See it

Rating: 10/10 (1 December 2005)

Go see this movie.
Even if you don't know anything at all about The Man In Black or June Carter Cash.
I was born in 1970, and by that time, Cash was already a legend. Being born in '70, Cash wasn't exactly my cup of tea. It's only since I've gotten older that I've expanded my musical tastes to include many things I used to scoff at.
Phoenix is unbelievable as Cash. He's got his mannerisms down cold. As I watched him play the guitar, held up high with his strumming hand way back on the strings, it brought back memories of seeing the real Cash on TV when I was a young boy.
Whitherspoon was also amazing. I'm sure her Nashville bloodline helped out, but, she perfects her performance every bit as well as Phoenix's Cash.
I did think that Witherspoon sounded just a tad bit like Sandy The Squirrel on the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon. But, then again, so did June Carter Cash. Southern through and through.
Like "Ray", being a period piece, Walk The Line really is convincing in portraying the 50's and 60's.
I loved the scenes where the Sun Recording artists are all riding around in cars to their next show. Can you imagine todays over-bloated egomaniacal musicians traveling to their next gig together in a sedan?
Another performance I really enjoyed was Shooter Jennings portrayal of his father. I thought the Jerry Lee Lewis character was funny as well. The whole bit about "God said 'don't touch!'" was great.
This movie is worthy of its praises. I can't imagine it getting beat out at Oscar time.
I also liked that it was a fairly clean movie. My 13 year old son went to see it; actually ASKED to go see it, and I wasn't embarrassed to sit there with him and watch.
The movie touched on some pretty serious issues; drug abuse, infidelity, etc., and did so more or less cleanly. That is a welcome change in todays films. The movie is plenty strong enough on its own, so it didn't need any 'shock value' or explosions, blood and guts, etc.
The only thing I would like to have seen was more of an expanded role by the other Sun artists on tour. But, the movie was long already, I suppose.
I was already a fan of Phoenix, from his roles in movies like "Signs" and others. I like Witherspoon as well, but this performance really shows that she can truly act, and is simply not just a 'star'. She's quite the actress.
Go see this movie. It's one of the best films I've seen in a long, long time. It's right up there with Ray in my book.