Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash! Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash? (1 Viewer)

[Dome Vongvises]

The only challenge Joaquin has is sounding like a seven foot giant. That's what I thought the first time I ever heard Cash.

 

[GuruAskew]

Right, Bill, and the proof's right here on HTF! June Carter and Johnny died in May and September 2003, respectively, and as we can see, Vickie started this thread in March '03, with Joaquin and Reese already cast.

Yeah, I'm sure my fellow HTF'ers will know, I just think a lot of less-informed people will make the assumption I spoke of earlier.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The only challenge Joaquin has is sounding like a seven foot giant.

There are some lines where he clearly nails it, others where he clearly doesn't.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Here we have a true rarity and i'll explain why.

It has been 16 years since my father has gone to the movies with me...this film will end that streak.

My father is perhaps the most Johnny Cash obsessed man on the planet and when I asked him if he was going to make an effort to go see this, instead of hearing the usual "I'll wait until the dvd.", he said "Oh yeah!" which surprised me a little.

I'm no huge fan of Cash's but he is a great singer and an American icon, and so i'm actually excited about seeing this with my dad next Friday, that alone will make the film special to me.

That song he did before he died 'Hurt', is one hell of a powerful song! :frowning:

 

[Shawn_KE]

Well Hurt is actually a Nine In Nails song, but Cash sung it with much more emotion. The Man Comes Around is my fave.

He is a legend and a American Icon and I hope the movie lives up to him. There have been some pretty crazy things said about Joaquin during the filming of the movie.

 

[Shawn Shultzaberger]

I grew up listening to Johnny Cash with my dad. I am not a big country music fan but Johnny's music just seems to have something that the stars of today don't and I don't know what it is.

Any I just saw the video "Hurt" and I am totally moved. I can't believe I've missed this thing. This only makes me want to go see the movie more.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Anybody that is not familiar with Cash's work, or thinks that they don't like country music, really ought to give some of his music a chance. There is no similarity between modern country (utter garbage), and the masterful output of Mr. John Cash.

That said, Ebert & Roeper gave the film an overwhelming "Thumbs Up" on their show this weekend, which only excites me more. I can't wait to see this film.

 

[nickGreenwood]

Not only was Johnny considered a country star, but he was considered a rock star too.
He recorded at Sun Studio's at the same time as Elvis, Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins. The man has had one hell of a life and career. I was excited about this movie from the moment I heard about it. Then when I heard Joaquin was cast as Johnny, and was apparently picked by Johnny to play him I thought that was cool.
Reese as June Carter Cash, I think it'll great for her, show people that's she's not just some dumb actress who can make Legally Blonde sequals till the cows come home.
And to know that Joaquin and Reese spent months learning to sing and play instruments like the people they were playing is amazing.
Also look for Shooter Jennings who plays his own father (Waylon Jennings) in the film.

T. Bone Burnett is in charge of the soundtrack on this and I have a friend who is in the band The Cinematic Underground (good band, highly recommended) who scored the movie "Brick" as well (which comes out in March) and was asked to come in to work on the soundtrack as well. He had some other obligations to fulfill and didn't get a chance too, but two my best friends who are his managers and him went to T. Bone's studio and missed Joaquin by a day or two.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

I just wanted to say that every single shot in that trailer is an absolute masterpiece. Phedon Papamichael was director of photography on the film, and he is the reason I own a copy of While You Were Sleeping.

Can't wait. And the Ebert and Roeper rave made me want to see it even more.

 

[Henry Gale]

...look for Shooter Jennings who plays his own father (Waylon Jennings) in the film.

How about this pedigree...
Waylon Payne, named after his godfather, Waylon Jennings, plays Jerry Lee Lewis in this film. His mother is country singer Sammi Smith (recently deceased) and his father is Jody Payne, longtime guitarist with Willie Nelson.

