Cadillac Records (Blu-ray)
Music is a powerful thing…
Tags: Cadillac Records Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Mar 24th, 2009
The biggest problem that I have with Cadillac Records is that it alters history too much. For a music fan such as myself, there are certain things that are nearly sacred, and the history of the Chess record label and the bluesmen that it championed is one of those things that is an essential piece of Americana that shouldn’t be changed for dramatic effect – there is plenty of drama and tension already.
Leonard Chess and Muddy Waters are the two most associated with the birth, rise and descent of Chess Records, and they are the two at the heart of the story here. Sure, we get Etta James, Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon, Little Walter, and even The Rolling Stones, but in many ways it is the relationship between Chess and Waters that drives much of the dramatic narrative.
There are moments of historical accuracy, but Cadillac Records should not be seen as a historical film, but rather a fictional tale based on true events. We get how Chuck Berry came to record “Mabeline” for Chess Records accurately depicted, but the actual founding of the label is one of the gross inaccuracies depicted here.
With the birth of rock & roll, blues was on the way out, which alone could have filled a movie about Chess Records and its part of musical history. Heck, even just the rise and descent of any one of the colorful musicians depicted in the film would have been worthy of a film. Each of the real-life characters are brought to life vividly by a stellar cast. While I wasn’t around 50 years ago so I can’t attest to the accuracy of the portrayals, but everybody is believable and appears to embody their role completely.
The most disappointing thing about this Blu-ray is that there isn’t a real documentary about Chess records attached. Coming close is the audio commentary with writer/director Darnell Martin. She really knows her material and has a deep passion for the subject. I think, unfortunately, that the rise and fall of Chess Records is just too big to be captured in a 2 hour film. Still, her enthusiasm carries forth very well and makes the audio commentary worth listening to.
Also presented under the special features are two featurettes that shouldn’t have been split apart. All total there is about 45 minutes of the making of the film from interviews with the cast to how each time period was recreated and more. It’s a decent enough effort with more substance than the usual fluff pieces. A few deleted scenes are also present.
On the Blu-ray is an exclusive “record player” that allows the viewer to take tracks from the film and share them with their own comments. It’s a decent enough effort, but I would have preferred perhaps MP3s downloadable of the real Chess artists or, as I mentioned before, a real documentary about Chess Records.
Despite its historical inaccuracies (the way it all ended, for example) there is enough historical truth in the emotion and overall sequence of events for this to be a fictionalized account of what was one of the greatest record labels before rock and roll went corporate.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Does honor to the record label and its artists + Good special features, especially the audio commentary |
6.9 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Great innacuracies - Too large of scope of a story to be distilled into a single film - Missed opportunity with regards to a real documentary about the record label |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Music fans want to see this, warts and all. | |
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Tags: Cadillac Records
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Mar 24th, 2009 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
