Ray (2004) - 18 mistakes

Continuity: At the beginning, Ray holds out a ticket for the bus driver to see. In the next shot, from behind, both Ray's hands are at his side. When the shot changes back to the front, his right hand is extended again holding the ticket.

Factual error: When Ray and several others are riding in an automobile they pass underneath a railroad bridge. Passing over them on the bridge is a modern day container type train, a train of the era that the film portrays would be made up mainly of boxcars, tank cars, etc. not shipping containers.

Character mistake: When Ahmet is describing his idea for the song "The Mess Around" to Ray, he tells Ray the song is in G (major). However, Ray immediately plays the song in E flat major.

Continuity: When Ray and the doctor are discussing psychotherapy, there is a patient and hospital attendees milling about behind Ray near the sofa. There is a close up of the doctor, then Ray, and a few seconds later the patient and attendees are gone (the patient is moving waaay too slowly to make such a quick exit).

Visible crew/equipment: When Ray is in his new recording room, there's a shot of a white man near a TV, and the reflection of the camera is visible on the TV.

Factual error: There is a scene with his baby, Ray Jr. has a butterfly shaped pacifier in his mouth. They didn't have butterfly pacifiers then - just plain old pacifiers were available.

Other: In one scene, Ray is frying chicken. He proceeds to flour a couple of pieces and drop them in the pan containing hot grease. There is a piece already in the pan that is done, so Ray holds out the pan to his friend to take the piece of chicken. His friend reaches into the pan, removes the piece of chicken and immediately bites into it. Fried chicken that has just been removed from hot grease cannot be immediately eaten. It has to be removed and allowed to cool for a few minutes. The friend would have burned his fingers as soon as he reached into the pan and then would have burned his mouth as soon as he bit into the chicken.

Factual error: When Ray arrives at the concert hall in Georgia, his tour bus is escorted by two police officers riding motorcycles. If you look closely, you will see that the motorcycles are actually Harley Davidson bikes produced between the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Factual error: In the scene when Ray tells Ray, Jr. that he will buy new uniforms for his son's baseball team, the house across the street at the far left has a mini-satellite dish on the roof. Mini-satellite dishes for personal home use were not available in 1965.

Factual error: In the scene that starts with 1954, after Ray is married it shows him ready to shoot up in his bedroom. On the nightstand is a green telephone with a clear plastic dial. In 1954 you could get any color phone you wanted as long as it was black with a black metal dial.

Continuity: During the opening scene, Ray is playing "I Got A Woman" on the piano. However, the filmmakers don't sync up the film of Ray's hands with the right part of the soundtrack, which results in Ray moving his hands to play in the upper register, but the notes sounding the same.

Factual error: In the scene where Ray and his band play "I Got Me a Woman" for Ahmet, the trumpeters are lifting their fingers off the valves between notes that are the same fingering. Out of efficiency, there's no reason to do that.

Continuity: When Ray's mother is about to put Ray on the bus to the St. Augustine blind school she hangs a sign on his chest with his name. As they discuss the need for an education the shots cut from behind Ray to in front of him to behind him. Look at his shirt on his back right shoulder. The collar is tucked under his suspender when viewed from behind the first time then is is not the next time they show him from behind. Ray did not move to make this happen, it just happened from one take to the next.

Visible crew/equipment: After Ray's been given the first offer to make an album, he starts to discuss with Oberon. On one of Ray's two lenses a white screen used for lighting is reflected, on the other Oberon's stand in (who looks nothing like him) is seen.

Continuity: When Ray is improvising his performance in a bar, because he has 20 minutes to go, the shot shows the POV from the crowd to where Ray is singing and playing on stage. Two musicians next to him are talking and laughing with each other, yet, in the next shot, they suddenly have their mouths to their instruments and are playing along.

Factual error: In the opening scene where Foxx is playing "What I Say" on the piano, there is a close-up of his fingers and the notes he is fingering are wrong.

Factual error: When Ray is being interviewed at KCOH the "on the air" sign is illuminated. When the microphone is turned off, the sign stays illuminated. The "on the air" sign means that the microphone is on, not that the station itself is on the air.

Continuity: When Ray's talking to Quincy Jones in his bedroom, before his first time on tour, Quincy puts his trumpet case down twice. On either side of the change in camera angle.