I shot a film in Memphis...

Rating: 6/10 (15 September 2007)

Poor boy grows up in rural America, overcome adversity and becomes a successful musician, repeatedly overcoming the scepticism of the music industry to achieve massive hits. But he struggles with the emotional strain of retaining a wife at home and a mistress out on the road; and also with an addiction to drugs. After facing some criticism for confronting social problems, he is finally accepted as a national treasure, and the story ends with a caption telling us he continued to make music until his old age. Meanwhile, the film stars an actor with an uncanny physical resemblance to the real thing, who even contributes to his own musical turns in the movie; but there are a few slightly corny scenes where the writing of a particular song is linked just a little too directly to events in the character's life. Now, this could be a synopsis of 'Walk the Line', but it just as easily be a synopsis of 'Ray', the biopic of Ray Charles released a couple of years earlier. From which one can note how if you take an authorised biography as your source material, it follows that your going to get a certain sort of product as a result. But 'Walk the Line' suffers a bit from the comparison: although personally I prefer the music of Mr. Cash to that of Mr. Charles, the latter's story is more remarkable: black, blind, addicted to heroin, he refused to play segregated venues; whereas Cash, unloved by his father, addicted to prescription drugs, and who recorded an album in a prison, appears to be trumped on most of these points. Additionally, the story features a large role for Cash's eventual second wife, June Carter, who did write 'Ring of Fire' but who is otherwise uninteresting. If you don't like Cash's music, the film will probably leave you cold. But for anyone whose blood runs chill on hearing Cash's deep bass voice sing "I shot a man in Reno", the movie will still appeal, and with the likes of Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis included in the dramatis personae, it's a history, not just of Cash, but of the birth of rock-and-roll.