Walk the Line

[Mere Nick]

Our family went to see Walk the Line tonight.  Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon did an excellent job.  It is my understanding that they did the actual singing.  I've read in an article that Joaquin learned to play the guitar for this movie.

What made the movie really interesting is that the movie didn't appear to just be a 2+ hour praise session for Johnny.  
It gave us a look at his childhood and the death of his brother.  His father hurt Johnny deeply when his father said the devil took the wrong son.

It then dealt with his early years in the business and how he bacame a speed addict, which came very close to wrecking his life.  It showed how being in the business led to the violent breakup of his first marriage. June and her family eventually helped Johnny come to grips with and defeat the drug addiction.  

Johnny and June started back to church.  

The relationship between Johnny and his father was somewhat restored.  In a scene towards the end of the movie, some of the kids had a long string tied between two cans.  They gave one can to Johnny's father and asked them to tell them a story.  He said he didn't have any stories.  Johnny told him that he did, and reminded him of the big flood when Johnny was a kid and how his father made a raft out of the door and took the family to safety.  His father seemed surprised that Johnny remembered it.

I was hoping that the movie would be true to the Johnny Cash autobiography which I heard Kris Kristofferson read to me on a cd.  It certainly appeared to do that, since Johnny and June, as well as many others, were interviewed extensively by the people who made the movie.  It's to Johnny's credit that he could admit to having sins with which to struggle.

Those are some of my initial thoughts about the movie.  It lasted a little over two hours.  I wouldn't be all that surprised if Joaquin and Reese get Oscars.

I highly recommend the movie.

[James Rondon]

Not a movie I would picture you going to see, Nick...

[janine]

I have seen some advertisments for it -- Reese can carry a part whether or not she looks like the person she's portraying, but I thought it was absolutely eerie how Joaquin seemed to be the young Johnny.  Freaky.

I read that the daughter of Johnny's first wife was upset with the portrayal of her mother.

[boringoldguy]

It was a good movie.

As to the portrayal of the first wife - it was sympathetic,  I thought,  but she came across as a sort of \"bit-part\" in the story,  and kind of one-dimensional.

[Mere Nick]

Not a movie I would picture you going to see, Nick...

Why not?  I'm a Cash fan.

[Mere Nick]

It was a good movie.

As to the portrayal of the first wife - it was sympathetic,  I thought,  but she came across as a sort of \"bit-part\" in the story,  and kind of one-dimensional.

I heard the story that Janine heard.  What struck me was the honesty that the Cash family appeared to offer regarding Johnny's treatment of her.  I didn't know until the movie that he physically attacked her.  

It must be tough to be married to a man on the road like he was, for him to be addicted to speed, to always be around a female he listened to growing up, and to be the wife at home who doesn't seem to really like what he was doing for a living.  She was still too attached to daddy and wanted him to be the true provider for her family with Johnny being his employee.

[James Rondon]

Not a movie I would picture you going to see, Nick...

Why not?  I'm a Cash fan.[/color]

I usually stick to my debit card, but that's just me!

[Mere Nick]

Well, you know what they say, James.  If I had Johnny's Cash and Charley's Pride, I wouldn't have a Buck Owens.

[boringoldguy]

I guess you'd spend all of Johnny' s Paycheck if you could.

[DCR]

Thanks for your Minnie Pearls of wisdom...

::laughinguncontrollably::

[James Rondon]

That's just rich!  :D

[Cliftyman]

I don't know if I'd rather have Johnny's Paycheck or Johnny's Cash... either way I don't think the cupboard would be as Bare as Bobby's.

[James Rondon]

Who's Bobby?