 

[Patrick Sun]

This was a good film covering Johnny Cash's early years, gaining a musical foothold in Tennessee, struggling with balancing a home life with the touring, and his ups-n-downs when it came to June Carter and to the pills that threatened to undermine everything for him at the height of his musical career.

Joachin Phoenix started out a little shaky as Johnny Cash, but he owns the role once the middle act gets going, and his vocal performances get better and better as the film unfolds, after about 30 minutes into the film, I forgot it was Phoenix on the screen and just accepted him as a young Johnny Cash, warts and all. Reese Witherspoon is solid as June Carter, and presents a hint of what she must have gone through in the 1960's after her divorce while remaining in the public eye performing with Johnny's tour.

As a film, it might have been tightened up a bit, by maybe 5-10 minutes, but that might have meant a musical number getting cut, so I can forgive the 135 minute running time.

I give it 3.5 stars, or a grade of B+.

 

[Dave Mack]

I'm VERY stoked to see this film!

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

As a film, it might have been tightened up a bit, by maybe 5-10 minutes, but that might have meant a musical number getting cut, so I can forgive the 135 minute running time.

Interestingly, the soundtrack CD includes video of "unseen performance footage not included in the movie". Now, I haven't seen the film, so I couldn't tell you if any of this stuff was in the film at all, but the two songs are Rock 'N' Roll Ruby and Jackson.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think "Jackson" made it (towards the end of the film), I don't think the other song did.

BTW, most uncompelling Elvis ever: Tyler Hilton

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

A very good film! This was actually a very special evening for me, it's the first film i've seen with my dad at the theater since 89 and that alone will make it memorable for me.

My dad is a walking, talking encyclopedia of all things Johnny Cash and it was great having him seated next to me because he would occasionally lean over and whisper little tid bits to me as we watched. He's been a rabid fan of Cash's since he was a teenager and he really loved the film, he said he found it to be very accurate, he even met Cash once and has seen him in concert a number of times.

As for me, i've never really been a fan, but I never disliked Cash, either, it's just that I grew up in a house where he could be heard blaring from the stereo all the time and he kinda got hammered into my head. But, as I get older I have learned to appreciate things and I now realize that his music is actually quite fantastic and the film helped me appreciate him even more so, so that was good. I also loved the fact that the film was framed at 2.35:1, it gave it an epic feel that the material, and the 'Man in Black' himself, deserved.

If I had to complain about one thing, it would be that they should have used Cash' real voice for the singing, even though I truly admire the hell out of Joaquin's dedication in learning how to play and sing for the role, it's just that I don't think he really sounded like Johnny Cash.

As Patrick said, though, Joaquin's singing, and the illusion, got better as the film went on and once your wrapped up in it that quibble is easily brushed aside. The real surprise for me was Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, I didn't think she had it in her but she proved me wrong and once again got my dad's seal of approval which, coming from him, is all the confirmation I need.

We discussed the film on the way home and I learned that Johnny's last weeks were very sad one's, after June passed away Johnny just wanted to be with her and he really didn't want to go on, that made me sad to hear. But then my dad told me that Johnny was one of the only artists from that era who lasted and stood the test of time and I realized that he was right and that made me feel happy for Cash.

In closing, I found no fault with the film except for the singing, but I can excuse that. Great performances, great musical numbers and a great story of one of America's great one's, see it even if your not a fan of Cash' and you just might make a great new discovery.

:star: :star: :star: :star: and a half out of :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: for Walk the Line.

 

[Haggai]

I enjoyed Walk the Line very much, as most of the focus is on what made Johnny and June Carter Cash so compelling: not just that they were great musicians, but great entertainers. Joaquin and (especially) Reese are both excellent, as is Waylon Payne in his handful of scenes as Jerry Lee Lewis.

