Ray I finally got round to watching this biopic about Ray Charles made mot long after his death in 2004. The first thing that strikes you is how little changed his childhood environment in the 1930s 40s was to life for the negroes or blacks back on the plantations of the 19th century. And even when he started playing professionally in the late 40s, this was still segregated America where blacks had their own separate clubs & sat at the back of the bus. There was even a sign half way down the bus "Coloured" and boy you didn't disobey The Man. The actor who played Ray was brilliant with his mannerisms and whole appearance and of course the music - his own brand of rhythm & blues, gospel & jazz - was great. The movie showed us just what a problem drugs, especially heroin was for not just black musicians in the span of his life and how it just destroyed them. Perhaps the greatest of America's black musicians of the period, Charlie Parker , died at a very young age because of heroin. I enjoyed this movie hugely and the actor Jamie Foxx was just brilliant
