I had heard a lot about Johnny Cash but I only really heard his music for the first time back in January. The first song I had heard by him was Hurt which was a remake of a Nine Inch Nails song and it just gave me goosebumps. When I heard about Walk the Line which was based on his life story I had to watch it, even though I had only been listening to his music for just over a month now there was something about him.. his voice.. it just wanted me to find out more about him. In the video for Hurt it looked like Johnny Cash had been through a lot in his life and if this movie was all about him then I was eager to watch it.
Well there is good news and bad news. The good news is this movie was really beautiful. Joaquin Phoenix was just incredible, I have never seen him act this well before, he really shines in this movie and the same goes for Reese Witherspoon, whoever cast her to play Johnny’s wife is very gifted because after watching this movie and seeing pictures of Cash’s wife I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing her in the movie.
Now the bad news, I was expecting this movie to focus on Johnny Cash’s career from the beginning till the end but sadly it only focuses on his early days up till the late 60’s. I wanted to know more about Cash, I wanted so much more and this movie just left me hanging. Its still a great movie but it just kept me wanting more. I don’t know if I would recommend this movie to someone who isn’t into Cash, Nat for example found the movie just “OK” but I think she liked it a bit more after I made her watch the video for Hurt.
If you don’t know who Johnny Cash is then this movie won’t mean much to you. Me, personally, I give it a 4 out of 5.
11 replies on “Review: Walk the Line”
Ohh I’d love to watch this movie but I’d rather watch at the cinema. I’m going to London next week, so i guess I’ll watch it there. Reese Witherspoon (with ‘er spoon hehehe) won an oscar for her role in the movie, so it must have been an outstanding performance. What other johnny cash songs do you recomend mark?
what 4! the movie sucked!
Here’s everything I can remember from his later career:
Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash had a variety show in the early 70s. My family used to watch it and I have vague memories of it.
I had a Johnny Cash comic book when I was a kid. I just googled it and it was from a Christian publisher and I think the lesson was “hey kids, don’t do drugs.” It ended at the same place as the movie.
He once guest-starred as the bad guy on Columbo.
One of the last songs he recorded was a duet with his daughter Rosanne called “September When It Comes.” I heard her interviewed about it on the radio and she said they didn’t talk about what it meant (facing death). He read the lyrics, said “yeah, I’ll do it,” came in and recorded it, and that was the end of it.
His career had faded when a famous rap/rock producer (Rick Rubin) looked him up and revitalized his image by reintroducing him to younger people–it was great, still classic Cash and played up his famous voice but made it less produced/Nashville. I think they continued to work together until Johnny Cash’s death. After that, Johnny Cash started to cover all kinds of different music, whatever he liked and thought was soulful, and he did his own take on it, like the Nine Inch Nails song. I always imagined a group of executives sitting around saying “He can’t do that,” and someone else saying, “You can’t tell Johnny Cash what to do.”
June Carter Cash was in a movie not that long ago, a Robert Duvall movie. And she released a CD too and it’s a lot more country than her husband’s later stuff but the song “I Used to Be Somebody” is really touching, about all the people she knew who died young (Patsy Cline, Elvis, James Dean, Hank Williams, etc).
And the live shows were great. The entire family and a host of friends would come on stage, like in the old country days in the movie.
Johnny Cash was an icon of western/country music. You were be hard pressed to find anyone in North America who does not know a Johnny Cash song – my tune and words, if not by authorship. Mark, you should check out the music/songs he did as one of the Highwaymen (Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson) – not great music, but fun to listen to and watch on video.
I watched the film in december and enjoyed it, i thought it was one of the better films that come out last year. A friend saw it before its release and expected it to get a good number of awards this year, which it did. Over all the film was beautifuly shot, had some very nice edited sequences ( especially the one in the begging of him becoming a star) and the music was well integrated. So i agree with the 4 stars mark.
I watched it a month ago and absolutely loved it, even though I knew practically nothing about Johnny Cash before that. I was impressed by Joaquin and Reese’s performances, especially given that it’s actually them singing the songs! And yes, I did fall in love with Joaquin….just a little bit 🙂
johnny cash chose joaquin and june carter chose reese to play their roles.. 😀
Mark,
I saw this movie last month when I was in the US. I loved it very much, mostly because the acting was phenomenal. I couldn’t believe both actors did their own singing. It is a fantastic and compelling film.
MsB
isnt that the same dude from the movie ‘gladiator’?
man i still remember being pissed one time long ago, when they used his ring of fire song in a fucking taco bell ad. riFp johnny cash.
wow i can’t believe it was them actually singing..