Walk the Line

“Walk the Line” is on its surface a love story between Johnny Cash and June Carter. But beneath its surface a deeper subject matter lies; grief and guilt over an untimely death. You have to wonder how many families pass around guilt when one of their own tragically dies young. Everyone must be swimming in pain not wanting to accept they may have in one way or another contributed to the unexpected devastation and therefore lay the burden on someone else in the family instead of asking what they themselves might have done differently to prevent the tragedy in the first place. Interestingly there’s a film by Rian Johnson called “Brick” which does the opposite. The lead character Brendan says on the subject of avenging his girlfriend’s death, “I set out to know who put her in the spot, who put her in front of the gun.” In other words he is not after the person who pulled the trigger and put the bullet into his girlfriend, but rather the person who put her in danger of getting shot in the first place.“Walk the Line” introduces its bookended grief in the form of an electric table saw. As the movie begins we see Johnny Cash leaning over and intensely observing the round ominous blade of one backstage as he prepares to perform his legendary Folsom Prison concert. At first we do not know why the blade is so important but as the movie continues we see how it played an extraordinary part in shaping the singer/songwriter’s life and we come back to the saw towards the end of the film right before he goes on stage.Johnny Cash, we find out, grew up on a farm with his mother, sisters, father and his older brother Jack. Jack was the father’s favorite because he was easier for the father to understand…or rather because Jack was better at assimilating into what their father wanted. On one fateful day Jack and Johnny set out to go fishing but Jack, needing to earn money for the struggling family, stops at a place who hires him to slice boards with a table saw first. The scene is great at showing the precariousness of the saw with Johnny shutting it off at one point when Jack loses control of the wood. Jack tells Johnny to head out fishing without him and he’ll catch up…but Jack never does. Instead their father pulls up along the road Johnny is walking on and says, “Where were you?” and the next scene shows the mangled and blood drenched Jack lying on his death bed with his family gathered round. Johnny yells out “Do something!” but no one can and Jack dies.Johnny then spends much of the rest of his childhood being hated by his father. His father even saying at one point the devil took the wrong son. In order to find solace Johnny escapes into his music which his mother introduces him to but no one really supports him in. He goes off and joins the military and finding himself lonely calls up a girl he used to date and proposes to her. And much like his family she doesn’t understand him either.Finally one day a few years later after his first daughter Roseanne is born and he’s stuck in a job as a door to door salesman, Johnny happens upon a recording studio where he sees he could make a record. He gathers his two friends together as his band and they practice and audition much to the disappointment of his wife who wants him to get a job from her father and make some money. At first the band’s audition goes poorly. But when Johnny starts singing a song he wrote while he was in the military called “Folsom Prison Blues” everything changes, they get a record deal and Johnny’s story begins.The theme of guilt and grief continues to run through the film when we see even after he has become successful Johnny succumbs to letting his father say grace at the table during the holidays as a way to appease the man for the death of Jack. His family also dislikes June and their unrequited romance which becomes stronger and stronger the more they perform together until finally one Thanksgiving Johnny says to his father, “Where were you?” In reference to Jack’s death, pointing out how his father, who was a notorious drinker wasn’t around to save Jack either and the anger between father and son explodes.It is also interesting to point out that in a scene when he is discussing doing an acoustical concert at Folsom Prison after reading fan mail from inmates there one of the men says to him of his all black attire, “You look like you’re going to a funeral.” To which Johnny Cash replies, “Maybe I am.” It is yet another reference to the constant shadow of his dead brother.It’s a shame the film didn’t include the deleted scenes in it because there really isn’t a bad one in the bunch or one that couldn’t have been in the film. In my opinion a film is either good or it isn’t. And a good one should tell its story in its entirety no matter how long or how short it may be. The deleted scenes have great moments which further show the pressure of Johnny’s guilt over Jack’s death and the way his brother haunts him such as when he stops at a bar after walking home from June’s house and find out the bar tender’s name is Jack. Another deleted scene shows a fabric flower which Johnny unintentionally tore off of June’s dress at their first concert together sits on his desk as he tries to write “I Still Miss Someone” about the absence of Jack from his life.Even without these additional scenes “Walk The Line” is a terrific, well-structured film with wide audience appeal and the performances by Joaquin Phoenix and the deservedly Oscar winning Reese Witherspoon as June Carter who are both nothing less than phenomenal, especially when you consider not only their outstanding singing numbers together but the inner turmoil that must have eaten at Joaquin as he made the film considering he too tragically lost his brother River to a drug overdose on Halloween of 1993.

