A look at how movie fiction holds up to reality

"Ray," the new biopic about Ray Charles directed by Taylor Hackford, tells several large truths and many little lies.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Filmmakers routinely take liberties with the truth to streamline the story, emphasize character traits, mythologize their subjects or get at larger truths.

"Lust For Life," one of the most popular biopics of all time, tells the story of an artist with a vision the world cannot yet comprehend, but it's not exactly an accurate biography of Vincent Van Gogh.

Real life doesn't fit into Aristotle's classic prescription for a story — a beginning, middle and end — not to mention tragedy's reversal, discovery and calamity.

Which is not to say that there aren't many hip, accurate details in "Ray." When Quincy Jones, Ray's Seattle pal, comes to Ray's apartment, for example, Ray is cooking chicken in the dark. Ray loved to cook and, being blind, naturally never turned on the lights. In addition, Quincy, who is practicing trumpet in the scene, is playing the notes of a chord Charles was actually teaching him at that time.

But while "Ray" nails the soul of Ray Charles, it messes with a lot of other facts. In the spirit of providing information to the curious, and in no way meaning to put down the film, here is a list of places where Hackford plays fast and loose with the truth, and some speculation as to why.

What the movie says : Charles was haunted by the death of his brother, who died in a drowning accident as Charles watched. He feared that God punished him soon afterward with blindness.

What's true : Charles did watch his brother die in a drowning accident. But Charles never connected the incident to his blindness. Hackford invented that part, but says Charles approved it for the movie. It makes for an epic tale. Is it true? Anybody's guess.

What the movie says : Charles convinced a Greyhound bus driver who was reluctant to drive a blind 17-year-old from Tampa, Fla., to Seattle to change his mind by saying he had been wounded in Normandy.

What's true : Hackford made up this story. But as a blind man, Charles had to learn to think on his feet and he was not above stretching the truth. By making up this story, Hackford establishes character and gets the audience on Charles' side.

What the movie says: Charles lived in Seattle with a woman who exploited him as his manager and forced him to provide sexual favors.

What's true : Charles lived in a Seattle apartment owned by Georgia Kemp, who did not exploit or manage him. He later lived with his girlfriend, Louise, who came out from Florida. Hackford says he portrayed Charles as victimized in this way to better dramatize his decision to break out on his own and become independent.

What the movie says : Garcia McKee — aka Gossady, or Gossie — Charles' musical partner from Florida, skimmed money off the top of their checks and kicked back money to Charles' manager.

What's true : As the leader of their group, Garcia probably was paid more than Charles because union contracts — both musicians belonged to Local 493, Seattle's then-segregated, nonwhite local — favored the leader. But McKee did not steal from Charles. According to Hackford, Charles did resent it when McKee listed himself as leader on their first record contract, though, since the label was most interested in Ray, not the trio.

What the movie says : Charles and McKee got their first gig by auditioning at the Rocking Chair when the house band didn't show up.

What's true : McKee came ahead of Ray to Seattle, where he met a pianist named Melody Jones whose uncle promised him a gig with Charles at the Black Elks Club, on Jackson Street, in the International District. Later, the duo added bassist Milt Garred when they got work at the Rocking Chair.

What the movie says : The Rocking Chair was a brick juke joint on a main drag in Seattle and had a dwarf emcee named Oberon.

What's true : The Rocking Chair, in a wooden building on 14th Street near Yesler Way, was the fanciest after-hours club in Seattle, where people dressed to the nines and bellied up to a bar made of glass blocks. It did not have a dwarf emcee, but Hackford borrowed this realistic detail from a famous jazz club back east. All of these changes make the Rocking Chair very groovy.

What the movie says: Charles became addicted to drugs on the road with Lowell Fulson because he was lonely, wanted to be "part of the gang" and, indirectly, because of guilt over his brother's death.

What's true : Charles became addicted to heroin in Seattle. (Interestingly, Hackford says that Jones told him Ray got into heroin in Los Angeles, but an eyewitness here says otherwise.) Loneliness and peer pressure may well have played a role. Many jazz musicians, most famously Charlie Parker, were heroin addicts at this time. But guilt? Charles himself said repeatedly he got high because he enjoyed it.

What the movie says : Backstage at the Newport Jazz Festival, Jones tried to convince Charles to stop playing segregated dances in the south.

What's true : Not this. But it makes for a hip little scene.

What the movie says : "Hit the Road Jack" was first performed as a spontaneous expression of feeling in a Harlem hotel, as Charles and his mistress were splitting up.

What's true : Charles commissioned Percy Mayfield to write "Hit the Road Jack." This is the only scene in the film that follows the musical comedy convention in which otherwise sane people suddenly burst into song. It really doesn't fit.

Paul de Barros: 206-464-3247 or pdebarros@seattletimes.com