Ray: A Tribute to the Movie, the Music and the Man

Ray Charles has the distinction of being both a national treasure and an international phenomenon. By the early 1960s Ray Charles had accomplished his dream. He'd come of age musically. He'd made it to Carnegie Hall. He had taken virtually every form of popular music and broken through its boundaries with such awe-inspiring achievements as the LPs "Genius Plus Soul Equals Jazz" and "Modern Sounds in Country & Western." Through his efforts, rhythm & blues (or "race music" as it had been called) became universally respectable, jazz found a mainstream audience it had never previously enjoyed, and country & western music began to chart an unexpected course to general acceptance, then worldwide popularity. And along the way Ray Charles was instrumental in the invention of rock & roll. Jamie Foxx (Any Given Sunday, All) is Ray Charles in this high-energy film portrait of an exceptional man who became one of America's most famous icons. Born into abject poverty in the segregated south, Ray lost his sight at the age of 7 under tragic circumstances. Inspired by the love and mental strength of his single, working mother, Charles developed the fierce resolve, wit, and incredible talent that would eventually enable him to overcome not only Jim Crow racism and the cruel prejudices against the blind, but also to discover his own unique musical style, which twice revolutionized American popular music. Nonetheless, as Ray's unprecedented fame grew, so did his weakness for drugs and women, until it threatened to destroy everything he held dear. This stranger-than-fiction tale of an African American's meteoric rise out of poverty and racism, his incredible struggle to compete successfully in a sightedworld, and his ultimate victory over his own personal demons makes for an inspiring and unforgettable true story of human triumph. Unchain My Heart also starts Regina King (Jerry Maguire, Daddy Day Care), Larenz Tate (Menace 2 Society, A Man Apart) and Kerry Washington. In ad