Walk the Line (2005)

A dilemna here. I loved the moviethink the performances are just terrific. The sound and video are really top-notch and the music really enjoyable. I also enjoyed the deleted scens on the first disc and really to think this is a movie worth adding to the personal collection. The problem I have is the features added to the 2-disc collection. They just are not very good. An examplea special on the Folsom Prison concertclearly one of the most important steps in Cash's career. The special, though it has interesting excerpts of interviews from people who were there, does not have any footage or stills of the actual concert. I found the same to be true of the other specials on the disc as well. Lots of shots of the two stars but very little of the "Man in Black" himself. I would encourage people to buy the movie but to skip the special edition. It just is not worth the extra money, unless you really need five postcards of the stars from the film.

I will preface this by saying I was never a big Johnny Cash fan, but after seeing the excellent way Hollywood handled Ray Charles ("Ray") and Bobby Darin ("Beyond the Sea") I was anxious to see what it would do for The Man in Black. The results are phenomenal. Now, I'm sorry I didn't pay more attention to John and June when they were still living.

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are phenomenal as Johnny and June Carter Cash. This unlikely casting yields such outstanding results that I would hand them both the Oscar right now if I could. I read that Reese almost bailed on the project when she found out she had to do her own singing, but you would never know it from the great vocals and spunky performances she delivers.

The film focuses on their love affair, first as friends and then torrid even while he was married to his first wife and the mother of his children. His drug abuse is highlighted but it is Johnny Cash, the complex man and his love for June Carter, darling daughter of the close-knit and totally supportive Carter clan, that comes shining through and makes this a totally enjoyable movie.

Two big thumbs up for a movie that thrills from its opening at the infamous Folsom Prison to its spectatcular closing.

Buy Walk the Line (2005) Now

In WALK THE LINE, Joaquin Phoenix shows that he's come a long way since his role as the crazy Caesar in GLADIATOR.

Those going into WALK THE LINE thinking it's a comprehensive film bio of Johnny Cash may perhaps come out slightly disappointed. While there's a relative brief sequence of his early years growing up on an Arkansas cotton farm, an even briefer sequence of his time in the Air Force in the early 50s, the film really begins in 1955 when, failing as a door-to-door salesman and wannabe gospel singer, he cuts a rock 'n' roll record for Sun Studios in Memphis and his career as a CW crooner takes off. The film ends with his marriage to June Carter in 1968. In between, against the backdrop of early hits, it focuses on his failed marriage to first wife Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), his self-destructive abuse of amphetamines, and rocky relationship with singer/actress Carter (Reese Witherspoon), a twice-divorced single mother of two.

The real treat of WALK THE LINE is watching Phoenix and Witherspoon amaze with Oscar-caliber dramatic performances. Who would have suspected that the latter was capable of anything other than light comedy?

In case you haven't seen the film and you're wondering, Phoenix and Witherspoon themselves sing the Cash/Carter material; they're surprisingly effective. Mind you, I've never been such a Cash fan that I've possessed any of his albums, and I've only previously downloaded one of his songs ("City of New Orleans"). Indeed, when Phoenix and Witherspoon recreate the Cash/Carter duet of "Jackson", my first thought was: Didn't Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood do that?

Coming out of the screening, my wife remarked that Phoenix sounded very much like Johnny himself. My response was a non-committal but prudent "Mmmm". Back home at the computer, I downloaded a couple more Cash songs, including his "Jackson" duet with Carter. To my ears, the real Cash had a singing voice that was slightly hoarser, and with a more pronounced slow drawl than Joaquin's version. While that doesn't detract from the actor's performance, it may cause purists to grumble.

The film's opening scene is of two guards on a tower at Folsom Prison listening to the bass "thump, thump, thump" washing over the prison yard from the hall in which Cash is about to perform his famous concert before the inmates. My wife and I were sitting in the front row of the studio screening theater and the sound reverberated through our bones. I knew then that WALK THE LINE was going to be an exceptional film.

Read Best Reviews of Walk the Line (2005) Here

On March 25th, 2008, Fox Home Entertainment released Walk The Line 2-Disc Extended Cut. The DVD features the following...

Disc 1:

Extended Cut (153 mins.)

Audio Commentary by James Mangold

Disc 2:

Eight Extended Musical Sequences

More Men in Black: Deleted Scenes

Becoming Cash / Becoming Carter featurette

Sun Records & The Johnny Cash Sound featurette

The Cash Legacy featurette

Folsom: Cash & the Comeback featurette

Ring of Fire: The Passion of Johnny & June featurette

Cash and his Faith featurette

Celebrating the Man in Black: The Making of Walk the Line featurette

Walk the Line Theatrical Trailer

As for what is actually new about the Extended Cut, most of the new material is spread throughout. The new scenes range from a few seconds to a minute or two.

The Extended Cut is presented in it's original aspect ratio, 2.39:1. As with most Extended/Director's Cuts, a fullscreen version isn't offered.

Now for the special features, you get quite a helping on this release. They range from featurettes about the movies production such as the music, casting...etc.

Unless you really enjoyed Walk The Line, I seriouslly doubt you will double or even triple dip for this release. But if you really enjoyed it then an upgrade is warranted.

Want Walk the Line (2005) Discount?

I recently saw this in the theater and had mixed feelings going in. The story seemed similar to last year's Oscar winning biopic on Ray Charles and I wasn't sure a story about Johnny Cash would hold my interest for two hours. After all, this was the singer my dad used to listen to. Little did I know how fascinating Cash's tale would be.

The story touches on Cash's childhood and the tragedy and abuse that would provide the basis for many of his songs. Johnny Cash didn't have the nicest voice but when he sings about pain and regret, you honestly believe he's inside Folsom Prison. Most of the film charts Cash's inevitable path from aspiring songwriter to cultural icon. He has the expected bumps along the way but the tale ends up being inspiring. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon turn in Oscar worthy performances as Cash and his wife and frequent collaborator June Carter Cash. A fun part of the films is that Johnny and June were contemporaries of Elvis, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis and we get to see them represented as well.

These kinds of movies are good for people of my generation because they bring home exactly how innovative and visionary the performers of the past were. It's easy to hear Johnny Cash's voice over an Alamo commercial or see Ray Charles crooning about Diet Pepsi and think they are just silly old men trying to milk their fame. Movies like this make us reinvestigate their pasts to see exactly how trend setting they were. Johnny Cash and Ray Charles were cool, they were the very essence of cool. It would be difficult to imagine the performers of today, many of whom are overindulged and overrated, paying the kinds of dues these guys did and coming up with anything as unique.

Save 45% Off