Review of Walk the Line (2005) by Michael L — 13 Oct 2012

Walk the Line (2005) movie review.

Walk the Line is a biographical drama based on the life of Johnny Cash, who is played by Joaquin Phoenix. The film is directed by James Mangold and stars Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, and Robert Patrick a Ray Cash. These are just a few among a much longer list of actors. All of which have commendable performances.

Firstly, Joaquin Phoenix is brilliant in his portrayal of Cash. He not only plays the part well, but his singing sounds almost identical to that a Johnny Cash, with perhaps just a tad bit less of scratch in the throat. There couldn't have been a better person than Joaquin to do this role, as he completely immerses you in his relatively tragic child-hood and musical career.

When Cash's older brother dies in a freak accident at a saw mill, his life changes forever, and not only creates a seemingly empty hole in his heart, but also worsens the relationship with his drunken father (Robert Patrick), something which comes into play further on in the story, for seemingly no other reason then to bring the story full circle again and quickly tie things back up before ending the film. I say "seemingly no other reason" because, throughout of the main portion of the film, there is very little interaction between Cash and his father, and so when things begin to turn awry between the two, you're not necessarily sure why. This is a relatively minor gripe compared to the overall quality of the film.

It is clear that 1 hr. 50 min in, the director was basically like "uh oh, how are we gonna end this story?" Because the movie does not recount Johnny Cash's full life (for that would be a long movie) and so creating a sort of natural ending would be a vital part in concluding the film. I could tell there was a need to find this sort of "natural ending", but this is cause for to many strands of story trying to tie themselves back up all at once in the last 25 minutes of the film. Though the ending is somewhat redeemed by a great "movie encore", if you will, in which June Carter and Johnny Cash play at Folsom Prison.

Speaking of playing Folsom Prison, the music is all top-notch, and is spot on with the original tracks. My only quarrel is that all the songs are supposed to be played "live" in the movie, and yet, you can tell that all of them were recorded in a studio, dubbed, and then mixed in with the screams of girls falling head-over-heels for Cash. I found this dubbing technique distracting, but then again, I've never heard what it would have sounded like actually being played live, and perhaps I would have enjoyed that even less. Note that I said "enjoyed it less" and not "hated it more", the reason for saying this, of course, was that all in all, the music is still incredibly entertaining and occasionally dark, but fun to listen to. And how could it not be when your soundtrack is written by Johnny Cash and June Carter?

Overall, this was a great film with intense performances, most notably by Joaquin Phoenix, who is truly a Grade A actor. It's well written, well directed, and succeeds in providing a dramatic, in depth look as to what the early life of Johnny Cash might have resembled. I did have a few problems with the sound mixing and the somewhat rushed, though still satisfactory ending, but none of this should hold anyone back in seeing the film.