Dick Gregory on the Miles Davis movie

[Hardbopjazz]

I didn't see the film, but Dick Gregory makes me not want to see it more.

 

 

 

[paul secor]

I haven't seen the movie and don't plan to. Dick Gregory sure made his opinion of it clear.

[Shawn]

I'm going to watch it.  I have an open mind, I'm a fan of Cheadle and I really don't give a f**k what anyone else thinks about it.  

 

[johnblitweiler]

An 18-year-old youth went to the Village Vanguard every night in about 1967 or so when the quintet with Hancock and Williams was still together. After a few night Miles noticed how intently the young man was listening .and said to him, "Do you play the trumpet?" "Yes." "Come to my house tomorrow, I'll give you a lesson."  So every day for the rest of Miles's month-long engagement the young trumpeter went to Miles's house, Miles sat him down at the piano, and taught him harmony. That formerly young man is now a newspaper editor who sits in now and then on Sundays with Curtis Black's quartet in Chicago. He said Don Cheadle captured Miles Davis perfectly, including small nuances and details. He liked the movie.

The movie bugged me. But I was told that Howard Reich, in print, shared my objections. So I must have been wrong.
 

 

[Larry Kart]

That formerly young man is a nice player too.

[JSngry]

Enjoyed the movie ok, dig Dick Gregory too, have no illusions about either, and have no lasting beef with anybody who has a repertoire of motherfuckers, it's not a one-meaning word, the definition will be in the sound 

[Jazzmoose]

No matter the subject at hand, it had been too long since I heard Dick Gregory.  Thanks!

[paul secor]

I saw him at a show with Professor Irwin Corey and Jerry Stiller a few years ago. He was great that evening - his comedic commentary was on the money. Joe Morton just did an Off-Broadway show on Dick Gregory that got good reviews.

[JSngry]

I caught him at a university lecture in 1974, equal parts topical comedy, dramatic screeds against internal Fascists and their long range plans and the machinations to look for as they pursued them, and nice rambling dietary lessons on how to become a breatharian. I was 18, and it was epic.

I'm 60 now, and better understand the balancing act between deadpan lunatic and totally right on social critic that Gregory performs, and still, it is epic.

 

[Larry Kart]

Saw it last night on DVD. I know the trumpet-playing former newspaper editor John L. speaks of and agree with him that Cheadle captured Miles to a startling degree. Generally liked the movie, even the beefy, dark-glassses villain, was tickled by the presence of an actor playing George Butler, enjoyed the shaggy feel of the "Miles Ahead" recording session. I even kind of liked the whole Ewan McGregor subplot, both as a device and as a way of suggesting some things about Miles' provocative, jousting character.

[medjuck]

Saw the movie when it first came out and barely remember it  or what I thought  but remember that I'm enough of a pedant to be bugged by some of the anachronisms and that it seemed to downplay Gil Evans's role in Miles Ahead. 

[Milestones]

I found the film absurd and horrendous.  I could not agree more with  Dick Gregory.  What the hell audience did they expect to reach?  

I believe this movie cost less than half-a-million to make.  And Don Cheadle needed to put white boy Ewan McGregor in this thing?  Couldn't Cheadle have found a couple of million just from what he earned in the Oceans Eleven movies?

[Larry Kart]

On 12/24/2016 at 0:07 PM, medjuck said:

Saw the movie when it first came out and barely remember it  or what I thought  but remember that I'm enough of a pedant to be bugged by some of the anachronisms and that it seemed to downplay Gil Evans's role in Miles Ahead. 

How did it downplay Gil's role in "Miles Ahead"? It showed him and Miles interacting at the recording session; what more do you want? It's a movie, not a tutorial.

Milestones:

As for the McGregor subplot, even though I used that term, it didn't strike me as a subplot that much but as a way of dramatizing Miles' arm-wrestling but often very close relationship to specific white people whom he chose to/felt like wrestling with because he found them intermittently annoying or useful to himself (Teo anyone?). Having once been on the receiving end of that aspect of Miles myself, I can assure you that the fact and the tone of Cheadle's jousting with McGregor was not all that inaccurate. Now if they'd painted McGregor's character as some sort of hero/saint that would have been a problem, but in fact he's just the sort of semi-weasel he probably would have been if he had had a real-life model. That he eventually whacks the crap out of the promoter who engineered the theft of Miles' tape might be thought of as a bit cheesy, but I found that satisfying -- in the sense that guilt over his own attempted theft of the tape has more or less energized him into semi-manhood, or at least released his own simmering generalized sense of rage over having previously been something of a patsy in life. What does this have to do with Miles? IIRC, in that scene Cheadle briefly takes in what McGregor's character has done to the evil promoter and at once (through facial expression) wryly approves of it and (more my speculation, but I still think it might be there) registers the fact that perhaps it's in part contact with Miles that has released in McGregor's character this unexpected but useful to Miles act of violence.

[Scott Dolan]

I'll say this: it certainly seems to be a really polarizing movie. I've either heard that it's a travesty, or a fun watch, with little in between. The trailer didn't excite me, but I'm sure I'll eventually watch it. 

Looks a little too buddy cop-ish, which I'm not a fan of. But, it's about Miles, who I'm a huge fan of. I'll go in with incredibly low expectations. That might help. 

[JSngry]

Dude, I watched Truck Turner over the Christmas weekend. Loved it, as always ("better grow wings, Super Fly!"). This Miles movie is beaucoup more betters than Truck Turner, even down to the score.

Now, I'm not saying that Don Cheadle is a better actor than Isaac Hayes, but I will say that his is a more evolved cinematic talent, which befits a man who is a product of evolved times, which is also what you can say about Miles' music, all of it.

[medjuck]

4 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

How did it downplay Gil's role in "Miles Ahead"? It showed him and Miles interacting at the recording session; what more do you want? It's a movie, not a tutorial.

 

Well as I said I barely remember it, so I could easily be wrong, but IIRC (and I may not) the "interacting" was  Miles talking and Gil listening about how the arrangements should go. 

[Milestones]

Don Cheadle was the right man to play Miles, but this thing was just so silly--and without seeming to have a sense of humor.  I had low expectations, but still found it to really bad.

[JSngry]

When was the last time you watched Truck Turner?

[Scott Dolan]

1 hour ago, Milestones said:

Don Cheadle was the right man to play Miles, but this thing was just so silly--and without seeming to have a sense of humor.  I had low expectations, but still found it to really bad.

I'm thinking I'll end up sharing your sentiment, which is why I didn't rush out to the theater to see it. I really hoped for a proper biography. 

[Larry Kart]

7 hours ago, medjuck said:

Well as I said I barely remember it, so I could easily be wrong, but IIRC (and I may not) the "interacting" was  Miles talking and Gil listening about how the arrangements should go. 

Yes, kind of, but not really. They were working on a chart during rehearsal (maybe "So What?"), Miles had an idea, Gil asked a question about it, codified the suggestion Miles made and wrote it down. One could take that to mean that one was supposed to think that Miles was the chief creator of the arrangements, but I don't think that was what was meant -- rather the goal seemed to be to convey the feel of casual interpersonal interaction in the studio.

[robertoart]

Haven't seen the film. Does Miles play any trumpet on the missing tapes or just keyboards? Who's on the sessions?