Walk the Line

I'm dragging today because I stayed up late watching the Johnny Cash bio pic, Walk the Line. I have one Johnny Cash CD in my collection, American IV, and I have Rosanne Cash's Black Cadillac, a musical expresson of the grieving process, written and recorded after her father's death.

I've always loved Johnny Cash's voice, which is bitter, dark, and comforting, like a cup of black coffee. The movie explores his youth, his early years as a musician, his success, his drug use and his on-again-off-again courtship of the woman who would be his wife for more than 35 years, June Carter.

Joaquin Phoenix's intensity and brooding persona is pitch perfect for this role of a man who fell into the abyss and wrestled with demons more than once in his life and emerged chastened and faithful to the God and the woman who stood by him. Reese Witherspoon is ideal as a woman trying to emerge from the shadow of her famous singing family (The Carters) and find her own voice. Unlucky in love and mindful of the Christian values she was raised to embrace, she struggles with her attraction to Cash and her romantic history.

This film was well done, well acted, and the music and vocals, provided by the actors themselves, was remarkable. The movie re-creates an exciting era in music. Who knew that Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis toured with Johnny Cash early on?

The movie's downfall is that it essentially tells the same story we saw in Ray: poor Southern boy loses a sibling as a child, feels responsible, wrestles with depression, becomes famous, falls into heavy drug use, and recovers to launch a comeback and continue with a remarkably long and varied career.

This film of redemption, healing,  second chances, and creating music fueled by heartache is worth seeing, it's just not fresh or memorable.

November 1, 2006

Copyright 2006 Veronica McCabe Deschambault. All rights reserved. www.v-grrrl.com

Comments

[amber]

But I loved it, anyway. I adore both Pheonix and Witherspoon. And it didn't bug me that so much was in common with Ray. I guess that is just the tuth of how so many talented people come about! Besides, I thought it was much more of a love story, than Ray was, didn't you?

:)

[Lynn]

I also thought this was a great movie - I loved the music!! The actors did a wonderful job! I also loved Ray - even though the stories were similar, I really liked both of them! I'm glad other people liked them!

Lynn

[Mary]

I just signed up for Netflix and Walk the Line is one of the movies I put in my queue. I, too, love Johnny Cash. I just bought his posthumously release CD and it is sooo good. His voice isn't what it used to be, but that somehow adds to the melancholy of many of the songs.

My first Netflix movie that came was Harlan County, USA about a coal miner's strike in the 1973. It is so incredible. I would recommend that to anyone.

By the way, your reviews are so professional sounding. You could fill in for Roger Ebert!

[Elisabeth]

I did like "Walk the Line" very much too and, like you, I love Johnny Cash's voice. I wrote a review of that movie on my blog back on May 2nd. Interestingly, you reviewed "Capote" only a couple of days ago. I think I watched both "Walk the Line" and "Capote" within days of each other, and found both films excellent.

[Shirley]

I really wasn't a big Johnny Cash fan before I watched the movie. Yet, I actually liked his "Hurt" song and video very much. I thought it was very powerful. I could actually feel his pain. (Interestingly enough,I think it was recorded before his wife died. I don't know if she was ill at the time.) Then I saw the movie on the big screen with a friend. I thought it was really well done. Both Joaquin and Reese were fantastic, especially doing their own singing--wow! If you hadn't seen the Ray movie, what would you have thought? I have to agree with Amber that elements of this story are often common for those in the entertainment business, and it is what it is ... it's Johnny Cash's story, regardless of the fact it's so very similar to Ray Charles' story. I think the timing of the two movies was not great because of the similarities, but who knows when work actually started on each. Some movies can take years to make it to the big screen. I agree with everyone else that you are a great reviewer!! You really might want to check with your local paper or perhaps an expat publication there to see if you couldn't turn it into a sideline.

[Ortizzle]

I never got around to seeing that one when it came out, but now you've given me something to grab up the next time I go to Blockbuster. :-)

[Dan]

Yeah, it was a good movie. We enjoyed his singing. He really got into the role.