an accountant in order to manage a business professionally.
The new guy at the studio is songwriter and bassist on duty, Willie Dixon.
In such a kaleidoscope of stars as in Cadillac Records, it is difficult to draw images in detail. But I got the impression that the author was just too lazy to do it. When I was reviewing the picture, having already played the songs of the heroes myself, I was a little bored. But when I watched for the first time, hungry for knowledge, I felt enlightened and at the same time not loaded with too plausible heroes with a difficult fate.
In the film, the Chess Records label that actually existed is torn away from this very reality. The action takes place in a bubble, from which no one can see Sun Records, Atlantic, anyone. No competitors, no partners — the same Haulin Wolf was recommended to Leonard Chess by Sam Phillips. Other music is mentioned, but in the wrong context and in the wrong volume. Musicians seem to compete only with each other. They create new music, but it is completely incomprehensible — if we take for granted only the content of the film — what kind of music was old?
What’s going on outside the window? Heroes of the generation of the Second World War, who seemed to have forgotten about it. The film contains strained scenes of racism, a complex phenomenon that needs to be talked about directly and honestly or not at all. Images of racism are clamped and inconsistent, and nothing but disrespect for the victims of racism is not shown.
The narrative is lost in time. The events are shown real, but in a chaotic order. And this could be considered an artistic device if it were not for the clear definition of the date of the studio’s history, reported by the narrator at the beginning.
Beyonce recalled that to prepare for the film, she watched Etta James's videos every night and memorized her demeanor.
The passage of time has little effect on the appearance of most characters. I got the impression that the time period of the story captures no more than a month. The universe of Cadillacs and blues is superficial, but complete.
The director convincingly showed the music-making scenes. It was not an easy task, because the performers of the main roles did not own musical instruments. The director coped with it, as well as with the transmission of communication through music, gestures and looks.
I can’t imagine this movie without a soundtrack. The work of musician and producer Steve Jordan, who played drums with Chuck Berry at the legendary documented Hail concert! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll. Recognizable hits of the heroes of history were included in the soundtrack. For the recording, Jordan assembled a band, which, among others, included a guitarist who started with Howlin’ Wolf and featured in the film, Hubert Sumlin. The band recorded the instrumental part. I suppose that’s how this music could sound if its authors recorded it these days. The musicians kept the groove and mood, despite Jordan’s modest and true remark “you can’t play better than the originals, even if you crack.”
The actors who performed them sang for the characters. They did not try to copy the manner of the original. The originality of the performance additionally glues the narrative, keeps it in the universe. I think the movie wouldn’t have happened without the soundtrack. This is a guess, but the fact is that the soundtrack, released as an independent album, lasted 48 weeks at the first place of the chart of the best blues albums.
01 Jeffrey Wright – I’m A Man
02 Beyonce – At Last
03 Mos Def – No Particular Place To Go
04 Jeffrey Wright – I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man
05 Beyonce – Once In A Lifetime
06 Raphael Saadiq – Let’s Take A Walk
07 Solange – 6 O’Clock Blues
08 Mos Def – Nadine
09 Mary Mary – The Sound
10 Little Walter – Last Night
11 Beyonce – I’d Rather Go Blind
12 Columbus Short – My Babe
13 Nas Feat. Olu Dara – Bridging The Gap
01 Mos Def – Maybellene
02 Buddy Guy – Forty Days & Forty Nights
03 Beyonce – Trust In Me
04 Soul 7 Feat. Kim Wilson – Juke
05 Eamonn Walker – Smokestack Lightnin’
06 Mos Def – Promised Land
07 Beyonce – All I Could Do Is Cry
08 Elvis Presley – My Babe
09 Jeffrey Wright – I Can’t Be Satisfied
10 Mos Def – Come On
11 Jeffrey Wright & Bill Simms Jr. – Country Blues
12 Q-Tip Feat. Al Kapone – Evolution Of A Man
13 Terrence Blanchard – Radio Station
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Making a movie based on real events is always a compromise. To please the experts or to collect a good cash register? It didn’t work out with the box office — the film grossed $ 8 million at the box office against $ 12 spent. Taking into account subsequent sales on discs and streaming, he still paid for himself, having collected 20 million in total with the rental.
I use electricity, which has always existed in my eyes, and without which it is difficult for me to imagine life. I am listening to music that has always existed in my ears as well. But there were people who conducted electricity and then it became everyday. There were people who brought music and it, having blown up the world with a bomb of pleasure, became everyday.
You can treat such achievements of humanity in your own way, but you need to know about them. Cadillac Records is the first step to knowledge. Modern show business seems to have forgotten what it grew out of. I forgot about the independent labels like Chess that created the industry. The appearance of this film in 2008 was encouraging that not everything is forgotten.
The studio may be behind. Friends and memories are always there.
Wow, there’s so much Mos Def in the soundtrack. I heard him once as a bluesman – in Lightning In a Bottle – I thought it was a one-time event, but no…
Now we’ll definitely have to look.