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Walk the Line (2005)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
3/26
3/26:
"But I Shot a Man in Reno"..."Folsom Prison Blues"..."Man in Black"...Johnny Cash.
I admit I didn't know much about the man himself prior to watching Walk the Line, but the movie is
disappointing and too modern. Everybody involved with the making of it should've watched different music
biopics such as Coal Miner's Daughter,
Great Balls of Fire, and The Doors
to understand they had one basic thing in common: substance.
For two hours and sixteen minutes, not much happens. Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash is either on drugs or trying
to court June Carter, played by Reese Witherspoon. I was like, "Can we just move on to something else?" But
nope. By the time Johnny Cash gets what he wants, the movie ends with over 35 years left on the table. How
about the fire he infamously started at a national park that burned approximately 500 acres in California? His drug
addiction didn't end for good after marrying June, going in and out of jails and rehab centers for decades.
By the way, whatever happened to Johnny Cash's first wife named Vivian? The ending doesn't say. But want to know
something shocking? Vivian was actually black. So, why is she white in the film? It never talked about the racial
discrimination she and her husband experienced after he got busted for drugs in 1965, and the public found out
about her for the first time. When they divorced, it's, according to Wikipedia, due to his "severe abuse of
alcohol and other drugs as well as his constant touring and his repeated acts of adultery with other women."
As for the performances, Joaquin Phoenix tries hard, but he's no Johnny Cash, an average-looking Southerner
who spoke plainly yet with a distinctive baritone voice. Just check out the movies he starred in like
Murder in Coweta County and
Stagecoach. Reese Witherspoon is much, much less convincing,
failing to shake off the perky high school image of a blonde by going brunette. Oh, yeah...the Academy fucked
up as usual by placing her in the Best Actress category; she never led the film for a minute but supported
Joaquin Phoenix the entire time. At any rate, they didn't deserve nominations.
All in all, Johnny Cash deserves a better biopic than Walk the Line.