Thumbs Down

Rating: Null/10 (3 March 2006)

The hallmark of a great biopic of a singer is the music. As a kid I loved "The Jolson Story". While Larry Parks played Jolson; all the songs were sung by the real Jolson. Likewise in "Ray", Jamie Foxx was great as Ray; but all the songs were sung by Ray Charles. The makers of "Walk the Line" forgot this formula. While Phoenix did avery good job portraying Johnny Cash; he has no voice. Hence, I give the movie a thumbs down because in the end Johnny was all about his wonderful voice. When I saw him and June in the late 80's, June lovingly referred to him on stage as "Ol Golden Throat". And that he was. Phoenix was "Ol Lead Throat". Also, the plot development was poor. The conflict with his Dad should have been fleshed out. The movie failed to capture how Johnny eventually "bottomed out". Also, in the 70's Johnny made his "altar walk", became a Christian and truly turned it all around. The movie never even mentioned it. I guess the secular humanist that run Hollywood simply don't embrace that message. Reese Witherspoon was great. And lets face it most Americans are not familiar with her voice so who cares if she sang.