Cash on delivery

Rating: 7/10 (29 September 2008)

I'm no fan of country music with its corny "somebody done somebody wrong" lyrics, yee-ha vocals and gloopy strings, but Johnny Cash was definitely different. Although not quite the icon here in the UK that he undoubtedly was in his native America, his "outlaw" stance, along with his hard-living ways and honest lyrics for my money put him a country mile (ouch!) ahead of the current crop of mega-successful but anodyne superstars. Pop culture bio-pics have been intermittently successful at the box-office and "Walk the Line" was quick to follow the success of "Ray" in celebrating the wayward life of a one-time neglected but lately revered musical giant and there's no doubt Cash was deserving of the accolade. The film itself is fine to look at, capturing especially well in its early sequences, vistas of the American South, back-dropping young John's cotton-picking days with its attendant tension in his family life, particularly his strained relationship with his taciturn, hard-drinking father, exacerbated after the accidental death of his (and his father's favourite) adored older brother. The director seems to mix Cash's story up with blues-man Robert Johnson who surely cornered the rights to images about cross-roads, which recur frequently in the movie, in any case it's a hackneyed image at the best of times. The movie follows the parabolas in Cash's career up to his inspired and ultimately triumphant return to glory in 1968 when he recorded his seminal "Live at Folsom Prison" album, although I would argue his greater triumph was achieved at the end of his life when he collaborated with Rick Rubin even as he was dying of cancer. Interesting to compare the time-line of his career with another Southern boy, Elvis, whose stellar career was foundering until he too in 1968 made his comeback with his "From Memphis to Vegas" album and TV Special. Although enjoyable and well acted (and sung), the movie does suffer from Joaquin Phoenix's inability to convey the sheer presence of the man; wearing black shirts and dropping his voice a notch or two not being enough for me for him to truly get into character. A similar lack of veracity affects the depiction of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and other rockers from that era, - I can't believe in a nation full of Elvis impersonators the casting company couldn't have come up with a better look- and sound-alike than we get here. Reese Wotherspoon is fine in the role of the elusive and effusive June Carter, the love of his life although I wouldn't have marked her performance as Oscar-worthy. Parts of the movie seem apocryphal too (did Cash really happen by Sun Studios just as Elvis was setting up?) but generous dramatic licence has been the watchword of screen biographies since the year dot so I'll let that and others of its ilk pass. In conclusion then an entertaining pass at a big man's up and down life, but in the end the real deal is Cash's heartbreaking video rendition of Trent Raznor's "Hurt", a life encapsulated in only four minutes. The man truly came around...