Movie Review: Walk the Line

This movie seems kind of blessed, like it was supposed to be made now, like this, by these people. It works pretty well on a lot of levels.

One thing from this film, I realize how relatively little sense I've really had these years of Johnny Cash as a person. This might be me, but I think it's more Johnny. Elvis and Jerry Lee and John Lennon and Hank Williams- most serious fans have a pretty fair knowledge of their personal stories and emotional dynamics.

Johnny Cash, on the other hand, seems more like a cipher, like an abstract icon. He's like one of the presidents carved onto Mount Rushmore- more of a symbol of something or other rather than like an actual fleshly human being.

Joaquin Phoenix did an outstanding job of making the icon into a real human being. I'm not sure how much was the script vs master thespianism, but I'd probably say it was a little more the latter.

The cool thing there is that Phoenix didn't start out the movie as Johnny Cash. That's good because that kid from Arkansas didn't start out being Johnny Cash, either. Phoenix and the screenwriters did a good job of showing how one becomes Johnny Cash. They made a particularly good bit that way with his audition performance of "Folsom Prison Blues." He was distinctly more Johnny Cash at the end of that performance than at the beginning.

Reese Witherspoon as June Carter is just to die for. Again, it's pretty well written, but Ms. Witherspoon knows her business. She really sells the character and her issues and conflicts- but without overselling. She openly expresses her insecurity about her singing and musical talent- ONCE and fairly matter of factly. By the way, if you're interested in that insecure comedienne aspect of June Carter, you should definitely check out her Live Recordings from the Louisiana Hayride CD.

Roger Ebert says that seeing the movie without knowing, he had thought that Joaquin had been lip syncing the singing to vintage Johnny Cash recordings. He was surprised to see in the closing credits that Phoenix and Witherspoon in fact did all their own singing in the movie.

Article Author: Al Barger

Unreformed hawkish Hoosier hillbilly Al Barger runs the still squeezin' down the psychodelic Kentucky moonshine at More Things. What with the paranoid religious visions, the Pentecostal music, visions of God and anarchy running amok and such, somebody …

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