Judging by the trailer, looks like a complete travesty
Just watched the trailer. Well, based on what I've seen there, it looks like they've totally f@@ked the dog on this one. And I was actually quite hopeful we would get a good movie about Miles Davis. Correction: I kind of always suspected they'd f@@k it up, but you always live in hope, right?
First of all, there's just no reason for Miles to be holding a gun at any point in this movie. When I saw the scenes of Miles waving a gun around, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So Miles was some kind of gangster was he? Yes, Miles was a badass and he was known to punch people on occasion and so on. But never at any point in his life was he fascinated with guns or go around acting the fool holding people up or waving guns at them. Just ridiculous.
Second of all, who is this fictional white Rolling Stone reporter portrayed by Ewan McGregor? Now call me Mr. Cynical here, but it's not hard for me to guess why this character has been written into the film. They need to give general (i.e. white) audiences a character to identify with, because a strong, controversial black character who says whatever he feels like (and that was Miles all over) might be a bit scary for them. And then they can do this buddy buddy story arc, where the odd couple develop into fast friends over the course of the movie and overcome their initial differences. Just like they do in all those buddy cop movies and a bunch of other hack biopics. Oh man you can just see it. For people who've already seen the movie: amirite? Do I even need to ask?
Thirdly, a lot of footage here of Miles apparently hustling money out of folks: the record company, promoters and so on. As if he was some sort of conman. Actually, although Miles grew up in tough East St Louis, he came from one of the most well-to-do black families in the area. His background was privileged. So Miles was not some kind of ghetto "hustler" and he never experienced financial hardship during his life. He did adopt some of the mannerisms and speech of black ghetto culture, yes. As part of his persona. One of the interesting things about Miles was how he incorporated aspects of these two worlds (growing up in a then rare position of black privilege, with a strong sense of his own self worth, yet still coming into conflict with racial prejudice and adopting some of the mannerisms and slang of the racy, then "low class" world of underground jazz music). This is all part of who Miles was. Is this how he's portrayed in the movie?
Certainly, Miles had to confront unscrupulous concert promoters back in the day in order to ensure he got paid. Standard issue for jazz musicians back in the fifties, unfortunately. It's unthinkable that he would be required to do so during his comeback, when his concerts were a hot ticket and a mainstream attraction and handled by large scale concert promoters. And he certainly was never reduced to hustling money out of his record company. Miles had no problem obtaining advances from his record label(s) in general. And that's because he was considered a prestige artist and his records sold well. He was a sound bet for a record company. Always.
I just get the impression here that we are being presented with some kind of bizarre, gun toting, hustling, demented gangster version of Miles Davis, which is a total travesty of the great man and his life. I don't even understand the need for this. Anybody who has read Miles' autobiography will tell you that there's enough great material in there to make for several good movies. And Miles was always completely frank and honest about who he was. It's just not a life that needs to be dressed up to make it interesting.
Look, I'm fine with them fictionalising to a certain extent in order to make for a better flowing story and to make things more interesting and dramatic for a general audience. Of course they're gonna do that. But outright fabricating stuff that has nothing to f@@king do with Miles Davis who he was, well that's just making a mockery of the man. I think he deserves better than to be used as fodder for some f@@king hack biopic that is obviously not going to bother taking the subject matter seriously and do him any kind of justice.
On a more positive note, it sounds like Don Cheadle has got the voice right. And some of the mannerisms. He doesn't really look anything like Miles though. I suppose that can be lived with if the performance is good. I'm not even sure I want to bother watching the movie after seeing that trailer though.