Walk the Line
Walk the Line is no Capote, and Joaquin Phoenix is no Philip Seymour Hoffman. In many ways, Walk the Line feels like 2004 hit Ray retold about a white singer in a much less masterful way. It is a biography movie done by the books without any originality and creativity.
Any one interested in seeing American music icon Johnny Cash’s lifetime story will be disappointed to find that director James Mangold has attempted to fit Walk the Line into both biopic and romance genres and instead failed to achieve some satisfaction in either category. The movie focuses on the love story between Cash (played by Phoenix) and June Carter (played by Reese Witherspoon) and ends when Carter finally accepted his marriage proposal (I guess Garth Brooks is not that original), hence completely skips the last 35 years of Cash’s amazing career. It is a major sin of omission when telling a story of a larger-than-life character like Cash. Cash and Carter may be each other’s soul mates, but it is hard to feel sympathetic watching Cash constantly pine for Carter while his wife toils at home. Rather than delving into complexity of human love like in Brokeback Mountain and The Squid and the Whale, Mangold tries too hard to justify Cash and Carter’s relationship by painting Cash’s first wife Vivian as a typical shallow, one dimensional show business wife who complains about her husband’s absence but enjoys all the material benefits. Cash and Carter’s affair is simply too predictable and down pat, and frankly, quite boring to watch.
Phoenix and Witherspoon both give decent but not stellar performances in this movie. Phoenix is good at portraying tortured souls, but he does not make the tortured soul Johnny Cash-specific in this movie. It is good to see Witherspoon in a drama after so many comedies and to hear her use her Southern root (she was born in Louisiana and grew up in Tennessee) for that sweet twang in Carter’s voice. Before seeing the movie, I had some reservation about all the actors sing all the songs in this movie. A big part of any biopic on musicians is the music. While the musicians may not be able to play themselves on screen, they could at least permeate the movie with their voices. However, while watching Walk the Line, Phoenix and Witherspoon’s musical performances are actually the most delightful parts of the movie. When they perform on stage, they bring Cash and Carter alive and turn themselves into the characters. Singing the songs themselves has also become a tool for Phoenix and Witherspoon to put any of Cash and Carter’s emotional nuances that they experience at the time into the songs. The music has become surprisingly more powerful than just using pieces of some original recordings.
Even though Sam Phillips and his Sun Records have only a small role in this movie, I cannot help admiring this guy’s genius. His small independent label has revolutionized American music forever by signing those future legends such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins. I also envy those music lovers growing up in the 50s. The movie shows Cash’s first tour and what an amazing bill that tour had. Fans of the time got to see Presley gyrate his hips, Lewis improvise on his piano, Cash grip his guitar on the side and Orbison experiment with his early sound. Current music industry needs a visionary like Sam Phillips to imbue some new elements into today’s rock and roll.
Since the movie mainly covers Cash’s career of first 13 years (1955-1968), it does not include some important music he has recorded later. I was frustrated when A Boy Named Sue did not get played at all. It is a song that showcases Cash not only as a musician but also as a storyteller. It is a song with so much social conscience that together with Presley’s In the Ghetto have always been my all time favorites from these two music giants. A Cash bio without the song feels so incomplete.
I have never read any of Cash and Ray Charles’ autobiographies, but based on the two movies, I am astonished to find so many parallels in their lives: they both lost a beloved brother at an early age and the loss had profound impacts on their future lives; they both used to be drug addicts and had to kick their habits cold turkey; they were also both deeply religious sinners who cheated on their wives. In fact, sometimes during the viewing, I feel Mangold has been deliberately copying Ray’s path. Mangold apparently hasn’t learned rule #1 in making a good movie: being fresh.
The title of this movie is quite puzzling for me. It seems no brainer that a biopic of Johnny Cash should be named after his famous moniker, Man in Black. If the movie is really a love story about Cash and Carter, the more appropriate song seems to be Ring of Fire. It was written by Carter, supposedly about Cash and their feelings toward each other. I Walk the Line was a song recorded in 1955 and is long rumored to be about Cash staying faithful to his then wife Vivian while touring on the road. By using a song Cash sang for his first wife as the title, the movie makes Cash and Carter’s passion for each other even more squeamish.
