Ray

Resource Information

The work Ray represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Dallas Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Moving Image, Visual Materials.

The Resource Ray

Statement of responsibility: Universal Pictures and Bristol Bay Productions present ; an Anvil Films production ; in association with Baldwin Entertainment ; a Taylor Hackford film ; producers Taylor Hackford, Stuart Benjamin, Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin ; story by Taylor Hackford and James L. White ; screenplay by James L. White ; directed by Taylor Hackford

Language

Summary: Flashing back intermittently to dream-like scenes from his hardscrabble rural childhood, "Ray" chronicles Ray Charles' remarkable rise from sideman and Chitlin Circuit fixture to innovator, icon, and international superstar. Yet even as Charles ascends to the heights of the musical and cultural elite, he remains hobbled by heroin addiction and compulsive womanizing, a prisoner to his own insatiable needs. Through it all, Ray Charles possessed a rock-solid confidence in his music, a statement of faith in the inclusiveness of American culture. Ray Charles made a place for himself in the America of the '40s and '50s, and promptly transcended the barriers that defined what that place was. He incorporated and encompassed R & B, soul, rock and roll, blues, jazz, country, pop, gospel--all American music--giving us the lush sounds he had always heard in his head, unifying America's disparate musical bits into a cohesive whole

Credits note: Director of photography, Pawel Edelman ; production designer, Stephen Altman ; edited by Paul Hirsch ; original and new recordings by Ray Charles ; score composed by Craig Armstrong ; costume designer, Sharen Davis

Intended audience: MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for depiction of drug addiction, sexuality and some thematic elements

Language note: In English or dubbed French with optional subtitles in Spanish or French; closed-captioned

PerformerNote: Jamie Foxx (Ray Charles), Kerry Washington (Della Bea Robinson), Clifton Powell (Jeff Brown), Aunjanue Ellis (Mary Ann Fisher), Harry Lennix (Joe Adams), Terrence Dashon Howard (Gossie McGee), Larenz Tate (Quincy Jones), Bokeem Woodbine (Fathead Newman), Sharon Warren (Aretha Robinson), Curtis Armstrong (Ahmet Ertegun), Richard Schiff (Jerry Wexler), Wendell Pierce (Wilbur Brassfield), Chris Thomas King (Lowell Fulson), David Krumholtz (Milt Shaw), Kurt Fuller (Sam Clark), Warwick Davis (Oberon), Patrick Bauchau (Dr. Hacker), Robert Wisdom (Jack Lauderdale), Denise Dowse (Marlene), Regina King (Margie Hendricks)

Context

Context of Ray