Review of Walk The Line

Although the movie was a little long and could easily have done with a bit of trimming without hurting the storyline, this biographic look at the life of Johnny Cash was worth the watch to get a peek into the early career and love life of the legendary man in black. Joaquin Phoenix as John R. Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter are quite believable in their respective roles. That they do their own singing adds to the audio continuity of the film -- while for accuracy's sake I would have rather had Johnny's and June's own voices singing the soundtrack, I can certainly understand and appreciate the need to have Phoenix and Witherspoon sing for their own characters especially during on-stage banter, plus, they both did a bang-up good job. The focus of the film is more on the passions of Johnny rather than being a stale biopic chronologically hashing out every major event of Johnny's life. By passions, I mean in the classical sense: strong feelings and strong sufferings. The film dealt with Johnny's brother's death at an early age, Johnny's relationship with his father, Johnny's love of women (his wife, his fans, and his objet du désir, June Carter), his music with its distinct sound (although we never learn why his sound is "steady like a train, sharp like a razor"), and his drug and alcohol abuse. Many accounts in the film are fictionalized (or, rather, condensed to move the story along without getting bogged down), but the spirit of the life of Johnny and his relationship with June, I believe, are captured eloquently. I recommend watching the movie once and then going out and buying a greatest hits CD of Johnny Cash to get a better understanding of the man behind the music.
(On a personal note, I'm not a great fan of country music, but I had the wonderful privilege of seeing Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash perform live in 1996, and his music transcended genre definition and spoke to me on a number of levels. After that, I followed his career and purchased his albums and CDs. I miss the man in black, and I thank him for the enjoyment his music has given me over the years.)