Born to be Blue Movie Trailer

[T.D.]

I may go this upcoming weekend. To my surprise, it's showing at the (semi-) local cinema.

[Balladeer]

Please let us then know if you share gmonahans positive impression!

 

[T.D.]

I saw it today, and basically concur with gregmo. Disclaimer: I'm not a huge Chet fan and haven't heard overly much of his music, so can't speak to specific issues of musical representation. The addiction issue is treated pretty well and realistically IMO.

[BillF]

Saw it today. Acceptable as a movie - nothing great. Re fact/fiction, I'd call it a free improvisation on aspects of Baker's life, with plenty of additional material. I would have preferred Chet's music to have been grafted onto the images, rather than imitated by present-day musicians, though I was impressed to see drum veteran Terry Clarke's name on the credits for this Canadian-produced movie.

[sidewinder]

Sounds like I will give it a miss then..

[Kevin Bresnahan]

With this title, it should be a Grant Green movie.

[Dmitry]

Watched it yesterday. In short - a turd.

Longer version - Chet was a junkie, and liked it. Miles envied him. Dizzy wore a beret. Chet lived in a van by the river. He got his teeth knocked out, but got his groove back. Then he went to Europe and never came back. The end.

[gmonahan]

4 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Watched it yesterday. In short - a turd.

Longer version - Chet was a junkie, and liked it. Miles envied him. Dizzy wore a beret. Chet lived in a van by the river. He got his teeth knocked out, but got his groove back. Then he went to Europe and never came back. The end.

Except for the Miles envied him part, that's not a bad summary of Baker's life. Well, one might also say he played fairly good trumpet.

 

 

gregmo

[jlhoots]

5 hours ago, Dmitry said:

Watched it yesterday. In short - a turd.

Longer version - Chet was a junkie, and liked it. Miles envied him. Dizzy wore a beret. Chet lived in a van by the river. He got his teeth knocked out, but got his groove back. Then he went to Europe and never came back. The end.

As Cedric The Entertainer once said "it ain't that bad".

[JSngry]

Watched this on Netflix this morning...pretty mediocre as a story, and no that does not sound like Chet Baker, either playing or singing, but I did enjoy seeing "Dick Bock" in action. I think Richard/Dick Bock would make a good documentary subject, actually. From Gerry Mulligan to Ravi Shankar to Bud Shank Pop hits to Buddy Rich/Gerald Wilson and on and on. Did not enjoy seeing "Dizzy Gillespie" in a beret. Overall...why do they make movies like this? Why do people watch them? I watched it to have something to drink morning coffee to on this Sunday morning. Now that that's all done...

[Holy Ghost]

Yeah, Ethan Hawke is cute and all, but this movie (like Miles') has too many issues. One, did Chet have a black girlfriend? Not that I care, but facts are facts. Two, the story actually if they followed Chet's real story, would've been far more interesting, like Art's or Gerry's, come on now!

[Ted O'Reilly]

The trumpet work is ALL done by Kevin Turcotte.  He was tasked with playing a la Chet Baker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie.  All the music was pre-recorded, of course, so to help distinguish the players Turcotte used a harmon mute for Miles' solo.  I guess nobody noticed that, so on-screen Miles is on an open horn.  It was finally recognized in the editing process, so a year later, Turcotte had to go back in and re-recreate Miles, this time without a mute.

For the record, the music was done by pianist David Braid, with Turcotte as the horns, Steve Wallace on bass, and as noted earlier, Terry Clarke on drums.

...and Ethan Hawke did the Chet singing himself.

Edited March 26, 2018 by Ted O'Reilly
add vocal info

[gmonahan]

Well, to answer Jim's query ("why do they make movies like this?"), the tragic/romantic jazz player has been a Hollywood trope for a while, going back at least to Kirk Douglas and "Young Man with a Horn."  I'm not a trumpet player, but I think I read that Hawke did work on getting the fingering right. As for his singing, since I was never a fan of Baker's singing, Hawke sounded about as good to me! I thought this one was better--not *much* better--than the Miles movie. Hey, at least it didn't have a stupid/goofy chase scene!

And a documentary on Bock might be interesting.

 

gregmo

[Holy Ghost]

See all this as pertinent points why I have issues: movie + Jim Morrison/Hendrix catastrophe speak/watching, makes for interesting viewing. I don't think its fair, cuz Chet's life was tough enough to read about, let alone watch, and I'm in the camp that Chet was truly an original genius and painful to read/see/watch how he died (not to unlike Parker) so the movie didn't strike me as genuine, nor Mile's (another discussion obviously not here to be discussed) but yeah, in a way, its cool Chet is even discussed, portrayed on film even, but it doesn't do him any service how great he really was/is.

[JSngry]

I think there's great fiction to be had out of Gerry Mulligan making his way west hitchhiking across america with Gail Madden on maracas as needed. At this point, maybe an anime or something.

[Ted O'Reilly]

On ‎26‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 4:55 PM, gmonahan said:

........  I'm not a trumpet player, but I think I read that Hawke did work on getting the fingering right......

gregmo

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/born-be-blue-u-t-music-experts-who-helped-ethan-hawke-play-chet-baker

The young trumpeter, Ben Promane is the son of Terry Promane, a fine trombonist/arranger/composer who also teaches at UofT...

 

[Teasing the Korean]

I watched this against my better judgment.  

Ehtan Hawke was just not convincing as Chet, reflecting neither Chet's cowboy resolve nor his somewhat effeminate quality.

And the narrative framed everything according to those tired biopic cliches.

On the plus side, I liked Richard Bock's moderne house.  I wish there was more of it in the film. 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2018 by Teasing the Korean

[david weiss]

This was a tough one for me to sit through....

Not much there really and the trumpet playing...well...

I didn't like the voice Hawke created for Chet. Way off base....

And the rest.... not much there....