Ray and The Motorcycle Diaries and Kramer vs. Kramer

Ray
What a wonderful, warm little movie. I was a little uneasy about this from the get-go, considering Taylor Hackford was the director (the biggest things to his credit are An Officer and a Gentleman and The Devil's Advocate... not exactly perfect cinema), but I really wanted to like this, and Hackford brought some strong direction to the project. The movie just picks up momentum and never stops. The direction is particularly strong in the music sequences, especially the ones featuring Charles in the recording studio; they crackle with a fun intensity as if the song was really being recorded for the first time before our eyes. Oh, and not to mention, Jamie Foxx is Ray Charles. Up until this movie, people still thought it may have been Foxx's year, with a possible supporting actor nod for Collateral. Now with the release of this, the actor who could have been the dark horse in the running for a supporting actor nomination is almost certain to be a shoe-in for the leading actor award. He is just simply amazing. He blasts past the level of doing an imitation of the man and truly becomes him. The only big problem the movie has, in my opinion, are the flashback sequences in the script. Not the flashback sequences in which we are filled in on his childhood (in fact, the woman who plays Ray's mother deserves some recognition), but the ones in which Ray basically "hallucinates" in seeing a tragic event from his past. They are horrible. Trite and cliche, they completely took me out of the movie for the moments they appeared on screen. But it's a credit to the performances and the direction that once these were over, I quickly returned back into the narrative.
A couple of things I do want to mention -- For me, some of the most exciting scenes had to do with people "talking" to each other as they were singing. To explain: Ray Charles wrote most of the songs in his career about his wife and/or mistresses. To complicate matters, some of his mistresses happened to be his backup singers. So during times in the recording studio or in concert, Ray Charles would actually be singing to his backup singer, since the lyrics pertained to her, and vice-versa. It's quite compelling to see one of the backup singers, quite in love with Ray, looking at him while screaming/singing "...baby I love you..." and really meaning it. An even better example, although a complete 180 from the previous one, involves his hit song "Hit the road Jack". Ray had written the song about his backup singer/lover Margie Hendricks, who he split with while they were on tour together. So, with her still being a backup singer, they recorded the song together and performed it live. The scene in question shows the two in concert, singing the lyrics, everyone else out of focus except them, and she's screaming these lyrics at him; this great artistic expression of their anger. I just find it interesting that the woman on the recording is the woman the song was about, and these two were musically duking it out when it was recorded/performed.
Another thing I want to mention is a great scene that takes place right after the young Ray, 7 years old, finds out that he's blind. It's a scene that explains that Ray has slowly adapted to his new environment; but what I loved was that it was a very quiet sequence, a sequence that was explained in just visuals...How often nowadays do we get a nice, slow, quiet sequence that knows what it has to do and accomplishes it? The scene is wonderfully directed and has a great sense of rhythmic pace; great editing here. Speaking of editing, in terms of how it feels to view the film, it is one of the quickest 2 1/2 hour films in recent memory. I was truly sorry for it to end. I remember, after it was over, thinking that it could have gone on for another half hour, and it would have been fine. Well, just today, I looked at what was to be included on the DVD and...oh, what's this? A 3-hour director's cut? Thank God. The ending always felt abrupt to me, even more so after seeing it the second time. Hopefully this new footage doesn't disappoint.
The thing that amazed me through and through on this movie was the sound design. If this doesn't get a sound Oscar, it's a true injustice. Basically, the way it works in this movie is, Jamie Foxx actually plays the piano in all of his scenes, although it doesn't really matter to our ears, because the sound that we hear is of Ray Charles playing, which Foxx lip-synchs to. The real kicker is this: although Ray Charles himself got to see a rough-cut of the movie before he died, he didn't get to record any acoustic on-set sound for the scenes in Ray's home, or the hotel, etc. where the scene called for just Ray and his piano to be playing. So what producers did was find old, rare, acoustic versions of the songs in question (most notably "I've got a woman"), mix them with on set sound, and make it seem as it Ray had been playing on set that instant. It's really incredible to hear. And in even more credit to Foxx's performance, for the songs in which this wasn't possible, Foxx himself sang an acoustic version of the song live on set, and it's almost impossible to tell the difference where Charles ends and Foxx starts.
The last thing I want to talk about is of course the cast. There are so many great people and performances here. Aside from Foxx, Kerry Washington and Regina King turn in great performances as his wife and backup singer/mistress, respectively (King particularly has had buzz of a supporting actress nomination). King is almost as good as Foxx in the lip-synching; you really feel like she's belting those words out there. And I already mentioned Sharon Warren, who play's Ray's mother... damn I really hope she gets nominated. Curtis Armstrong (Booger from Revenge of the Nerds) and Richard Schiff have great little character parts as Ray's Atlantic Records producers. I got a kick out of seeing Thomas Jefferson Byrd (he's been in most of Spike Lee's later work), and Larenz Tate (from the 3/4-of-the-film-was-good Dead Presidents) turns up playing a young Qunicy Jones. (Kinda funny...4 of the actors in this film are from Dead Presidents...). And to top that off we have David Krumholtz! I love that guy (and on a side note, I'm excited to see him in the new independent film Max and Grace, where he plays the lead[!] opposite Natasha Lyonne). Wow, I'm getting pretty off-track now. Let's go to the next one.

