 Walk
the Line
Starring:
Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick and a few
fellas sparkin' up some ol' legends...
Directed by: James Mangold
Musical
direction: T Bone Burnett
Bluntly
speaking? Walk the Line is a masterpiece. The film doesn't drone on
over the entire life of "The Man in Black," Johnny Cash, but instead,
takes us back to that time in history when a few musical talents had a bug to
play something different. Cash was there, as was the woman he would come to be
synonymous with, June Carter.
Talents Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, are absolutely amazing as June
and Johnny - impeccably raw and filled with their own electrical stage presence.
Cash wasn't going to be easy for just any old actor to handle, and director James
Mangold went for the heart of the beast, thankfully, instead of the pretty-boy
de Jour. Manlyberry tortamanmuffin Phoenix is going to blow your mind as you watch
him morph into Mr. Cash. And Witherspoon is back to her inner-glow pre-blockbuster
baby mode as the strong-willed pistol personality Ms. Carter. Story
goes…Johnny Cash (Phoenix) is about to play his now-famous Folsom Prison
live concert. It's 1968. He's sweating and fondling the dangerous edge of a table
saw in his "dressing room," as the crowd of inmates, the "audience"
awaiting, is erupting. Wearing
his now signature black on black with black attire, Johnny stops for a moment
to drink in his surroundings and we are all whisked back to the events that brought
this man into the forefront of American musical history. John,
J.R. Cash was born in poverty and had it tough. Though this seems to be some sort
of perquisite for legendary talents-to-be, Cash's story isn't all post crop farm
fanfare glitter and fine buffets. During his early years, Cash some how starts
to write deep poetry - for himself. Cash somehow picks up a guitar and teaches
himself. And, Cash somehow manages to find himself at Sun Records (the pinnacle
of the birth of American Rock and Roll really). At
his big audition, the Hymn song he and his band have prepared doesn't impress
the producer at all. But, Cash somehow remembers a poem, err, song he strummed
about back in the service… Enter
that voice; that deep different desiring near desperate perhaps from a
far away once-descended, but made-it-out, storytelling voice.
Cash is immediately signed, cuts a record, and heads out on a
whirlwind tour of musical historical proportions. This little
"jig-o-talents" that was to cross a few state lines,
included a list of "about-to-bes" that would ultimately
produce the Holy Grail of Rock Show Posters for some squiling
present-day person found featured on the Antique Road Show. It
had a group of names unequalled in R&R Fables; Cash of course,
Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins…and,
along for the ride is the beautiful and famous-since-diapers,
June Carter (Reese Witherspoon)…
June's
a good girl and Cash is a bad boy - it's the grand ol' story,
an opera in the making - 'nough said? But, this is no regular
love story. It's more like the stuff Greek Mythology tries to
convey; deep and dramatic. And in Walk the Line, love plays
out in one of the most realistically - complete with the beastly
bumps - romances we've been privy to in years. Love hurts, love
procreates and real love can lay stirring, taking its time to
be allowed to root. As did theirs. Sniff.
Johnny
Cash had his demons - and in his own way of finding a semi sense of redemption
in his song. Thankfully, the prolific and proud iconic maestro seems to have completed
his life with the demons safely grappled to the ground. The
whole production, from David Bomba's feel-the-sweat production design and, DP
Phedon Papamichael's visceral camera work, to Arianne Phillips' time-capsuling
costume design aside Phoenix and Witherspoon's heartfelt vocals - assisted in
no small part by T Bone Burnett -Walk the Line is positively rivetting
and mesmerizing, yet blunt and truthful,
which may offend some folks, but for those who dig John and June, run, don't walk,
into the theater line an' enjoy yerselves a bit. Snack
recommendation: Schlitz beers and turkey drumsticks.  Discover
Johnny Cash's Music ->
Official
Film Site->
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