Walk the Line - a movie review

I really wanted to like Walk the Line, the biographical movie of Johnny Cash played by Joaquin Phoenix with supporting actress Reese Witherspoon playing June Carter Cash. I like Johnny Cash's singing. I like the songs he wrote. I like what little I knew about his relationship with the Carter family.



But the movie disappointed me. It showed a man who let his father's rejection of him drive him to drink and drugs. In the process he lost his wife and children. Sometimes a man's biography will show him a little larger than life. This one showed Johnny a little smaller than the man he projected himself to be on stage. He was verbally abusive to those he should have treasured most and acted like a spoiled child instead of a professional. He concern for and bond with prison inmates was laudable but came across more like a desire to "be one of them" than to inspire or lift their spirits up.



The acting itself wasn't bad and the singing was downright respectable, comparing favorable to what Cash and Carter would have done themselves. But the movie just didn't seem to come together, it seemed more like a documentary than a movie. Watching the special features on the DVD explained some of the problem. In my opinion some significant story details were left on the cutting-room floor, according to the director, in order to "get the viewer more engaged" in the first part of the movie. But getting the viewer "engaged" at the expense of the story can be a bad trade-off. For example, it was never clear to me that Cash's songs were supposed to be so self-revealing or autobiographical. Although songwriters, poets, or fiction authors draw on their own experiences, I think of them representing a truth larger than their own world. Apparently, Cash wasn't doing that. In his world, he really did "Cry, cry, cry", "Walk the Line", and identify personally with "Folsom Prison Blues".