Walk the Line

Walk the Line

Release Date: 11/18/05

Running Length: 134 mins

Rating: PG-13 (Profanity, drugs)

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick, Dallas Roberts, Dan John Miller, Larry Bagby, Shelby Lynne

Director: James Mangold

Producers: James Keach, Cathy Konrad

Screenplay: Gill Dennis & James Mangold

Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael

Music: Johnny Cash, T Bone Burnett

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Theatre: Empire Theatres

Date: 12/12/05

Time: 7:15 P.M.

"Walk the Line" is a biographical film about the life and times of country's bad boy, Johnny Cash. The movie starts out midway through Cash's career at the legendary 'Folsom Prison Concert' of 1968. Before you see Cash perform at the prison you are whisked back to his childhood. It tells the story of his early days on his father's farm, and his days in the Air Force positioned over in Germany. When Cash returns from Germany his music career begins to take off. His band, Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, get an audition with the notorious Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records (the label that founded Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins...Just to name a few). Cash is immediately signed, cuts a record, and heads out on his first musical tour, which happens to be of historical proportions. The tour includes all the boys founded by Sun records that I mentioned above, and also June Carter, Cash's impending love interest. His music elevates him to stardom he could have never dreamed of, but drug and alcohol abuse threaten to drag him right back down. They also get in the way of a possible romance with June, the love of his life, even after Vivian Cash leaves him. The film continues Cash's story into the late 1960s, and rejoins with the opening scene in Folsom Prison for an emotional ending.

The Director James Mangold does an excellent job depicting the early years of Johnny Cash. The style of the movie is based mostly on Cash's own book "Cash: The Autobiography". The style stays consistent throughout the entire movie, although the style during concert scenes becomes more of a music video style as opposed to the dramatic parts of the movie. The music video style is pulled off due to some great camerawork. One scene I remember in particular is when Cash is on stage with his band and June, but all you are able to see is Cash's face and the bright white spotlight shining at the camera behind him. The costumes in the movie are based on the early days of rock n' roll nearly half a century ago. Most men wore basic dress suits while women would where nothing that would be to revealing, usually a long skirt and a white blouse. My favourite part about the costumes is seeing Cash slowly evolve with what he wears until he eventually he wears his all black suit and fulfills his nickname "the man in black". The lighting in the film started out very bright, and slowly as Cash become involved with drugs began to darken. As Cash tried to make his recovery the lights began to brighten once again, until the final scene where a giant spotlight shines on him and June kissing, leaving there physical features almost unnoticeable in the high contrast. This movie was cast flawlessly, though the actors do not necessarily look like John and June, they make it up in the singing and acting department. They were scenes in the movie where I could have closed my eyes and not known whether it was John and June or Joaquin and Reese.

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