The Unbearable Banishment: i, cracker

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

i, cracker

I saw Cadillac Records. It's the story of Chess Records. A worthy subject! I was angry that I didn't get to see it in a theater because I thought it would've played better with a superior sound system. But it actually turned out to be a good thing that I saw it at home.

I liked it, but in a bid for authenticity the actors who played Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter—all key roles—affected thick southern sharecropper accents. I am so lilly white, so Ohio, so bloody Caucasian that I couldn't understand a word they were saying! What a bunch of mumbly sons-of-guns! Mrs. Wife turned on the subtitles for me and it was smooth sailing after that. This is all very embarrassing.


I noticed that Beyoncé, who played blues singing-junkie Etta James, was the only one who performed her songs from start to finish. All the other performers had song snippits. In clubs and studio scenes, they never seemed to sing to completion.

Then the credits rolled and I couldn't help noticing that Beyoncé was the Executive Producer.

It's her coin. She can do whatever she wants, I guess.

3 Comments:

Blogger Barlinnie said...

Ahhh the grimace and the pain of not being able to understand an exotic accent.

Luckily we in Glesga do not seem to suffer with such a dialect problem.

Reet?

March 25, 2009 at 4:27 AM  
Blogger Digital Fortress said...

Money buys a lot of things, like people who do the work you take credit for.

March 25, 2009 at 10:56 AM  
Blogger A Free Man said...

Have you ever seen "Snatch"? If you had problems with a Southern accent I'd be curious how you did with Irish tinker.

March 26, 2009 at 10:46 PM  

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