"Walk the Line" is a great piece of work that covers an impressive amount of Johnny Cash's history.The movie starts with Mr. Cash getting ready to do his famous live record at Folsom Prison. When he sees a buzz saw, he goes into a series of flashbacks. (These flashbacks are of course the majority of the film.)The flashbacks go back to his childhood where he had to deal with not only with the tragic death of his brother, but his troubles with his father as well. We then go to his marriage with Vivian. We also have a comical look at JC's time as an unsuccessful door to door salesman. On the verge of financial desperation he is able to record his 1st record. (Can't exactly call it a CD here.)For a moment, all seems well, and his rocky marriage with Vivian starts to get better. But of course once he starts performing, it isn't long before June Carter comes into the picture. In my opinion, the marriage with Vivian may have survived. But the problem was she didn't have any affection for the music that was so important to Johnny. And we all know that June cared about the music. (She even came from a family that performed.) We all know what happened, but the breaking of Johnny and Vivian is VERY WELL delayed when we see small appearances from many famous contemporaries. (Elvis, Waylon Jennings, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis.) On a side note, the guy who did Jerry Lee REALLY deserves kudos for taking a small part, playing it to the hilt, and making a huge impression with it.Johnny develops not only an obsession with June, but a drug problem. June of course is against it, but she's not totally spotless. She does sleep with Johnny even though she knows that he has a wife and children.Johnny's fixation on June eventually makes it impossible for Vivian and Johnny to reconcile. And despite Vivian's uptight nature, we are allowed some sympathy for her. She seemed to grudgingly tolerate his thing for June, but hanging up pictures of her in the house was the last straw. The arguably saddest scene in the film is when Johnny and Vivian have their final fight. Vivian can only cry, and then the children fall into tears when they see the final fight.After losing his family, and having somewhat of a breakdown, Johnny goes through a long and painful recovery. (With the help of not only June, but her parents as well.)Johnny (recovered now and perhaps moved by his past troubles) decides to perform a great act of compassion and record the famous Live Folsom Prison record. And now we are back to the present.And of course, all that remains now is for June to say 'yes.'The movie is a bit long, but it's never boring. And it alternates well between the slow scenes and the quickly paced scenes. And of course, there is an impressive amount of Johnny's songs in it.The movie leaves me very little to complain about. In fact, only one thing. Maybe it isn't crucial, but it would have been interesting to show when Mr. Cash tried to kill himself. He wandered into a cave hoping to get lost and die. But he was guided out by light and mist, and he was convinced that Jesus stopped him from killing himself. From that moment, he became a very devout Christian. But of course, you can't put everything in one movie.Overall, it's a GREAT film that alternates well between slow scenes, quickly paced scenes, dialogue, music, comedy, and sadness. And that's arguably what makes it such a great film. At times we think we're watching a comedy, and at other times we think we're watching a tragedy.Finally, what makes it so great is that while Pheonix and Witherspoon play these historical (and recently deceased) characters with tremendous energy, we get a great cast of minor characters who were Mr. Cash's contemporaries.THEATRICAL VS DIRETOR'S CUT: The Director's Cut has about 20 extra minutes. In my opinion, the theatrical version flows better. When I watched the longer version, I honestly could understand why a lot of these scenes were removed from the theatrical version. Especially, the early 'Cry, Cry, Cry' scene. It was a little early for Vivian to say: "You hate me." It really started the crumbling of the marriage between Vivian and John too early.Slight difference. In the theatrical version, when Vivian and the children leave, Johnny screams: "Vivian, you're leaving all this?!" In the Director Cut he screams: "Vivian, leave them out of this!" I prefer the theatrical version in that it underlines that he sees Vivian leaving as a loss.Although, of the many deleted scenes, there are 3 of them that I wish they had left. (1) The scene where John is trying to write a song, and he has a hallucination of Jack, (2)The scene where after he had a fight with June, he went to a bar and couldn't stand to hear himself and June singing 'Jackson' on the radio, and (3) the longer scene with Waylon Jennings. The WJ scene is in the theatrical version, but it plays longer in the DC. Played longer, Waylon points out that Johnny was 'out' for 30 hours. So we can see that the drugs are starting to make Johnny less aware of time.Generally speaking, the theatrical version flows better, and it smartly moves gradually to the crumbling of the marriage between Vivian and Johnny. But the Director Cut (as drawn out as it might feel) includes interesting footage that Johnny is still suffering from the loss of Jack and that he is starting to lose awareness of time. You kind of have to make your own choice here. I like those 3 scenes, but I would have left most of the other deleted scenes out.

