Burning Ring of Fire --

Based primarily on Johnny Cash's autobiography, "Walk the Line" tells the story of John's life as a young adult, and his fascination with music. In Europe, in the service, John picked up a guitar in a pawnshop. When he arrived back home and married a high school sweetheart, he was just learning to play the guitar, just breaking into song writing, just starting the tough road that was touring from place to place to place to endless place. The Tennessee Two, his backup musicians, were mechanics at a local garage. Johnny's not taken seriously with his turn at reverent gospel, but when he rolls out the songs he's written, the combination of gravel voice, earnestness, and lyrical genius about being down and out, prevail.

The film traces Johnny's angst back to his childhood with the death of his beloved older brother, Jack, and the callousness of his father, a sharecropper named Ray Cash (Robert Patrick, who you may recognize for his brief run as Muldaur's replacement in "The X Files" and as
Arnold's nasty nemesis in Terminator II) for whom John was never good enough. Ray's even heard to say, after Jack's death, that "the wrong son died".

From both the musicians' and their families' point of view, life on the road, on tour, is told from an honest perspective...how difficult it is, how easy it is to lapse into drugs and booze when you're in a different town every night. On the road, Johnny's quick to recognize his growing love and obsession with June Carter. June is a veteran of road life, as the daughter of Maybelle Carter, perhaps one of this country's finest female folksingers, and a songwriter in her own right. June had toured and sung with the family Carter since she was a young girl. A comedienne, Carter is portrayed as she has always been viewed....as a good and shining person, someone who could be held up to the light. She's attracted to John, but she's not blind to his faults.

The main theme of the film is the love story between Cash and June....a love story finished out in the ensuing 35 years of marriage. There's amazing chemistry between Johnny and June (Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon) on the screen, during their duets ("Jackson" is amazing!), and while they are spinning in each other's orbit. Witherspoon is like a shiny penny as June, and her optimism and faith, along with her kinship with John (never feeling that she's "good enough")win you over to this portrayal. Hair and costuming lend credence to Witherspoon's appearance as June and her voice and harmony are excellent.

Phoenix, on the other hand, just inhabits this part. Whether in the throes of frustration, as a cool and silent "Man in Black" or the sweaty, uneasy struggle of his recovery from his addiction to uppers, Phoenix, by his look, his voice and his carriage, becomes Johnny Cash.
Phoenix has captured the man out of control...his look of exhaustion and hopelessness, his sense of irony as he wakes up from a binge with his face in the Tennessee mud. He studied films of Johnny and has the strange stance of John holding a guitar...the smirk, the shoulder rolls, down to a science. In particular, the scene where he writes "Folsom Prison Blues" in Europe, and later where he performs at the prison, are memorable.

And that may be what is wrong with this film. It's well made, well paced, director James Mangold approached it with the right amount of storytelling and the right amount of factual background. The music, with T Bone Burnett managing it, is phenomenal. But there's too little in the script that shows how the music drives the lives of the players. June's need to live up to her family as well as Johnny's demons could have been better portrayed by linking the songs they wrote to the events they were living. An attempt is made with June scoring "Ring of Fire"...but what she must have felt, being drawn into Johnny's life, and perhaps getting burned in the process, does not come across in the film. Neither is this signature song, June's song for Johnny, given enough play in the film. There was danger for Carter in her life with John; falling in love with someone as dangerous as John c was not what she was raised for. As a woman already divorced twice, with two small children, she really took a chance. The film's attempt to get this across to the audience was made, but not strongly enough.


In this film the director (James Mangold) lets the entire picture revolve around the characters' performances. There is little symbolism, little depth in the story, just a telling of events. The film is an interesting character study with a look at some famous old musicians (Waylon Jennings, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.) and how their lives were intertwined; but I think it could have been much more.

Like last year's "Ray", "Walk the Line" is a vehicle for major performances, for career-changing roles, for introducing a historical major music talent to this generation. The performances are 5 star, but the script failed in producing a 5 star film. Still, it may be one of the best films of the year.

Time will tell.




Note: published in similar form on Amazon.