A social perspective

Rating: Null/10 (26 April 2006)

"Why you all dressed in black? Looks like you're going to a funeral". "Maybe I am, maybe I am." Those famous words uttered by Johnny Cash almost seem poetic. Poetic in that sadistic lyric 'kind of way' that he was known so well for. Yes, I am a Johnny Cash fan. But like any Cash fan will tell you it wasn't just for his 'razor blades and bullet trains' style singing voice. It was respect for the trials and turbulence of his life. He 'felt' those songs and he made you feel them to. That was his gift. In not so many words I can see why Johnny's children said the same about 'Walk the line'. It was a film, not a movie. That on screen 'pizzazz' is due not just Johnny's life, but to the actors who so fabulously portrayed it. "The pure and unbridled truth."
Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were not just good, they were disturbingly play-full. Like two raccoons trying to get into your garbage after midnight, they were insistent and relentless. A wave of empathy suffocates you from a state of awkwardness to enthusiasm, to embarrassment and finally.. pure joy. Reese had the film 'Election' and Joaquin had 'Gladiator'. These films officially made them Hollywood stars, but this, this is their sunset..no one will forget the 'the man in black'.
Questions popped up during and after production of Joaquin Phoenix and his inspiration to play such a tormented soul such as Johnny's. 'They' say it may have been connected to the death of his own brother, River, who died on an overdose outside Johnny Depp's night club 'The Viper' one sad California morning. I admit the similarities are hard to ignore. Joaquin seems to have grown up in the shadow of his brother up until his death, as did Johnny Cash. Both had brothers who died tragically at a premature age before they truly had a chance to surf the waves people knew they could.
Could either have come this far without this tragic psychological childhood trauma? Did it mold their character somehow? I like to think not, I feel shameful somehow for bringing it upyet one cannot help be drawn to the aura of the tortured artist...the lost soul. Even today Phoenix rarely seems to sway into any kind of Hollywood limelight of self promotion and paparazzi shannanigans like so many of his peers do. Do we respect him more for it? As the 'mad leprechaun' in Looney tunes cartoons so eloquently put it"we might rabbit, we might."