Prompt delivery. It's a pity the Blu-ray manufacturers don't include stereo sound as a sound option. The 5-1 system on a played back on a sound bar rather than 5 speaker systrem leaves dialogue almost inaudible while the music is deafening.

There's not a lot to say that hasn't already been said here!I knew very little about Cash besides the fact that he died not long ago and a friend is a huge fan of his music. However I was interested enough to want to see the movie and intrigued to see Reese W live out her childhood dream of being a country singer.Wow.It's a long movie but I hardly noticed. Some really truly great acting from both leads - a magnificent supporting cast. A compelling, dramatic, and moving story of redemption.Of necessity the film focuses on a relatively short period of Cash and Carter's life and the genesis of their relationship, but it whets the appetite to find out more about the man and his music. I think it actually works a good deal better than if they had tried to fit his whole life in - it's a snapshot, which has enabled the filmmakers to really get into the story, not skim over things too much.Witherspoon and Phoenix both put in quite amazing vocal performances. Phoenix in particular beautifully portrays Johnny's journey from wannabe gospel singer nervously trying out his own song for a producer right up to the confident rock star with the inmates of Folsom putty in his hands. Acting, singing and playing wise both actors give it their all, and the supporting actors who learned to sing and singers who learned to act all come out smelling of roses.Some beautiful and some incredibly powerful scenes - those where June and her family walk Cash through withdrawal from drugs fitting neatly into both those categories and being some of my favourite parts of the film.One also mustn't forget the two young actors playing young JR and his brother, who really set up the film incredibly well - the opening scenes leading up to the death of his brother show that these two young actors are serious talent of the future and they do a beautiful job making real the close friendship that haunts the adult Cash throughout the rest of the film.I could seriously waffle on for ages, I have been so impressed by this movie. What can I say? It's a triumph. Do watch the deleted scenes and also the interesting and informative commentary (which gives the background to some scenes in the movie which in many cases you may otherwise think must have been elaborated on or made up). I am looking forward to getting my hands on the double disc set and seeing the rest of the extras.Buy this movie, or at least, rent this movie, you won't regret it. It's a keeper and one I am certain I shall watch many times more.And... a new addition to my all time favourite quotes:Record Company Executive: Your fans are church folk, Johnny. Christians. They don't wanna hear you singing to a bunch of murderers and rapists, tryin' to cheer 'em up.Johnny Cash: [pause] Well, they're not Christians, then.

Just love this film, The life story of Johnny Cash warts and all. Joaquin Phoenix is really amazing, he has all his mannerisims off too a tea. And of course the music is fabulous. Will watch this again and again.

This limited edition DVD, CD and book pack contains the 2-disc Special Edition DVD of James Mangold`s acclaimed film, the 16-track CD soundtrack and a specially produced 48 page book, packed with amazing pictures from the film and reflections on Johnny Cash`s legacy.DVD Disc 1: -Audio Commentary. -10 deleted scenes.DVD Disc 2:- Celebrating the Man In Black: The Making of Walk the Line - 8 extended music sequences. - Folsom: Cash and the Comeback Featurette. -Ring of Fire: The Passion of Johnny and June Featurette. -Becoming Cash/Becoming Carter Featurette. -Cash and His Faith Featurette.CD - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack:-16 tracks including I Walk The Line, Ring Of Fire, Folsom Prison Blues, Jackson, That`s All Right, It Ain`t me Babe and many more.

FANTASTIC FILM. DID NOT KNOW JOAQUIN PHOENIX WAS SUCH A FANTASTIC SINGER.VERY GOOD VALUE. DO NOT MISS IT.