Walk the Line (2005)

People are voting emotionally.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

"Walk the Line" is a good biopic of the early years in the life of singer, songwriter, musician and actor Johnny Cash. Joaquin Phoenix does a good job playing Cash as he breaks into music. The talented Cash, who became much more known as a quiet, withdrawn man for most of his performing life, had some raucous early years. The film covers his first marriage, road trips while struggling to make a name for himself, and his drug use. This also was the time when he met and befriended June Carter who would later become his wife. The film ends before the major part of his career with Carter - their last 35 years together. Reese Witherspoon gives a superb portrayal of Carter. She won the only Academy Award of five nominations for the film. But the movie took the top three Golden Globe honors for the year - best picture, best actress and best actor. Witherspoon also won the BAFTA award for best actress. Ginnifer Goodwin also gives a superb performance as Cash's first wife, Vivian. While Cash was known mostly as a country musician, he had a versatile portfolio of songs and performances. He played and sang blues, rock and roll, gospel and folk music. He is in three music halls of fame - Country, Gospel, and Rock and Roll. He sold more than 90 million records in his lifetime.As so many other musical biopics, "Walk the Line" covers mostly the years up until the person makes it big. This is one when I would have enjoyed another 20 minutes or so to see performances of some of the top songs that Cash wrote and played. Cash and Carter died within four months of each other in 2003. He was 71 and she was 73.

Johnny Cash sang like he meant business. He didn't get fancy and he didn't send his voice on missions it could not complete, but there was an urgency in his best songs that pounded them home. When he sang something, it stayed sung. James Mangold's "Walk the Line," with its dead-on performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, helps you understand that quality. Here was a man who was blamed by his hard-drinking father for the death of his older brother, who said God "took the wrong son," who looked at Johnny's big new house and all he could say was, "Jack Benny's is bigger." In the movie you sense that the drive behind a Johnny Cash song was defiance. He was going to sing it no matter what anybody thought - especially his old man. The movie shows John R. Cash inventing himself. He came from a hard-working Arkansas family and grew up listening to country music on the radio, especially the Carter Family. He wrote his first song while he was serving in the Air Force in Germany. When he came back to the States, he got married and got a regular job but dreamed about being a recording artist. When his first wife, Vivian, complained he was spending more time on music than on her, he referred to his "band" and she said, "your band is two mechanics who can't even hardly play." "Walk the Line" follows the story arc of many other musicals, maybe because many core lines are the same: Hard times, obscurity, success, stardom, too much money, romantic adventures, drugs or booze, and then (if they survive) beating the addiction, finding love and reaching a more lasting stardom. What adds boundless energy to "Walk the Line" is the performance by Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash. We're told in the movie that June learned to be funny onstage because she didn't think she had a good voice; by the time John meets her she's been a pro since the age of 4, and effortlessly moves back and forth between her goofy onstage persona and her real personality, which is sane and thoughtful, despite her knack for hitching up with the wrong men. The film's most harrowing scene shows Johnny onstage after an overdose, his face distorted by pain and anger, looking almost satanic before he collapses. What is most fearsome is not even his collapse, but the force of his will, which makes him try to perform when he is clearly unable to. You would not want to get in the way of that determination. When Cash is finally busted and spends some time in jail, his father is dependably laconic: "Now you won't have to work so hard to make people think you been to jail." Although Cash's father (played with merciless aim by Robert Patrick) eventually does sober up, the family that saves him is June's. It is by now well known that Phoenix and Witherspoon perform their own vocals in the movie. It was not well known when the movie previewed - at least not by me. The problems with this film are minor, two in particular immediately come to mind. The pace of this film is so fast you find yourself wondering at times whether you have missed something. Time flies by in this film and it is sometimes hard to keep track of what state Cash's life is in now, or how famous he is today compared with the last scene. The pace is so speedy that it gets to the point where if there was a caption which read "one year later" at the beginning of this scene, you could count on there being the same caption at the beginning of the next one. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Walk The Line is how average the film is at it's core. The base elements of the film are a fairly standard re-tread of virtually every rock & roll docu-drama film ever made from The Doors to infinity; drugs are used, people are hurt, lives are in chaos; all this we have seen before. What makes Walk The Line remarkable is how it takes something average and enhances just about every aspect of it to the point where you begin to forget how average the core of the film really is. The performances, the music, the cinematography, the script, all are distinctly sharper and better than any film of this kind than I have ever seen, though they had virtually nothing new to work with. I highly recommend this film. Go for the story, but stay for the outstanding performances.

Walk the Line is a delightful and plausible biographical music drama of 2005. This movie reveals the life story of the great musician Johnny Cash. We see his childhood and the way he became a star. In the picture we witness his relationship with his second wife. We see an amazing life story of a talented man, whose life was full of different events: incredible ups and downs, the tragic loss of his beloved, and the meeting with true love ...The film is interesting and atmospheric. I really liked this musical drama. I enjoy biographical films and this one is inspiring, and the story of John Cash is shown realistically. Joaquin Phoenix is a talented and good actor, and starring in this drama he looked decent and acted gorgeously. The role of talented Cash is extremely complex and contradictory, but Phoenix coped with it with a bang. Reese Witherspoon fascinated me in this movie. She acted so charmingly and cleanly that she even got an Oscar for this role. I liked the duet of these actors and it was nice to watch them together. Walk the Line is a strong, beautiful, and clean film that revealed to us a bright and realistic life of an excellent musician, and it's definitely worth watching.

Walk the Line is a 2005 American biographical drama film directed by James Mangold. The screenplay, written by Mangold and Gill Dennis, is based on two autobiographies authored by singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. The film follows Cash's early life, his romance with June Carter, and his ascent to the country music scene. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Cash, Reese Witherspoon as Carter, Ginnifer Goodwin as Vivian Liberto, and Robert Patrick as Cash's father. The film was nominated for five Oscars at the 78th Academy Awards, including Best Actor (Phoenix), Best Actress (Witherspoon, which she won), and Best Costume Design (Arianne Phillips). The film grossed more than $186 million worldwide. I knew a lot about Johnny Cash before watching the movie. It was really helpful. A very famous musician and singer of the second half of the XX century played a key role in the development of music. That is why I was impressed by the Phoenix's acting. For those who knew Johnny Cash before it was the great impersonation. Joaquin Phoenix performs songs himself. These songs were like Cash's performance. Manners, gestures, movements, a reprimand, a smile, and even the way he holds the guitar in his hands are like a reflection in the mirror of Cache. But what really surprised me was that he did not get an Oscar for this movie. As for Reese Witherspoon, I absolutely do not like her as an actress. I cannot understand her absolutely. But nevertheless she looked quite believable. But the reason for what she was given an Oscar does not clear for me. In generally I saw the film with pleasure. It is simple, but at the same time is quite cute. Music which were played during the movie immersed in the life of that musical era. In addition, I was very pleased with the accuracy of the plot to the very biography of the singer. It is noteworthy that I watched it on February 26, the birthday of the singer. There was some magic in this fact. In general, the movie is very good. 8/10