MILES AHEAD
US, 2015, 100 minutes, Colour.
Don Cheadle, Ewan Mc Gregor, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Michael Stuhlbarg, Keith Stanfield.
Directed by Don Cheadle.
Those who love jazz and have a great admiration for the master musicians of the 20th century will have a great esteem for trumpeter, Miles Davis. This is a portrait of Davis.
The film was co-written, directed and performed by celebrated actor of film and television, Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, House of Lies). He certainly has invested a great deal of energy in this film.
However, the film is something of a mixed blessing. Audiences will emerge from the film admiring Davis and his capacity for playing but with rather a negative response to him as a person and his personality.
The screenplay is quite a mixture. it opens in the late 1970s, the end of a period where Davis had absented himself from performance and from recording, for about five years. Everybody was hoping that he was planning a comeback. To look at him, rather gaunt and ravaged, Afro hair, a man who is dependent on drugs, this introduction to him is not promising. Then a writer turns up at his door, a Scotsman (Ewan Mc Gregor) who claims he is writing for Rolling Stone and wants an exclusive. He inveigles himself into Davis’s house and then into his confidence. This character , Dave, is a fictitious character, the contrivance for the portrait.
He and Davis go to see the bosses at Columbia records but Davis has tantrums, wants money, badmouths the executors and, on the way back to his apartment, is taken by Dave to a drug dealer to get cocaine which they indulge in while a group of people are partying upstairs. Dave intends to steal the demonstration tape the Davis had made but another go-getter takes it.
While the sequences are happening in the present, there are many, many flashbacks inserted into the film. Davis goes back into his past, his career, his playing, his successful records, working in clubs – though harassed by police on the beat and thrown into prison. He remembers Francis, first seeing her, giving her his phone number, going to see her as a dancer in rehearsal, proposing, wanting her to give up her career, a long marriage sequence, his growing obsessions and suspicions, her escaping.
There are also drug memories.
So, Davis comes across as a fairly unpleasant person in himself, in his dealings with his wife, in his clashes with others. But, at the same time, his skill with performance, with annotating musical scores, his records indicate his great talent.
The builder before his comeback has Davis and Dave tracking down the young trumpeter, admiring him, getting him to lead them to the man who has stolen the demonstration tape.
The final credits have a very long list of Davis compositions excerpts of which are played throughout the film, from Davis’s own recordings. During the final credits there is a rather long jazz jamming session with Davis and other musicians including Herbie Hancock.
This is the kind of story which raises issues of how someone who is rather unpleasant, even obnoxious, can be gifted with such a great talent.
1. Audience knowledge of Miles Davis, interest in him? Music, his life, his character? The film providing scenes for all these aspects?
2. The work of Don Cheadle, his input, performance, direction, compositions?
3. Miles Davis’ music, played throughout the film, the selection, the final credits and the performance?
4. The screenplay, the late 1970s, his five years absence from performance and recording, his appearance, the afro, ravaged face, the drugs, contracts, his arrogance?
5. David, the Scot, writer, his wanting an interview, the lies about Rolling Stone? Getting into the house, Miles outside? David letting him in, the confrontation, the gun? Going to
Columbia Records? David driving, the meeting with the executives, the gun, their self defence, Miles and his reaction, tantrums, wanting money, the issue of the tape? The meeting with Harper and Junior?
6. Returning back, stopping to buy the drugs, the dealer and his girlfriend, young, his stash, the price, Miles and his money? The gun? Autographing the record covers? Taking the one with Francis? Arriving home, the party, the drugs, the booze? With David? David intending to steal the record? Harper and his taking it? Miles’ reaction?
7. The suggestions of the past, the flashbacks, the way they were edited in, touches of memory? Francis, the jacket, Miles imagining her presence, seeing her at her house, the phone number on the $20 bill, going to see her dance, charmed, their time together, her career and tour, his asking her to give it up, her shock, giving it up, marriage, the detail of the wedding sequence? Her going to the jail when he was arrested? His becoming obsessive, violent, suspicions of a man in the house? Francis playing up to him but escaping?
8. Miles’ career, reputation, the 50s to the 70s, playing, the clubs, the recordings? The harassment by the police, in jail?
9. Drugs, the memories, his dependence?
10. His music, performance, composing, the music to Francis dancing? Discussions with the conductor, performance?
11. The pursuit of Harper, going to the club, listening to Junior play, getting him to help, his wife and baby, giving away the tape?
12. The background of the boxing, Davis and his interest in fights, David and his sparring? Going to the fight, surreal? The boxes, Miles playing, the disturbance, the crowds? The car pursuit of the danger, the gunshots?
13. His comeback, the performance during the final credits?
14. How satisfying a film on Miles Davis, his music, career, Davis is a person?
