Just So We're Reminded Of The Ones Who Are Held Back, Up Front There Oughta Be A Man In Black

Rating: 6/10 (31 August 2008)

In 1955, Johnny Cash is an aspiring country singer from Arkansas who is young, talented and going places. However, his marriage is failing, he's in love with another singer, he's haunted by a childhood tragedy and is addicted to pills. Can he pull himself together ?
This is an enjoyable, classy, perceptive biopic of a guy who for my money is the most interesting and evocative country singer-songwriter of all time. What I like about Cash is that he was an unpretentious man; he had many faults and lived a fairly reckless life, but not without penance and reckoning, and that's what the movie captures so well. At the heart of it is the conflict in him between his responsibility to his wife and family and his love for June Carter, which tore him apart. It's not doomy and gloomy though; the period designs are vibrant and dynamic, and the great man's pumping freight-train rhythm music fills the film with humour and gusto. Phoenix and Witherspoon are both terrific and both did all their own singing and playing; he doesn't look or sound like Cash (who does ?) but he nails his mannerisms exactly (especially the gunslinger guitar style) and she belts out her vocals and southern drawl with uncanny precision. Phoenix is great in many films but if you've only seen Witherspoon in dumb valley-girl movies, then be prepared to be amazed by her performance here, which won an Oscar. The support cast is excellent and country fans should also note the presence of stars Payne and Jennings (the latter playing his own father, Waylon). Like the best biopics, this movie is dramatic, informative (for example, Ring Of Fire was written by Carter, not Cash), touching, and about someone who really mattered. There is fantastic music throughout, supervised by T-Bone Burnett and featuring many great players. My only gripe is that it doesn't included my favourite Cash song, Man In Black, but that was written in 1971, three years after the movie ends. A beautifully made and thought-provoking drama about a great musician, and a well deserved success both critically and commercially. Written by Mangold and Gill Dennis, based on Cash's two autobiographies, and produced by James Keach, who has a small role as the Folsom State Prison warden.