Walk the Line
If the plot of this picture seems like a lot to cram into one film, that's because it is. Biopics like this are always forced to cherry-pick which parts of the subject's life to include in the final cut, and the result is always a sloppy, uneven and often unfair portrayal of the person in the question. Just like Ray from a few years ago, Walk the Line is no different. Some of its biographical transgressions: It makes the very public courtship of June Carter, when they were both married to other people, seem like a private affair; famous drug-induced incidents are not included, like the time he was so wasted he accidentally burned down part of a national forest; and the movie ends in 1968 and implies everything was hunky-dory from then on. That's just an example of some of what was left out, and the writer and director still couldn't find time to make Cash's relationship with his first wife nothing more than brief shouting matches every 15 minutes or so. All of this ruins exceptional work from Joaquin Phoenix (who I've never been particularly fond of) and Reese Witherspoon, who started as musical novices and ended up doing all their own singing and playing; not to mention another fine job of film music production from T-Bone Burnett.
The great biopics in cinema history, like Lawrence of Arabia and Patton, focus on the key period of time when their subject made an impact on the world and then tell the story of who that person really was within that time frame. Unfortunately, that's hard to do with people like Ray Charles and Johnny Cash, who were constantly innovating and reinventing themselves for 40 or 50 years. You're better off just reading a book about them or, better yet, listening to their music.
- April 20, 2006
DVD Extras
A great DTS audio track really adds richness to the music soundtrack. Also included are ten deleted scenes that wouldn't have helped the movie in any way and commentary from James Mangold which I didn't bother to listen to.