Walk The Line
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Biographical films can always be a tricky thing in using actors to portray famous figures whose general look and demeanor are already of great familiarity to the moviegoing public. But the pressure mounts even moreso when said film is about a famous musician since not only must the main actor impersonate that famous person, but also SING in a convincing fashion as that person does, that is of course if the actor even attempts to sing and doesnât rely on the songs being dubbed in with the original voice. The granddaddy of the modern music biopics is of course Oliver Stoneâs The Doors with Val Kilmer not looking so much like the real Jim Morrison but once equipped with the hairstyle and wardrobe wound up doing a stunning job emulating Morrisonâs voice and singing style, reputedly only being denied an Oscar (much less a nomination) because of concerns over how Morrison was portrayed onscreen in his general personality (really the fault of Stoneâs script and not Kilmer himself). Flash forward a few years later and we get Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, this time actually winning the Oscar even though (despite a brilliant acting performance) all of his singing scenes were dubbed in with the voice of the actual Ray Charles (a strange thing since Foxx does have a good voice). But the Oscar still went his way which set up the next major project in this assembly line, an all out biography of The Man In Black, Johnny Cash released in 2005 and starring Joaquin Phoenix in what was a tour de force performance where he not only got the look and legendary swagger of Cash down just right, he actually DID do his own singing here and an amazing job it was at that (certainly the best that anybody had done onscreen since Kilmer), only to nab the Best Actor Oscar Nomination and then not win, a real disappointment given the tremendous effort Phoenix had obviously put into this performance (so much so that he was hospitalized shortly after filming had ended) whereas Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash DID win Best Actress for a role that essentially required her to exude equal parts perkiness and sullen regret (along with doing her own singing as well) but which barely scratched the surface in comparison to her co starâs brilliant work. No surprise that the two bonded heavily on set during the filming, even cleverly improvising a couple of bits during the onstage scenes. The film opens with Cashâs childhood on a rural Arkansas farm, looking up to his older brother who has aspirations of being a preacher and listening to June Carter and her family performing on the radio (apparently, she had been a famous singer since childhood) and staying under the thumb of his abrasive farmer father (Robert Patrick registering a solid character acting performance). When his brother is killed in a gruesome accident involving a tablesaw, young Johnny (or JR as he is called) is left embittered over the unfairness of it all, a bitterness that would follow him for much of his life as he joins the Air Force and marries his high school sweetheart (Ginnifer Goodwin) with whom he would have two kids before we get to the key scene in the movie (and the best): his audition for Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts) of Sun Records who is unimpressed with his gospel renderings since itâs all been done before and tells him that the best way to touch peopleâs souls is to do the music that comes purely from his own heart and it is right then and there that Phoenix transforms onscreen from the accomplished actor that he is known for being into the one and only Johnny Cash himself, finding his voice as well as the heart and soul of his music. From there, he goes on the road in one of those oldschool type revue events, sharing the stage with several other living legends (although they werenât legends quite yet) including Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison which leads to the filmâs most laughable conceit, that Cash developed his notorious prescription pill habit based at least partially on peer pressure from Elvis Presley himself (âHere, take these Johnny. Elvis does em.â says a roadie while Presley just stands there sneering). From there on, itâs the collapse of his marriage and inevitable hookup with his childhood crush in Witherspoonâs June Carter, a pixie like waif with a large Christian following that has been decimated by her having suffered through two divorces (apparently performers of that time were held to much higher personal and moral standards and for many people divorce was considered to be an abomination which in turn made many think of her as being a whore), thus reducing her finally to merely being a backup singer in Cashâs own show. But Cash is a man in love, and his repeated attempts at asking June to marry him (only to be constantly rebuffed) grow even stronger when she camps out at his place with her own parents and forcibly detoxes him (even chasing away his dealer at gunpoint) before of course the memorable live concert at Folsom Prison (where he infamously undermined the warden and all other forms of authority while onstage in front of convicts) as he finally lived up to his Christian values by playing an exclusive show for the dregs of society (with the idea being put forth earlier that a lot of his fan mail came from correctional facilities anyway) as evidenced by the executives telling him that his âChristian fansâ wouldnât want to see him playing such a place to which he readily (and correctly) replies âWell then they ainât Christiansâ. Then there is the almost equally remembered show in Ontario, mostly because he finally put June on the spot in front of the entire live crowd and asked her to marry him, this time getting the answer which he was looking for. The film (produced in part by Johnny and Juneâs only son John Carter Cash) reportedly didnât go over so well with Cashâs daughters from his first marriage who felt that their own mother was viciously demonized onscreen while June (who was carrying on with Johnny long before any divorce took place) was so obviously written and portrayed as being his âsoulmateâ. Nonetheless, the producers were able to say that before he died, Cash did sign off on Phoenix portraying him (as June did with Witherspoon before she passed), so no controversy could be found with the casting even as both Johnny and June donât even age a day over the course of the film (especially since the real Johnny notoriously put on a lot of weight in his later years) which overall hurts some of the potential authenticity of the whole thing since it couldnât have hurt matters to have used some makeup to at least age them a little bit. But no, both stars are shown during the Folsom and Ontario shows still looking like theyâre in their late twenties, no doubt an artistic choice on the part of director James Mangold that went a little awry. But itâs during the quieter moments that Phoenix perhaps gets the most mileage out of, not to mention the harsher ones (like with Foxxâs Ray, this film seems to delight at showing its main subject when theyâre at their lowest point), thus showing how this is a tour de force turn by Phoenix (which is nicely complemented by Witherspoon) of a musical figure whose life story probably would not have been all that interesting in the hands of a lesser talent (unlike Morrison whom in comparison had a very colorful life and legend which always made Stoneâs film fun to watch) since a pill addiction and failed marriage is about the most dirt that they could mine out of this particular story, but when you have an actor as great as this in the role, then all is forgiven provided that weâre able to watch him do his thingâŚ
8/10