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Thursday, 01 December 2005 05:40 |
| John North
Editor & Publisher
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The Johnny Cash biopic, ?®Walk the Line,?∆ based on his autobiography, is a smash, with dead-on acting by Joaquin Phoenix as the title character and Reese Witherspoon as his love interest, June Carter.
Directed by James Mangold, the film boils down to a story about Cash??s two great passions ?? his music and June. The 136-minute saga is rated PG-13 for some rough language, thematic material and depictions of drug dependency.
Like many performers, Cash found the professional music world to be fraught with many temptations, including drinking, easy sex and the aforementioned drugs.
This high-voltage chronicle of the life of ?®the man in black?∆ starts with Cash??s hard-scrabble upbringing on an Arkansas cotton farm, with an ill-tempered father, Ray Cash (played by Robert Patrick), who blames him for the death of his beloved older brother Jack, asserting that ?®God took the wrong son.?∆
Another memorable scene occurs when his father looks at Cash??s huge new house and opines derisively, ?®Jack Benny??s is bigger.?∆
Despite his father??s belief that his surviving son would never amount
to anything and his constant verbal attacks on Johnny??s interest in
music, the movie shows Cash??s defiance as he rises to fame with Sun
Records in Memphis, recording alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis
and Carl Perkins.
We see him meeting with Sun??s legendary Sam
Phillips (Dallas Roberts), who notes during an audition that Cash and
his bandmates are playing poor imitations of Southern gospel songs that
will not sell. He challenges Cash to play something more authentic.
When ?®the man in black?∆ lets loose with a stunning rendition of ?®Folsom
Prison Blues,?∆ Phillips signs him up on the spot.
Cash??s somber
voice was unique, reminiscent of a train rumbling down the tracks.
(June Carter Cash was quoted once as describing her husband??s voice as
?®steady like a train, sharp like a razor.?∆)
However, the truly
spectacular part of the movie was the love story between Johnny and
June, whom he eventually married after innumerable rejections of his
proposals. Earlier, we are shown Cash??s frustrations with his first
wife, Vivian, who complains incessantly that he spends more time on
music than on her. While no doubt she was correct in her assessment, it
also was clear that she lacked an appreciation for Cash??s passion. At
one point, she declares (eerily reminiscent of Cash??s father), ?®Your
?¥band?? is two mechanics who can??t even hardly play.?∆
During the
filming, Phoenix, while playing the drug-addicted Cash, reportedly
ripped a sink out of the wall, even though it wasn??t in the script. He
checked into a rehabilitation center shortly after the shoot.
Interestingly, the addiction problem for Cash was pills, and for
Phoenix, alcohol.
A criticism I??ve read elsewhere of ?®Walk the
Line?∆ is that it??s merely a formulaic retread of last year??s ?®Ray,?∆ the
biopic of singer-pianist Ray Charles.
While musical biopics do
tend to focus on the rise and fall ?? and sometimes, redemption ?? of the
stars, this film is excellent in a different way from the equally
stellar ?®Ray.?∆ Specifically, ?®Walk the Line?∆ especially focuses on the
exquisite and unusually enduring love between Johnny and June.
Bringing light and energy to the role, and providing much-needed counterpoint to the oft-brooding ?®man in
black,?∆ is Witherspoon??s dynamic portrayal of June Carter.
June
notes in the movie that she learned to be funny onstage because she
didn??t think she had a good voice. By the time Cash met her, she had
been a professional since age 4. She moves easily between her silly
onstage persona and her real personality ?? sane and thoughtful, despite
her propensity to marry the wrong men.
Indeed, despite his
appreciation of Carter??s vocal talents, Cash appears to be yet another
?®wrong man?∆ for her, and she holds him at arm??s length for years. But
through the efforts of her and her famous family ?? and not his, Cash
overcomes his pill addiction.
I have read criticisms of the
film??s taking liberties with the facts, especially in the scene where
Cash and Carter are singing their sultry duet, ?®Jackson,?∆ and Cash
suddenly proposes marriage. Dramatically, and with some hesitation,
Carter accepts.
In reality, Cash did propose to Carter on stage,
but it didn??t happen as portrayed in the movie. For me, that bit of
poetic license didn??t detract from the film??s overall authenticity and
spirit of truth.
Phoenix and Witherspoon perform their own vocals in the movie ?? and they sizzle.
Cash
is one of five performers inducted into both the Rock and Roll and
Country Music halls of fame. In his career, he placed 48 singles on the
Billboard Hot 100 Pop charts. In 1956, ?®Folsom Prison Blues?∆ made it to
the Top Five in country singles, and ?®I Walk the Line?∆ became his first
No. 1 country hit.
?®The Man in Black?∆ remained with Carter until they died in 2003 ?? within four months of each other... lovers to the end.
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