The Man in Black who Could Heal the Darkest Souls...

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2017)

I was just watching the Bonus Features from the three-disc DVD set of "Walk the Line" and then I was surprised to learn that both Johnny Cash and June Carter gave their blessing to the casting of Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. That said many things actually: that the two country legends were positively involved in the making but since both died in 2003, the math also implied that it took quite a long time. In fact, it was a project from director James Mangold that came so early that it was the performance of Phoenix as Commodus in "Gladiator" that put him on the radar.
So I guess it must have been frustrating for Mangold to see in 2004, another musical biography named "Ray" telling the story of no-less legendary Ray Charles and following the same sequence of events: traumatic and life-affecting death of a sibling during childhood, the rise, the addiction, the second chance, the marital troubles and the overwhelming effect of success. "Walk the Line" suffers from a déjà vu effect but the blame is less on the film but on destiny that generally blesses the most tormented souls with talent or are they tormented because of their talent?
It doesn't actually matter because once again, it's all about the performances, and I'm glad to know that both Cash and Carter left the world with the awareness that their legacy wouldn't be cheated, and Phoenix and Witherspoon achieved the difficult task to transcend the usual musical biopic pattern and make a powerful and harrowing romance. And I'd go as far as saying that Witherspoon takes maybe more than half the credit because she really lit that little sparkle, she's that source of inspiration that works on the movie like it did with Cash. And in the commentary, they say something actually true, whenever she's not in the film, we miss her and once Cash can finally marry her, the film closes because this is exactly the best way to close his journey, he can finally be happy.
I was watching yesterday a documentary about Belgian singer Jacques Brel who left the stage at the peak of his career in 1966 because he felt he couldn't pretend to be sincere in his songs, he would only be repeating himself and cheat the audience as his songs only had meaning when they expressed genuine pains. And this echoes a powerful scene in the film where a struggling young father Cash auditioned with Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts), he starts singing some gospel, and Phillips dismisses it, then he asks him, if you were hit by a truck and only had one sing to perform, one that would say what you are, which one would you pick? Cash gets the message and tries with a song he wrote when he was in the US Air Force in Germany, about some prisoner who killed a man to see him die, and he could sing it as if he was that prisoner. That was Cash' thing, he sung like he meant it.
And if there ever is one thing to take from his legacy, is that he might not have been the greatest singer, not the greatest voice or guitar player, but his songs had such a raw authenticity that they find an immediate echo in the audience. The catch of course is that a man capable of singing such songs couldn't be any man, his family life was an obvious decoy and once Cash crosses the path of June, he knows he's just met his muse. This guy who lost as a kid the only person who loved him and saw the good in him finally discover the "one" that would make him 'walk the line', and you know what, because she's his.
"Walk the Line" is about an artist whose life has been derailed by low self-esteem, the lack of love from his father (Robert Patrick) and rejection from the only thing he know for sure to be destined to him. So, this is a long walk on a line that would finally lead to inner peace but punctuated with so many obstacles, among them an addiction to pills. While this line has inspired some of the greatest songs of rock n' roll and country music, the focus on June Carter prevents the film from being a conventional biopic and works as much as a romance. Reese Witherspoon is actually more of a supporting actress if you judge by her screen time but from the way she totally influences and drives Cash, she's the lead. She gives her greatest performance, one that swept all the major awards and she sure deserved it. This is a woman who starts as a lively funny girl but whose sassy personality hid many demons, such as living under the shadow of her more versatile sister Anita and two divorces that ruined her image among traditional God-fearing American audience.
In a way, she also resists Cash because he makes her feel like a part of herself she tries to fight, and it's also a matter of time for her to get clean with her conscience, once Cash gets clean with his addiction and his past. It's all about trying to get clean but having dealt with so many troubles that we can finally spill the guts and speak the languages of those who also got the crap of their world. The masterstroke of Cash' career is to have marked his return by singing live at Folsom prison, as if only he could cheer up even the lowlife, the criminals or the scum. Your audience is Christian, he's warned, they won't like seeing you singing for prisoners. "Then, they're not Christians".
And maybe there is something almost Christianic in this black-clad figure who could heal the wounds of the lost soul, one who could not just talk the talk, but also walk the walk and the line.