Walk the Line (2005)

Originally Reviewed
  Tuesday March 7, 2006

Walk The Line is the Hollywood adaptation of the life of musician Johnny Cash, referred to by many as the Country Western Elvis, known by his fans as The Man in Black. Johnny Cash had a pretty rough childhood not unlike most musicians of this era, he was the son of a cotton farmer played by Robert Patrick (Terminator 2, The X-Files), who gives an exceptional performance by the way. Cash was fascinated by music at a very young age, although his father believed the jazz and blues he listened to, to be hollow and not suitable for making a living. John's older brother was the apple of their father's eye; he was a hard worker and had aspirations of becoming a preacher. When his brother dies in an accident John begins to feel like an outcast, his father turns to drinking and wishing that John had been taken instead.

John goes off to war where he begins to write one of his most famous songs, Folsom Prison Blues, the song which will be the bridge that connects him to fame. Throughout the rest of the film we witness the physical rise and fall of Johnny Cash, as he begins his career in the music business, meeting June Carter, getting addicted to drugs and almost dying from that addiction. In one scene in the film, Cash's father calls Johnny Cash just another "pill popping Rock star", frankly I would have to agree the only difference in his case is he did not die of it.

Walk The Line is a great film, it can be downright depressing at times if not most of the time but it's still a very well made drama. Joaquin Phoenix gives one of the best performances if not the best of his career playing Johnny Cash about as close as anyone could possibly do, all the way down to the singing. Not being a big Johnny Cash fan I actually found Phoenix's rendition of the Cash songs more entertaining, and preferred his voice to that of the late Cash who had a little more raspy tone. I felt Phoenix was an instant winner for the Oscar for this role, but of course he was wrongfully shafted as Russell Crowe was back in 2001 with A Beautiful Mind. On the other hand Phoenix's co-star Reese Witherspoon managed to win herself a first Oscar with her role as singer June Carter. I honestly have never listened to or can recall any songs by June Carter so I can't honestly account to the overall likeness that Witherspoon portrays her in the film, but I have to admit she did do a very good job and from what I have heard was very close in portraying Carter.

What made this film great along with the outstanding acting were the musical performances all done by the actors themselves, if anything I think this is what impressed me most about this film. Having Phoenix and Witherspoon sing these songs in the way Cash and Carter sung them, but also add a noticeable uniqueness made the film so entertaining. The addition of a few familiar faces of the time such as Jerry Lee Louis and Elvis Presley, who were not done near as good, did add some different flavor to the film.

Something I found interesting was Elvis's whole part in the film. First off the guy who played Elvis was horrible, he didn't look like him, and he didn't sound like him. With all the Elvis impersonators around the world you think they could have found someone who actually fit the part. Aside from that, the film seems to suggest that Elvis was the guy passing out the drugs on the tour, I'm not saying this is not true, seeing how Elvis died of drug overdose, I just found it interesting that the film seemed to suggest that Johnny Cash became a drug addict due to the pills Elvis was passing around.

In the end, Walk The Line is a must see film.  The life of Johnny Cash has many similar aspects to that of other performers in times past but it still seems to offer some uniqueness. After watching this film I actually felt glad not being rich and famous because this story really shows the price of fame, not only what it does to one physically and mentally but also the effect it has on the ones you love. While Cash does begin to clean himself up and get his life back together somewhat, the fact of the matter is he would have died long ago had he not had some people who still cared for him stop him from drugging out, too bad some other musicians (most recently Michael Jackson) didn't have people like that to help pull them out of their addiction.

10/10