The Motorcycle Diaries
Wow, was I disappointed by this one... I really wanted to like this. I've always liked Gael García Bernal, ever since Y tu mamá también, and from what I'd heard the film has been quite inspiring to people on the festival circuit. But it's never compelling enough to engage. Whatever you may actually think of Che, the point of the film was to show how this extraordinary journey influenced their lives. The problem of the film is its lack of making you feel the gravity of the situations at hand. This should feel momentous. It just ends up feeling like any other road movie.

Kramer vs. Kramer
Oh and I'm watching this now. I forgot how good this was.

Fun facts about the cost of Iraq

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

-Dwight D. Eisenhower
___________________________________________________________________________________

Cost of Iraq war:
$200 billion dollars +
$400 billion military budget that the U.S. Congress appropriated for fiscal year 2004.
=Approx. $600 billion budget for war in Iraq

****A non-profit group called the Borgen Project (http://borgenproject.org) has estimated what it would cost to end certain global problems. They estimate for example:

Top Global Issues and the Annual Amount Needed to Solve the Problem:
Provide Shelter ($21 billion)
Remove Landmines ($4 billion)
Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ($7 billion)
Provide Refugee Relief ($5 billion)
Eliminate Illiteracy ($5 billion)
Provide Clean, Safe Water ($10 billion)
Provide Health Care and AIDS Control ($21 billion)
Stop Deforestation ($7 billion)
Pay off the Debt of Poor Nations ($30 billion)
=$110 billion

$600 billion - $110 billion = $490 billion more spent on killing poor people than the amount it would take to end all of the above.

(Quite alarming, isn't it?)

There was a decorated General with a heart of gold
That likened him to all the stories he told
Of past battles won and lost
And legends of old
A seasoned veteran in his own time.
On the battlefield he gained respectful fame
With many medals of bravery and stripes to his name
He grew a beard as soon as he could
To cover the scars on his face
And always urged his men on

But on the eve of great battle with the infantry in dream
The old general tossed in his sleep
And wrestled with its meaning
He awoke from the night to tell what he had seen
And walked slowly out of his tent.
All the men held tall with their chests in the air
With a courage in their blood
And a fire in their stare
It was a grey morning and they all wondered how they would fare
'Til the old general told them to go home.

He said,
"I have seen the others
And I have discovered
that this fight is not worth fighting
And I've seen their mothers
And I will no other
to follow me where I'm going.
So take a shower and shine your shoes
You've got no time to lose
You are young men you must be living.
Take a shower and shine your shoes
You've got no time to lose
You are young men you must be living.
Go now you are forgiven."

But the men stood fast with their guns on their shoulders
Not knowing what to do with the contradicting orders
The General said he would do his own duty
But he would extend it no further
The men could go as they pleased
But not a man moved
their eyes gazed straight ahead
'Til one by one they stepped back and not a word was said
The old General was left with his own words
Echoing in his head
He then prepared to fight

He said,
"I have seen the others
And I have discovered
that this fight is not worth fighting
No, and I've seen their mothers
And I will no other to follow me where I'm going
So take a shower and shine your shoes
You've got no time to lose
You are young men you must be living.
Take a shower and shine your shoes
You've got no time to lose
You are young men you must be living.
Go now you are forgiven."

I am ashamed to be an American today