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Walk the Line [2005]

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Amazon.co.uk Review

Charting the life stories of both legendary musician Johnny Cash and singer June Carter, Walk The Line has proven to be among the most popular music biopics of all time. And with good reason.

Spearheaded by two superb performances (which we'll come to shortly), the film's main focus is on Cash himself, from his childhood, early successes, eventual troubles through to the legendary concert of Folsom Prison. His journey also takes in drug problems, the tragedy that haunted him and bumpy relationships with the women in his life. Throughout, of course, there's Cash's enviable body of musical work, which not only helps provide markers for his story, but makes for an excellent soundtrack to the movie as a whole.

As a film, Walk The Line is resolutely formulaic, with a structure that'll be familiar to anyone who regularly watches biopics of this ilk. What really helps this one stand tall though are Joaquin Pheonix and Reese Witherspoon. Pheonix is utterly compelling in the lead role, while Witherspoon is back on the form she displayed back in the days of Election.

James Mangold's direction is fine and uncluttered, and while his film clearly chooses which elements of Cash's life to focus on (there's certainly far more to know than you get in the two and a quarter hours here), it works extremely well as an entry point into the life story of a great musician. Even the casual viewer will get a lot from Walk The Line, and it may even compel them to expand their CD collection off the back of it,--Simon Brew

Overlong, but compelling
Review date: 2008-07-03 Rating: 8 out of 10

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon in a biopic of Johnny Cash, but i'm sure You all know that by now. It is a touch too long, but otherwise compelling viewing and with two great leads. It also grows on you more in the days after you watch it.

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Check the Cash.
Review date: 2008-06-14 Rating: 8 out of 10

Biopics can never show a full lifetime of events into a couple of hours - but they can try to capture the essence of the life they portray...

From showing how Johnny lived in the shadow of his late brother, to how he became a father himself; we see how his domestic situation was far from blissful and how this contrasted with the gruelling but increasingly glamorous tours. Beautiful folk singer and all-round-entertainer June represents something Johnny was missing, something deeply exciting - and also stable. But through drug addiction every thing is thrown in jeopardy and he starts to self destruct - his family, career, and developing love for June become a blur of moments through a narcotics induced haze.

The on-screen chemistry between Johnny (Pheonix) June (Witherspoon) seems naturally powerful. There's a sense that they belong, I have never really rated Reese Witherspoon but I am now converted. Her performance is the strongest in a film of strong performances! They are all believable and much of this is thanks to Reese Witherspoon's effortless characterisation.

Throughout the film you're always aware that Johnny is still a little boy at heart wanting to become a man he can be proud of and win the approval of his father. Through June - his saviour, he gets a second chance. Times move on and Johnny is an old-hat routine, but instread of embarassing himself on stage, he begins to ooze style, he is reborn and it is magical to watch.

In a nutshell: Solidly performed, The film ends where it begins, the prison gig which represented Johnny's second go at life. The Epilogue at the end confirms that the rest of the story, untold in the film, was pretty much a happy one. This film succesfully shows us the key elements that make Johnny Cash the man he was. To fully understand the man behind the legend you need to listen to the music he so passionately produced.

superb
Review date: 2008-06-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

im not a fan of johny cash but this film is superb stuff indeed,i was very impressed with joaquin phoenix and resse witherspoon who were both outstanding in the leads

Very Enjoyable Film.
Review date: 2008-05-26 Rating: 8 out of 10

Firstly i'm not a fan of Johnny Cash as musically it's not my preference, but i am a fan of biopics and this is great, i didn't know anything about his life prior to watching this, so I found it really intriguing.

It chronicals the life of the legendary country singer, though his disadvantaged childhood working on the farm, to being the struggling musician trying to get his music heard, to the final scene where he proposes to June Carter on stage, and along the way we see the different ways fame challenges him, to sum it up in a few words, the classic rock star phase, `sex, drugs & rock & roll' all these elements have been included in the film, and the fact the actors actually sing is a real bonus.

Overall i thought the film was very enjoyable to watch, it was well screenwritten, and the cast were excellent.

An Excellent Treatment.
Review date: 2008-04-04 Rating: 8 out of 10

In the first instance I'd like to address the comments of the reviewer(s) who said that this biopic lost a degree of it's potential by 'dumbing down' in order to pander to its' 12A certification. For me, this constituted a great deal of its' value. There are so many movies that try to harvest an audience by means of gratuitous sex and violence that I for one am delighted that, for once, I can watch a realistic movie that doesn't make me sick into my gin and tonic. It can scarcely be regarded as a secret that Cash was, at some stages, a pill-popping alcoholic narcissist. If the purpose of the film had been solely to hammer that common knowledge home then I would have felt cheated. In fact, the offering went considerably beyond such superficiality, showing the way Cash saw himself in his own terms.
I have deducted a star because I, as others have agreed, felt that the whole thing was a bit of a slow-starter. Aside from that, I could not have wished for a better effort. Let's not forget that Mangold and Cash's own son formulated this biopic out of Cash's own accounts, and I really do feel that the 'point', if you will, was to show the man behind the public image and, equally importantly, beyond the substances. This was the man that Johnny himself seems to have reflected upon later on- imperfect, unreliable, inadequate.
The substance abuse and his woeful insufficiency as a husband and father come right through. They are regrets and are not made glamorous as some may have sought to display them. Far from feeling 'cheated' at the absence of graphic scenes of substance abuse and extra-marital sex, I was constantly heartened by the message at the movie's heart- Cash, having made many mistakes, did not want them to define him. This is not to say that he comes out of it well, only that he cannot be 'lumped together' with the Keith Richards and Pete Dochertys (just some examples) of this world, who seem to be more and more at risk of posterity defining them as substance-fuelled circus acts, whether justly or not.
I felt good for Johnny Cash. Remorse can disguise a multitude of sins, and he comes across as having been remorseful to the point of utter devastation. This biopic did what it set out to do, and gave us a brilliant soundtrack to boot- I'd definitely recommend it.

Product Details/Specifications

Actor(s):
Joaquin Phoenix
Reese Witherspoon
Robert Patrick
Ginnifer Goodwin
Sandra Ellis-Lafferty

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036026093
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL,
Release date: 2006-05-22
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 124 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005
Language: English (Original Language)
Brand: Generic

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Walk the Line [2005]

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