Walk The Line
   
“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping-stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” - Johnny Cash
 
In 1955 John R. Cash (played here by Joaquin Phoenix) strolled into the Memphis Sun Studios and started the journey to becoming a legend. With his scorching songs of anguish and endurance, this lean, young guitar player shaped a sound clearly his own, striking a chord across America that reverberated with the heart of a genius. In the course of the most explosive and self-destructive phase of his life, generally the years between his arrival at Sun and his legendary live performance at Folsom Prison in 1968, Johnny Cash would stare down his demons, emerging from this chaotic period as the “Man in Black” people across the globe appreciate and admire.
 
Walk the Line captures Johnny's life from shortly before his first record up until his marriage to the woman he's spend the last 35 years of his life with, June Carter. Because of that, this is not just a movie about Johnny Cash, this is both of their stories, his and June's. His love for June ties in directly with his other love, music and he has loved one almost as long as he has loved the other. He listened to June on the radio when they were both children, and his songs, as an adult, reflect his relationship with her. Looking at the mountains these two must climb to be together is incredible. Whether it is her two disastrous marriages or his failing relationship with resentful first wife, Vivian the things keeping them away from each other are substantial. Add in Johnny’s drug addiction and June’s insecurities about her career. The fact these two ever end up together, let alone spend almost four decades as husband and wife, is completely astonishing.
 
Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon's performances are the film's greatest strengths, accurate, honest and affecting, and both are fully justified in receiving the Academy Award nominations they have both obtained (the film has also scooped another three nominations in the category of editing, costume design, and sound). Phoenix was the perfect choice to play Cash, the dark hair, the solemn set of his face, the depth and darkness that always seem to play just beneath his features, even in lighter moments.
 
Walk the Line ends at a point which I would have imagined would have occurred far earlier in the film. The audience knows there is still plenty of story left to tell, but we know most of the important parts, the parts that made Johnny Cash the man and the musician he was. Whether your a fan of Johnny Cash or not (Which incidentally I have been for years), Walk the Line is a excellent biography film on a singing legend.
 
This, like the film I reviewed last week (Good Night, And Good Bye), is another one that has gathered many Oscar nominations. This one has a total of five including Best Motion Picture, Best Leading Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Best Supporting Actress (Catherine Keener), and Best Achievement in Directing (Bennett Miller) and although this has some very tough competition in its nominated categorizes it would be a great injustice if this film was to walk away empty handed.
 
In short, great drama does not get much better than this. As stated, Philip Seymour Hoffman is magnificent, turning a misrepresented character into a believable human being. In addition, scripter Dan Futterman constructs an impeccable arc that sees Capote deceive, flatter and manipulate his masterpiece into life, losing his soul and career in the process.
 
Paul Elliott