Just got back from seeing the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. It was a'ight. Reese Witherspoon was lovely as June Carter. Joaquin Phoneix was less-convincing as Johnny Cash. I liked the movie overall though. The only things I didn't like were: 1) how it glamourized adultery, and 2) how it made Johnny Cash out to be some kind of hero, without justifying why. But the film kept me amused, probably mostly because of Reese. Final grade: B
3 comments:
I guess "a'ight" would sort of sum up my reaction to the movie as well. Witherspoon was great, Phoenix less so--he didn't even come close to getting Cash's phenomenal voice right until the end of the film.
Although the movie does show Cash committing adultery on more than one occasion, I don't know that I would agree that adultery is glamorized or that Cash himself is portrayed particularly heroically. If anything, I think the movie spends so much time dwelling on Cash's more embarrassing moments that for a while it seems to descend into the VH-1 "Behind The Music" standard formula (you know, humble roots, getting discovered/metioric rise, party-all-the-time hedonism, bottoming out, getting clean, comeback). My biggest complaint was that the movie essentially ends with Cash's legendary show at Folsom Prison and his marriage to June Carter (it's weird not to say "June Carter Cash), completely ignoring the last 30 years of his life and career.
I think that in the end biopics are just problematic. How do you condense something as complicated as a human life into two hours?
i actually loved it! I mean it would be great if it had been longer to get more in, but I really enjoyed it and cant wait to get the DVD....
I liked that it was a love story but felt conflicted b/c he was married when he started trying to shag June Carter. In spending so much time on advancing the love-story, I think they failed to fully demonstrate Cash's accomplishments, which left people like me, who don't know a lot about the guy, wondering what was so special about him?
I agree about the Behind the Music formulaic tidbits - other than the love-story, this movie was a mirror image of Ray. The drowning of the brother in childhood.. the mingling with big big stars at the start of their careers.. the drug use.. the period of rehabilitation.. and the comeback. Pretty formulaic. At least w/ Ray Charles, they had the race and disability elements to add heroicism.. not to mention the civil rights stuff and the rise of R&B.. Maybe it was just Joaquin Phoenix's music in this film that made it stale for me - it just didn't convey any inventive leap.
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