WALK THE LINE

FOX

RELEASED 3 February 2006

Johnny Cash died in 2004, just as his star was once more in the ascendency. The single ‘Hurt’ from his eclectic album of covers was a hit, and a 4-CD retrospective box set had brought him to a new audience. That he’d been in the business for more than forty years is a testament to his songwriting skills and his unique style. This new movie goes back to the early days in a bid to show just how JR Cash became the musical legend Johnny Cash and how he came to meet the love of his life.

Born on a cotton farm in Depression-era Arkansas, Cash loves nothing better than listening to the radio with his brother, who tragically dies in a freak accident for which Johnny feels responsible. To make matters worse, Johnny’s father blames him as well. After doing his airman service in West Germany, Cash returns to marry first-love Vivian, and start his musical career alongside other early future stars like Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and a future Mrs Cash, June Carter. In just a few years, Cash sucumbs to all the elements of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, wrecking his life and his marriage. Only his love for June will save him from destruction. A historic concert in 1968 at Folsom Prison completes his comeback.

Apparently director James Mangold and co-writer Gill Dennis collaborated with Johnny and June Cash on the script’s development for seven years, so we get a pretty accurate account of the man’s life. It’s not quite as dramatic as the Ray Charles biopic ‘Ray’, nor does it cover his whole life (choosing the formative years 1964 - 1968), but ‘Walk the Line’ is all about the Johnny and June love story, with plenty of the man’s music in there for good measure. Joaquin Phoenix plays the stroppy and needy Cash less as an impersonation but more an extension of his own on-screen persona, while Reese Witherspoon is angelic as June, the sweetest country gal you could hope to meet, and it’s not difficult to see why Johnny couldn’t get her out of his mind. Both actors show off pitch-perfect voices too.

‘Walk the Line’ has a strong story, is perfectly paced, features awesome music, and is topped off by some exceptional acting, but it all feels like we’ve been here before. Perhaps the story needed to show more of Cash’s life story than it does, but it’s still a worthy biopic that gets it’s point over.

THREE OUT OF FIVE