Review of Walk the Line (2005) by Matthew G — 03 Jan 2013

Walk the Line.

Johnny Cash is considered to be one of the most influential musicians of 20th century. He not only helped the bloom of country music but also spurred it's spill towards other genres like rock & roll, blues, folks and gospel. In reality, just like any other celebrity, his early and post marital lives are marred with spots of glory, success, pathos and suffering.

Plot:

Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) is born in to a cotton farming family and eventually gets enlisted in to United States Air Force in 1950. After getting discharged from active service he gets married to his long time girl friend Vivian Liberto (Ginnifer Goodwin). Music happens to him in soliloquy and rest of the film chronicles around the music legend's journey through glory and obloquy.

Analysis:

The film is a biographical drama about country music legend Johnny Cash and pays a tormenting homage to his very own life. The best thing about the film is it's setting - creating a southern atmosphere of country, music and record industry is simply outstanding.

All events and happenings depicted in the film are direct references from instances suggested in Johnny Cash and Cash: The Autobiography. But the events have been marginally fictionalized to fit cinematic narration with in the permissible limits of fictional freedom.

Performances:

Joaquin Phoenix as JR aka Johnny Cash is simply astounding and his acquaintance with real life singer helped him a lot in enacting the role to perfection. His performance in scenes involving troubled family life, excessive alcohol & drug abuse, undesirable passion for June Carter Cash and the aftermath being totally out of sorts with everything in his life is absolutely laudatory.

Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash comes up with a near stunning performance as their lovely musical saga unfolds on the screen. She glides in to the role of June Carter immortally imbibing her real qualities of singing and story telling. Her chemistry with lead character is picture perfect with in the frame of adopted story line and no wonder she grabbed an Oscar (even Golden Globe and BAFTA) for a performance of this scale.

Ginnifer Goodwin as Vivian Liberto, Cash's original wife and girl friend is adequate - she was extremely natural in domestic confrontation scenes with JR deserving a special mention.

Music by T-Bone Burnett and songs by Johnny and June form the main theme for the film and they have been very effectively used at appropriate instances with in the film. Cinematography by Phedon Papamichael is classically top notch with crispy editing facilitated by Michael McCusker. Screenwriters James Mangold and Gill Dennis definitely deserve more than a heap of praise for rummaging through various available sources of material and finally cutting down to something that's film-able.

Special Attractions:

Immortal Cash tunes like - Ring of Fire, Cry Cry Cry, Folsom Prison Blues, I Walk the Line and Jackson are predominantly used through out the film and one can't help but tap his foot to the lilting tunes and music.