Hard going to keep watching

Rating: 5/10 (19 April 2012)

I'm currently deployed overseas and have a fair bit of down time at night - if I was in any way busy this evening there's no way I would have stuck around to watch the film through to the end.
The film portrays Johnny Cash as a weak and pathetic individual, bereft of any redeeming features. From what I've read of him, the film portrays the character accurately - the type of character I genuinely dislike, hence I suppose why I didn't enjoy the film. I could see nothing uplifting in the story - at all. He seemed to be a poison to all he had close contact with and his lack of strength led him to succumb to all temptations. If not for his musical talent and consequent wealth, he would have been an even more lonely man.
I love his music, but not the man that sings it - nor the film about the man.
Joaquin Phoenix is very strong in the role and his depiction of Cash's voice is excellent - in fact, his voice is 'too excellent', and considerably better than the true Johnny Cash. You see, I think a real charm of Johnny Cash was that his success belied his singing talent. His acting skills were great and his living of the ballads were most convincing - the anger borne from frustration and desertion of the boy named Sue, and only the Lord knows why that boy took his guns to town.
But don't get me wrong, I still love The Man in Black's music and have many of his albums. But just because a person can sing and entertain does not mean he is a good man, nor does it mean we should just blindly accept all his weaknesses.