Walk the Line [Blu-ray]

“Walk the Line” is on its surface a love story between Johnny Cash and June Carter. But beneath its surface a deeper subject matter lies; grief and guilt over an untimely death. You have to wonder how many families pass around guilt when one of their own tragically dies young. Everyone must be swimming in pain not wanting to accept they may have in one way or another contributed to the unexpected devastation and therefore lay the burden on someone else in the family instead of asking what they themselves might have done differently to prevent the tragedy in the first place. Interestingly there’s a film by Rian Johnson called “Brick” which does the opposite. The lead character Brendan says on the subject of avenging his girlfriend’s death, “I set out to know who put her in the spot, who put her in front of the gun.” In other words he is not after the person who pulled the trigger and put the bullet into his girlfriend, but rather the person who put her in danger of getting shot in the first place.“Walk the Line” introduces its bookended grief in the form of an electric table saw. As the movie begins we see Johnny Cash leaning over and intensely observing the round ominous blade of one backstage as he prepares to perform his legendary Folsom Prison concert. At first we do not know why the blade is so important but as the movie continues we see how it played an extraordinary part in shaping the singer/songwriter’s life and we come back to the saw towards the end of the film right before he goes on stage.Johnny Cash, we find out, grew up on a farm with his mother, sisters, father and his older brother Jack. Jack was the father’s favorite because he was easier for the father to understand…or rather because Jack was better at assimilating into what their father wanted. On one fateful day Jack and Johnny set out to go fishing but Jack, needing to earn money for the struggling family, stops at a place who hires him to slice boards with a table saw first. The scene is great at showing the precariousness of the saw with Johnny shutting it off at one point when Jack loses control of the wood. Jack tells Johnny to head out fishing without him and he’ll catch up…but Jack never does. Instead their father pulls up along the road Johnny is walking on and says, “Where were you?” and the next scene shows the mangled and blood drenched Jack lying on his death bed with his family gathered round. Johnny yells out “Do something!” but no one can and Jack dies.Johnny then spends much of the rest of his childhood being hated by his father. His father even saying at one point the devil took the wrong son. In order to find solace Johnny escapes into his music which his mother introduces him to but no one really supports him in. He goes off and joins the military and finding himself lonely calls up a girl he used to date and proposes to her. And much like his family she doesn’t understand him either.Finally one day a few years later after his first daughter Roseanne is born and he’s stuck in a job as a door to door salesman, Johnny happens upon a recording studio where he sees he could make a record. He gathers his two friends together as his band and they practice and audition much to the disappointment of his wife who wants him to get a job from her father and make some money. At first the band’s audition goes poorly. But when Johnny starts singing a song he wrote while he was in the military called “Folsom Prison Blues” everything changes, they get a record deal and Johnny’s story begins.The theme of guilt and grief continues to run through the film when we see even after he has become successful Johnny succumbs to letting his father say grace at the table during the holidays as a way to appease the man for the death of Jack. His family also dislikes June and their unrequited romance which becomes stronger and stronger the more they perform together until finally one Thanksgiving Johnny says to his father, “Where were you?” In reference to Jack’s death, pointing out how his father, who was a notorious drinker wasn’t around to save Jack either and the anger between father and son explodes.It is also interesting to point out that in a scene when he is discussing doing an acoustical concert at Folsom Prison after reading fan mail from inmates there one of the men says to him of his all black attire, “You look like you’re going to a funeral.” To which Johnny Cash replies, “Maybe I am.” It is yet another reference to the constant shadow of his dead brother.It’s a shame the film didn’t include the deleted scenes in it because there really isn’t a bad one in the bunch or one that couldn’t have been in the film. In my opinion a film is either good or it isn’t. And a good one should tell its story in its entirety no matter how long or how short it may be. The deleted scenes have great moments which further show the pressure of Johnny’s guilt over Jack’s death and the way his brother haunts him such as when he stops at a bar after walking home from June’s house and find out the bar tender’s name is Jack. Another deleted scene shows a fabric flower which Johnny unintentionally tore off of June’s dress at their first concert together sits on his desk as he tries to write “I Still Miss Someone” about the absence of Jack from his life.Even without these additional scenes “Walk The Line” is a terrific, well-structured film with wide audience appeal and the performances by Joaquin Phoenix and the deservedly Oscar winning Reese Witherspoon as June Carter who are both nothing less than phenomenal, especially when you consider not only their outstanding singing numbers together but the inner turmoil that must have eaten at Joaquin as he made the film considering he too tragically lost his brother River to a drug overdose on Halloween of 1993.