The one main weakness of the movie for me was the long focus on the inevitable "descent into addiction/unable to cope with fame/losing the family" business, which feels more like an extended VH-1 Behind the Music episode. There is some truth to it, of course, but the resentment against the father stuff at the end just seems like a by-the-numbers attempt to "explain" where his talent "really" came from (although I did think the childhood scenes at the beginning were quite compelling). Some trimming of those later sections would have been better, I think. But there's still some good stuff in those parts: the audience I saw it with cheered when June's father busted out his shotgun to chase away the drug dealer, and the cheers got even louder when June's mother came out with HER shotgun!
So I guess my point is that this part of the story works well when it has some distinct personality to it, like the shotgun-toting Carter parents,
while a lot of the drug addiction/losing his marriage/father conflict seems fairly uninspired and cliched.

That's more criticism than I expected to make in this post, as most of the movie is great. Pretty much all the scenes with everyone on tour together are tremendous, as you get a nice feel for their personalities and their talent really coming together. That's the key to the legacy of Johnny and June Carter, that they blended their singing and songwriting abilities with such memorably entertaining stage personas.

 

[Michael Elliott]

:star::star::star::star:

I thought the movie was excellent, although certainly flawed in some areas. I'll write more a bit later but I somewhat feel the film was hampered by the PG-13 rating. I think an R-rated film would have allowed things do be a bit more dramatic. The film was basically a love story and a spotlight for the two leads and it worked on both of those levels.

However, it seems Reese should be getting a Best Supporting Actress nom. She really wasn't a lead anywhere in the film so I'd probably put her in the Supporting.

 

[Nathan V]

Sorry to fart, guys, I'm usually the first to rag on people who nitpick films, but I did not enjoy this at all. I felt that the direction was uninspired, the childhood scenes poorly acted and/or written, the screenplay made no attempt to make its cliched storyline unique, and Carter's agreement to marry seemed out of place and unexplained from her point of view, as did Cash's reconciliation with his father at the end, too abrupt. And why so many movies feel the need to end on freeze frames is beyond me. I had tremendous problems with pacing, and felt that the great majority of the scenes were situations that had been conveyed much better elsewhere. This is a pitfall of doing any "musical bio" film, as the story is always the same (musician gets big, does lots of drugs, crashes, plays again, etc), but there are ways around this. See Clint Eastwood's BIRD, for example. I really wanted to like this film. Of course, it goes without saying that Pheonix was phenomenal; Witherspon was also quite excellent. In addition, I was impressed with the actor playing the Jerry Lee Lewis character, and the Folsom concert as well as the first recording studio session (I killed a man in Reno) were handled well. Also, Pheonix's destruction of his hotel room is done entirely in one shot, which I found extraordinary. The concerts also have a good visual approach, which is difficult as the concert setting is a situation that's been shot to death. And, of course, it is superior to Ray.

Regards,
Nathan

 

[Michael Elliott]

Even though I loved the film I wouldn't argue anything you wrote Nathan.

As for the marriage, the ending was 100% Hollywood B.S. There were other historical "errors" in the film and while the ending was totally false I think it worked very well with the film. I found it touching and funny at the same time and that's not something I say too often with love stories.

I gave the film four stars and loved it but it's far from a perfect film. It kept me entertained for the entire 135 minutes but yes, I think it could have been better (with an R-rating) and I certainly understand why some will walk away cold.

Which brings me to another thing. I watched the film with around 100 people and they all seemed really into the film yet it appeared they HATED Cash with a passion. It was as if they had never seen a rocker on drugs because there were a couple moments where they would boo Cash. A woman at the end of the film asked why Carter would want a "bum" like that. I was really shocked that these people went to a Johnny Cash film and apparently didn't know what they were getting. Earlier I guessed mostly Phoenix and Witherspoon fans would go see this and I guess that was the case with my crowd. They cheered Carter trying to clean him up but their reactions towards Cash were pretty brutal.

 

[Haggai]

What do you mean about the R rating, Michael? In terms of what else you think could have been in the movie to make it more effective, that is.