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WALK THE LINE


WALK THE LINE is the 2005 biopic tracing the roots of country music legend Johnny Cash, as well as his relationship with second wife, June Carter.

As someone who has, if nothing else, a vague recollection of Cash, I found him to be a refreshing topic for a film biography. Since his son's name is one of the names credited to the screenplay, I would think that it is probably pretty accurate as far as the facts are concerned, but that doesn't make it necessarily a great film.

Joaquim Phoenix is electrifying as Johnny Cash and totally nails the darkness and intensity of the character in a performance that I now think should have won him the Oscar. Phoenix completely loses himself in this character and turns in one of the greatest screen creations of a real life person ever.

Reese Witherspoon won an Oscar for her work as June Carter, but I was not nearly as impressed with her work as I was with Phoenix. It's a solid performance but Oscar-worthy? I don't know.

Other than an amazing performance by Phoenix, what we get here is just another show biz biography with all the same tired scenes we've seen in every show biz biography, from the "My daddy was mean to me when I was a kid" scene to the "I don't really have a drug problem, I'm just misunderstood" scene.

Ginnifer Goodwin plays Johnny's first wife, who is drawn as such a total b*tch here you have to wonder why Johnny stayed with her.

What makes this film worth seeing and what earned it this reviewer's rating is the breathtaking performance by Joaquim Phoenix as Johnny Cash.

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It's a biopic, not a drama. It looks to relate the facts concering a person's life as accurately as either the director or the writer or the star may want to make it.

Scenes are not put in merely to facilitate a tick box response; Johnny Cash encountered many of the problems that hard work and success can bring a person and often it is these weaknesses in character that other people find interesting.

I enjoyed the film but I know of at least one Johnny Cash fan who didn't, perhaps because it was too close to real life and they preferred their interpretation of him as a star?

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After seeing the movie, I had to buy any book out there on Johnny cash, as my Mom was a fan of his, and Johnny remindem me so much of my late Dad. Sure, we will never know the complete truth---- but it does gives us a inside look of the problems Cash had, and the struggles he went through. He had a talent that was unequal to anyones. He was the man.

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I rate that movie 10/10. I'm glad Reese Witherspoon won an Oscar for her role.

Volker Flenske: (While torturing David) I don't know why you're doing this to yourself!

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