"Walk the Line" is a great piece of work that covers an impressive amount of Johnny Cash's history.The movie starts with Mr. Cash getting ready to do his famous live record at Folsom Prison. When he sees a buzz saw, he goes into a series of flashbacks. (These flashbacks are of course the majority of the film.)The flashbacks go back to his childhood where he had to deal with not only with the tragic death of his brother, but his troubles with his father as well. We then go to his marriage with Vivian. We also have a comical look at JC's time as an unsuccessful door to door salesman. On the verge of financial desperation he is able to record his 1st record. (Can't exactly call it a CD here.)For a moment, all seems well, and his rocky marriage with Vivian starts to get better. But of course once he starts performing, it isn't long before June Carter comes into the picture. In my opinion, the marriage with Vivian may have survived. But the problem was she didn't have any affection for the music that was so important to Johnny. And we all know that June cared about the music. (She even came from a family that performed.) We all know what happened, but the breaking of Johnny and Vivian is VERY WELL delayed when we see small appearances from many famous contemporaries. (Elvis, Waylon Jennings, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis.) On a side note, the guy who did Jerry Lee REALLY deserves kudos for taking a small part, playing it to the hilt, and making a huge impression with it.Johnny develops not only an obsession with June, but a drug problem. June of course is against it, but she's not totally spotless. She does sleep with Johnny even though she knows that he has a wife and children.Johnny's fixation on June eventually makes it impossible for Vivian and Johnny to reconcile. And despite Vivian's uptight nature, we are allowed some sympathy for her. She seemed to grudgingly tolerate his thing for June, but hanging up pictures of her in the house was the last straw. The arguably saddest scene in the film is when Johnny and Vivian have their final fight. Vivian can only cry, and then the children fall into tears when they see the final fight.After losing his family, and having somewhat of a breakdown, Johnny goes through a long and painful recovery. (With the help of not only June, but her parents as well.)Johnny (recovered now and perhaps moved by his past troubles) decides to perform a great act of compassion and record the famous Live Folsom Prison record. And now we are back to the present.And of course, all that remains now is for June to say 'yes.'The movie is a bit long, but it's never boring. And it alternates well between the slow scenes and the quickly paced scenes. And of course, there is an impressive amount of Johnny's songs in it.The movie leaves me very little to complain about. In fact, only one thing. Maybe it isn't crucial, but it would have been interesting to show when Mr. Cash tried to kill himself. He wandered into a cave hoping to get lost and die. But he was guided out by light and mist, and he was convinced that Jesus stopped him from killing himself. From that moment, he became a very devout Christian. But of course, you can't put everything in one movie.Overall, it's a GREAT film that alternates well between slow scenes, quickly paced scenes, dialogue, music, comedy, and sadness. And that's arguably what makes it such a great film. At times we think we're watching a comedy, and at other times we think we're watching a tragedy.Finally, what makes it so great is that while Pheonix and Witherspoon play these historical (and recently deceased) characters with tremendous energy, we get a great cast of minor characters who were Mr. Cash's contemporaries.THEATRICAL VS DIRETOR'S CUT: The Director's Cut has about 20 extra minutes. In my opinion, the theatrical version flows better. When I watched the longer version, I honestly could understand why a lot of these scenes were removed from the theatrical version. Especially, the early 'Cry, Cry, Cry' scene. It was a little early for Vivian to say: "You hate me." It really started the crumbling of the marriage between Vivian and John too early.Slight difference. In the theatrical version, when Vivian and the children leave, Johnny screams: "Vivian, you're leaving all this?!" In the Director Cut he screams: "Vivian, leave them out of this!" I prefer the theatrical version in that it underlines that he sees Vivian leaving as a loss.Although, of the many deleted scenes, there are 3 of them that I wish they had left. (1) The scene where John is trying to write a song, and he has a hallucination of Jack, (2)The scene where after he had a fight with June, he went to a bar and couldn't stand to hear himself and June singing 'Jackson' on the radio, and (3) the longer scene with Waylon Jennings. The WJ scene is in the theatrical version, but it plays longer in the DC. Played longer, Waylon points out that Johnny was 'out' for 30 hours. So we can see that the drugs are starting to make Johnny less aware of time.Generally speaking, the theatrical version flows better, and it smartly moves gradually to the crumbling of the marriage between Vivian and Johnny. But the Director Cut (as drawn out as it might feel) includes interesting footage that Johnny is still suffering from the loss of Jack and that he is starting to lose awareness of time. You kind of have to make your own choice here. I like those 3 scenes, but I would have left most of the other deleted scenes out.

This film is excellent, so well done. And, it’s fairly accurate with regard to his life. Who knew these actors could sing so well, and they’re so believable. I strongly recommend it.

The influential and classic music of Johnny cash, his troubled life and the love story of him and June Carter (probably the greatest of the last century) are such tricky subjects to adapt on screen and when I say tricky, I mean so tricky that the only two things that are possible after it's completion is either a huge fail or a classic. The amazing, direction, writing and the breathtaking performances here by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon ensure that a classic is what we get.Joaquin Phoenix totally stuns you by making it impossible to tell between him and Cash. It's not just a portrayal he did, he became Johnny Cash. It comes as something of a surprise that he didn't receive and major awards as 'Best Actor' that year.Reese Witherspoon surely doesn't come up to Phoenix's level and remains somehow overshadowed by his comparatively much more powerful performance, but expecting any better from her won't be right because June Carter (or any other person ever to live) naturally wasn't as complex a person as Cash and with Phoenix portraying all the complexities perfectly, there wasn't much left for her and it's safe to say that it was well worth her 'Best Actress' Oscar.All in all, I cannot think of a better way to honor Cash's genius.

This DVD WALK THE LINE NOT PLAYED IN MY SONY DVD. THIS CONTENT IS NOT SUPPORT IN YOUR AREA

I enjoyed this biography of the first part of Johnny Cash's life, tracing the key events in his life from childhood through to his second marriage, with June Carter. Good acting, good music and a very sympathetic portrayal of "The Man in Black" make this, to anyone who likes country music, an enjoyable film.Of course, should you not like country music, then steer well clear!I did find it slightly too long, the feeling aggravated by the fact that the film starts with a snapshot of a famous moment in his career before going back to fill in the details of his life, but then when we get to that same moment during the film, there is still more story to tell. Not that the remaining part of the film wasn't interesting but directorially it didn't strike me as quite right - hence I'm allocating only 4 stars.

Arrived promptly, very happy with purchase.

Considering it's based on a true life story, this is a great movie. I have seen it several times and love it every time I watch it... the music, the acting (Joaquin Phoenix is excellent!) the scenery the life journeys... A top ten for me.