| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | WALK THE LINE (2005) |
| Director | James Mangold |
| Writer | Johnny Cash, Gill Dennis, James Mangold |
| Lead Actor | Joaquin Phoenix |
| Cast | Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin |
| Genre | Biography, Drama, Music, Romance |
| Release Date | November 18, 2005 (United States) |
| Duration | 2h 16m(136 min) |
| Budget | $28 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDB Rating | 7.8/10 |
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WALK THE LINE is an extraordinary biopic about legendary country and rockabilly singer Johnny Cash (1932-2003). The film opens with young John (Ridge Canipe) on his family’s small Alabama cotton farm during the Great Depression. John’s mother, Carrie (Shelby Lynne), teaches him hymns. His father, Ray (Robert Patrick), drinks and is hard on the boy and his older brother, who dies in a tragic accident. John, who dearly loved and admired his brother, is continually haunted by his memory.
Joaquin Phoenix portrays John as an adult, who learns to play the guitar when he joins the Air Force. In 1954, he marries Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), moves to Memphis and struggles financially.
His big break comes when he lands an audition with Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts), who ran Sun Studios, which launched the career of Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton). J.R. Cash goes from a mediocre gospel singer to Johnny Cash, an artist whose songs save people. He starts to wear black because he and his band members all have black shirts.
Johnny begins a destructive lifestyle of alcohol and drugs, which lands him in jail. He tours with Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Payne), Roy Orbison (Johnathan Rice) and the recently divorced June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), among others. Johnny is powerfully attracted to June, who hesitates because she knows how fragile marriage can be for recording artists.
The film weaves the continual ascent of Johnny’s musical career with his personal descent into a failed marriage and an alcoholic and drug addicted hell to an ongoing redemption and resurrection with June, whom he marries in 1968.
As their relationship deepens, June gets Johnny to actually step inside a church again. Eventually, he comes to a fragile peace with his father, too.
Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is mesmerizing and magnetic as the legendary Man in Black whose voice was “fast like a train and sharp like a razor.” Phoenix and Witherspoon sing all the songs (“I Walk the Line,” “Ring of Fire,” etc.) and their onstage chemistry is palpable.
Joaquin Phoenix learned the guitar and Reese Witherspoon the Autoharp for the film. It’s hard to imagine what these two gifted young actors will do for an encore.
It’s not the story that’s so compelling. It’s the telling and the redemption that are so forceful. Directed by James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted), Walk the Line is destined to garner more than one Academy Award nomination. If you were inspired by Coal Miner’s Daughter (Loretta Lynn story), Sweet Dreams (Patsy Cline) and last year’s Ray (Ray Charles), know that Walk the Line may be the best film about an American musical icon yet. Drug and alcohol use; a brief sexual encounter.
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