Walk the Line shows why Cash wore black

Walk the Line stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon in Oscar-nominated performances as they play the real life Johnny and June Carter Cash. This film details Cash’s childhood and early days in the music industry. It also deals with some of Cash’s substance abuse problems and the blossoming romance between him and June Carter. The film does not cover all of Cash’s life, which may disappoint some people. Even so, this is a great movie. I fear that it may get snubbed at the Oscars just because Jamie Foxx’s Ray won so many last year and the Academy may not want to repeat themselves with awarding another biographical film about a musician.

The movie opens back in the 1930’s with young Johnny and his brother living in a shack on a farm. Their father (Robert Patrick of Terminator 2) obviously favors Johnny’s older brother than they are struggling to make ends meet. When Johnny’s brother is tragically killed in a sawmill accident, the father wishes it had been Johnny and tells him so. This would create a lifelong hardship between the two men. After that incident, the movie jumps to Johnny’s teenage years where he enlists in the Air Force and leaves home. His stint in the Air Force didn’t last too long, but before long he was married and trying to find a job in Memphis. He still had dreams of becoming a musician, much to his first wife’s dismay. This film doesn’t portray Johnny’s first wife too kindly.

One day Cash happens on a small studio and works out a deal with the owner, the legendary Sam Phillips, to record a song. This leads to them cutting their first single and eventually going on tour with the likes of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. If you didn’t know, these guys all got started about the same time, even though they played different music. June Carter (Witherspoon) was also on the tour, and over the years a romance slowly developed as Cash’s wife grew more distant and disapproving of Johnny’s touring and jealous of his female fans. This movie takes you through Cash’s troubled times as he finds his place in the world and ultimately straightens himself out to become the huge star that he was. This film will show you why Cash always wore black.

Phoenix and Witherspoon are perfect in their performances and they should also be commended for singing their own songs. Phoenix’s voice isn’t quite as deep as Cash’s, but he still hits the notes and sounds great. I’m not too familiar with Carter’s real voice, but Witherspoon still sang very well. Their charisma together is what drove their performances home. The supporting cast all did very well in this film, but there are just too many to name. In short, this was had a very good cast and they all did wonderful jobs.

Although this movie runs over two hours long, it never felt like it, thanks to James Mangold’s tight pacing and direction. There was one really interesting thing included in the film that I don’t think many people picked up on, and that was the use of the legendary ‘black dog’ to forebode the death of Johnny’s brother. From what I’ve read in the past, the sight of a black dog is sort of like having a black cat run across your path. This superstition seems to be most prevalent in the UK.

There is a lot of music and singing in the first half, then the story about Cash’s drug and relationship problems took over. In real life, during that time he wasn’t playing much music, anyway. The soundtrack and music are excellent, thanks to music producer T-Bone Burnett, who also worked on O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Cold Mountain.

Walk the Line is a great movie with a wonderful cast and lots of great music. Even if you have never listened to Johnny Cash before, I think you might walk away from this film with an interest in his music. I really hope to see this film win some Oscars, especially since it is one of the few contenders that doesn’t have some kind of agenda. The DVD comes out within the next couple of weeks, but you can still catch this one in the theaters if you so desire.