Flick of The Day: Walk the Line

Musical biographies are a tricky business at the best of times. Focus too much on the mythology of your average rock star and you end up with something endlessly turgid like Oliver Stone's The Doors and even when you are possessed with a good script, the film can hang solely on the performance of your leading actor. If he or she fails to capture the essence of a much loved loved star then the backlash can leave your film stillborn. Perhaps this is the reason for Martin Scorsese's long gestating Sinatra biopic failing to make it to the big screen as of yet. In any case, in terms of capturing a man and his career albeit only in snapshots then few have come close to 2005's Walk the Line which tells the life of country music legend Johnny Cash.

Walk the Line

Opening with Cash, played by Joaquin Phoenix, at the height of his fame and preparing to take the stage for his seminal Folsom Prison concert, we are soon in flashback mode for the rest of the film. We see Cash as a poverty stricken child toiling with his older brother in the fields under the eyes of their stern father, played by a man who has built a second career playing stern characters, Robert Patrick. Perhaps the defining event of his childhood is the death of his brother in a farm accident which his father blames him for. So far, so ho-hum and it is only when Phoenix arrives and screen that the film gets going. His taciturn take on Cash is spellbinding and holds the screen for the remainder of the film. Director James Mangold chooses to focus on Cash's rapid rise in the American country scene from recording for Sun Records to meeting Bob Dylan while chronicling his long term pursuit of his soul mate June Carter. Carter is given a witty souther charm by Reese Witherspoon and the chemistry with Phoenix works well. Both actors give all their own musical performances and the film is all the better for it.

Based on Cash's own autobiographies, the film doesn't shy away from portraying Cash as the flawed individual he was particularly focusing on the lost years of drug abuse and his poor treatment of his first wife. For all this, Joaquin Phoenix gives a measured and charismatic performance as Cash. He is perhaps the coolest character ever to populate the country music genre and consequently his fame transcends this.

Johnny Cash: [playing for the inmates at Folsom prison] Once in El Paso, I had this bag of... Oh... you heard about that? You been in El Paso, too? Well, anyways, I felt tough, you know?. Like I'd seen a thing or two, you know? Well, that was till a moment ago... 'cuz I got to tell you, my hat's off to you now, 'cuz I ain't never had to drink this yellow water you got here at Folsom!

Perhaps the strongest suit of the film is the decision to focus only on a small part of Cash's life concluding with the Folsom concert in 1968, something which really brought Cash to the mainstream. Taking on too much can lead to an over-long and under-detailed mess.

So that's that really, this is a well made biopic of a musical icon with a decent if not too cluttered script and fine performances from the leads. You don't have to be a lover of Cash's music to enjoy the film because there is much here to enjoy for the beginner. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon would go on to Oscar nominations for their performances with Witherspoon carrying home the gong.