In the end, Walk the Line may be best viewed by all celebrities who like to claim they want to date or marry people outside the business. They probably would do everybody a favor by staying inside the business.
Any one interested in seeing American music icon Johnny Cash’s lifetime story will be disappointed to find that director James Mangold has attempted to fit Walk the Line into both biopic and romance genres and instead failed to achieve some satisfaction in either category. The movie focuses on the love story between Cash (played by Phoenix) and June Carter (played by Reese Witherspoon) and ends when Carter finally accepted his marriage proposal (I guess Garth Brooks is not that original), hence completely skips the last 35 years of Cash’s amazing career. It is a major sin of omission when telling a story of a larger-than-life character like Cash. Cash and Carter may be each other’s soul mates, but it is hard to feel sympathetic watching Cash constantly pine for Carter while his wife toils at home. Rather than delving into complexity of human love like in Brokeback Mountain and The Squid and the Whale, Mangold tries too hard to justify Cash and Carter’s relationship by painting Cash’s first wife Vivian as a typical shallow, one dimensional show business wife who complains about her husband’s absence but enjoys all the material benefits. Cash and Carter’s affair is simply too predictable and down pat, and frankly, quite boring to watch.
Phoenix and Witherspoon both give decent but not stellar performances in this movie. Phoenix is good at portraying tortured souls, but he does not make the tortured soul Johnny Cash-specific in this movie. It is good to see Witherspoon in a drama after so many comedies and to hear her use her Southern root (she was born in Louisiana and grew up in Tennessee) for that sweet twang in Carter’s voice. Before seeing the movie, I had some reservation about all the actors sing all the songs in this movie. A big part of any biopic on musicians is the music. While the musicians may not be able to play themselves on screen, they could at least permeate the movie with their voices. However, while watching Walk the Line, Phoenix and Witherspoon’s musical performances are actually the most delightful parts of the movie. When they perform on stage, they bring Cash and Carter alive and turn themselves into the characters. Singing the songs themselves has also become a tool for Phoenix and Witherspoon to put any of Cash and Carter’s emotional nuances that they experience at the time into the songs. The music has become surprisingly more powerful than just using pieces of some original recordings.
Even though Sam Phillips and his Sun Records have only a small role in this movie, I cannot help admiring this guy’s genius. His small independent label has revolutionized American music forever by signing those future legends such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins. I also envy those music lovers growing up in the 50s. The movie shows Cash’s first tour and what an amazing bill that tour had. Fans of the time got to see Presley gyrate his hips, Lewis improvise on his piano, Cash grip his guitar on the side and Orbison experiment with his early sound. Current music industry needs a visionary like Sam Phillips to imbue some new elements into today’s rock and roll.
Since the movie mainly covers Cash’s career of first 13 years (1955-1968), it does not include some important music he has recorded later. I was frustrated when A Boy Named Sue did not get played at all. It is a song that showcases Cash not only as a musician but also as a storyteller. It is a song with so much social conscience that together with Presley’s In the Ghetto have always been my all time favorites from these two music giants. A Cash bio without the song feels so incomplete.
I have never read any of Cash and Ray Charles’ autobiographies, but based on the two movies, I am astonished to find so many parallels in their lives: they both lost a beloved brother at an early age and the loss had profound impacts on their future lives; they both used to be drug addicts and had to kick their habits cold turkey; they were also both deeply religious sinners who cheated on their wives. In fact, sometimes during the viewing, I feel Mangold has been deliberately copying Ray’s path. Mangold apparently hasn’t learned rule #1 in making a good movie: being fresh.
The title of this movie is quite puzzling for me. It seems no brainer that a biopic of Johnny Cash should be named after his famous moniker, Man in Black. If the movie is really a love story about Cash and Carter, the more appropriate song seems to be Ring of Fire. It was written by Carter, supposedly about Cash and their feelings toward each other. I Walk the Line was a song recorded in 1955 and is long rumored to be about Cash staying faithful to his then wife Vivian while touring on the road. By using a song Cash sang for his first wife as the title, the movie makes Cash and Carter’s passion for each other even more squeamish.
In the end, Walk the Line may be best viewed by all celebrities who like to claim they want to date or marry people outside the business. They probably would do everybody a favor by staying inside the business.
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