This movie covers Johnny Cash's life up until he marries his second wife, June Carter. It abruptly ends there even though there is much to be told. I am ok with that because the movie covers most of his best years musically. As you watch this movie you get a great understanding of the way things went for Johnny. It is not 100% accurate but very close in most aspects. The movie is also a love affair that eventually ends in marriage for Johhnny and June. It is a little hard to not root for them to finally get together in spite of the adultrous beginning. I think that John's first wife Vivian is intentionally shown to be whiny and unsupportive in order to win the audience over and have us favor June. Johnnies negative qualities are not hidden in the movie and I would say the opposite is actually true. We see enough dirt on Johnny to make us question why he was so loved. Well, his music is the reason. He was a man with faith in Christ but he often lived like the devil. He sang songs that sounded great and he had a charismatic personality. I suppose he was endearing in many respects despite his many flaws. The musical numbers are very well done. Both of the lead roles sang all of the songs and both do very well. There is a big focus on the music unlike many other films like this. There are cameos by Elvis, Orbison, Waylong Jennings and Jerry Lee Lewis. Lewis actually has quite a few scenes and he is really good in the movie. Johnnies dad is another highlight as the cynical father who apparently never really liked Johnny very much. His words cut through the screen and burn up the scenes. If you haven't seen this, you should. It will make you a fan of the music if nothing else.Read full review
I have always liked Johnny Cash and his Music, but knew very little of his personal life. This movie helped me to understand what the performers went through in the early days of Rock & Roll and about Johnny Cash's personal struggles to live through this tumultuous period in our Country's history. The love he found with June Carter and how she helped him to conquer his personal demons is a "true" classic love story! Without her, Johnny Cash may have become just a small paragraph in our musical history. Instead, Johnny survived to give us all some of this County's most important musical treasures. His support for the underdog and the awareness he brought to the forefront are gifts from Johnny and June that will endure until the end of time. Some of the most important work came near the end of his natural life. "Hurt" and "When the Man comes around" are two fitting pieces of brilliant work that are classics that I feel most fortunate to have experienced. When the movie became available on Cable, I watched it a half dozen times and then I bought the Collector's Edition for myself. In the behind the scenes DVD that is part of the set, one learns even more about the man and his struggles to get bye. The interviews are enlightening and give a different perspective on the essence of Johnny Cash and some of the truly remarkable things that he did and that happened to him along the way. Johnny Cash was one of the most important singer songwriters of his time and this movie brings that to the audience loud and clear and with a bonus of some of the finest music he created. The choice of Reese Witherspoon (June Carter) and Joachim Phoenix (Cash) to sing the songs themselves was an excellent decision by the director for they depicted the essence of June and Johnny beyond anyone's wildest expectations. This movie is already a cult classic and will soon become one of the great "Classics" of all time to emerge out of Hollywood.Read full review
In WALK THE LINE, Joaquin Phoenix shows that he's come a long way since his role as the crazy Caesar in GLADIATOR. Those going into WALK THE LINE thinking it's a comprehensive film bio of Johnny Cash may perhaps come out slightly disappointed. While there's a relative brief sequence of his early years growing up on an Arkansas cotton farm, an even briefer sequence of his time in the Air Force in the early 50s, the film really begins in 1955 when, failing as a door-to-door salesman and wannabe gospel singer, he cuts a rock 'n' roll record for Sun Studios in Memphis and his career as a CW crooner takes off. The film ends with his marriage to June Carter in 1968. In between, against the backdrop of early hits, it focuses on his failed marriage to first wife Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), his self-destructive abuse of amphetamines, and rocky relationship with singer/actress Carter (Reese Witherspoon), a twice-divorced single mother of two. The real treat of WALK THE LINE is watching Phoenix and Witherspoon amaze with Oscar-caliber dramatic performances. Who would have suspected that the latter was capable of anything other than light comedy? In case you haven't seen the film and you're wondering, Phoenix and Witherspoon themselves sing the Cash/Carter material; they're surprisingly effective. Mind you, I've never been such a Cash fan that I've possessed any of his albums, and I've only previously downloaded one of his songs ("City of New Orleans"). Indeed, when Phoenix and Witherspoon recreate the Cash/Carter duet of "Jackson", my first thought was: Didn't Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood do that? Coming out of the screening, my wife remarked that Phoenix sounded very much like Johnny himself. My response was a non-committal but prudent "Mmmm". Back home at the computer, I downloaded a couple more Cash songs, including his "Jackson" duet with Carter. To my ears, the real Cash had a singing voice that was slightly hoarser, and with a more pronounced slow drawl than Joaquin's version. While that doesn't detract from the actor's performance, it may cause purists to grumble. The film's opening scene is of two guards on a tower at Folsom Prison listening to the bass "thump, thump, thump" washing over the prison yard from the hall in which Cash is about to perform his famous concert before the inmates. My wife and I were sitting in the front row of the studio screening theater and the sound reverberated through our bones. I knew then that WALK THE LINE was going to be an exceptional film.Read full review
Walk the Line is a movie that that has it all...the ups, downs, trials, tribulations, love,hate and fall down, get back up again stories that encompass the life of Johnny Cash. You love him and feel for him when he's down and out and root for him on his triumphant comeback with the help of Christ and June Carter Cash. This movie is and always will be a classic.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
A well acted bio pic of Johnny Cash and June Carter. The supplemental DVD is also very good. Two thumbs up.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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