MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Cadillac Records Rated R

Directed by Darnell Martin.  Starring Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright

Photo © TriStar Pictures
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

Back in the late 40s and early 50s Leonard (Adrien Brody) and Phil Chess created Chess Records, a Chicago label that included such discoveries as Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry and Etta James. 

While the initial market for these recording was the small but mighty subgenre of race records (for a predominantly black audience), eventually folks all over the world discovered the Chess brand of blues, rock and roll, and rhythm and blues.  By the mid-sixties a younger generation of musicians (including The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin) would build their music on the foundation of the Chicago blues recorded on the Chess label. 

Leonard Chess started a tradition of buying his big stars Cadillac cars as a perk (conveniently paid for out the performer’s own profits) and his entrepreneurialism helped set the stage for crossover music. 

It’s quite a story.  I just wished that Cadillac Records told the story with a bit of originality. 

The star-studded cast includes Jeffrey Wright (Muddy Waters), Beyoncé Knowles (Etta James), Mos Def (Chuck Berry) and Columbus Short (Little Walter), all doing their own singing and having a great time performing the musical numbers.  The script includes about every corny biopic standard – the reminiscent voice-over leading to the flashback story, the discovery of talent in the boondocks, the trips to small towns to visit radio DJs with a box full of 45s, blowups between egos, and an imagined romance between Etta James and Leonard Chess. 

The first half of the film is the best; once Chuck Berry is sent to prison for sex with a minor and Etta James succumbs to heroin addiction, it’s hard to get the good times rolling again.  And, as good as the music is, it cannot improve upon the original recordings.  I appreciate writer-director Martin’s desire to tell this important story.  If young adults are motivated to buy some blues recordings because of Cadillac Records, the best is yet to come.

Pitchfork Rating: Two halos (There’s quite a bit of good music is this musical biopic, but there are also too many clichés.)
Three pitchforks (Pervasive swearing, sexual activity, and drug use; there is also some brutal violence.)

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