Walk the Line Movie

Directed by
James Mangold

Writing credits
(WGA)
Johnny Cash (book "Man in Black")
Johnny Cash (book "Cash: The Autobiography")
Patrick Carr (book "Cash: The Autobiography")
Gill Dennis (written by)
James Mangold (written by)

Release Date:
18 November 2005 (USA)

Genre:
Biography | Drama | Music | Romance

Cast :
Actor Role
Joaquin Phoenix Johnny Cash
Reese Witherspoon June Carter Cash
Ginnifer Goodwin Vivian Cash
Robert Patrick Ray Cash
Dallas Roberts Sam Phillips
Dan John Miller Luther Perkins
Larry Bagby Marshall Grant
Shelby Lynne Carrie Cash
Tyler Hilton Elvis Presley
Waylon Payne Jerry Lee Lewis
Shooter Jennings Waylon Jennings
Sandra Ellis Lafferty Maybelle Carter
Dan Beene Ezra Carter
Clay Steakley W.S. "Fluke" Holland
Johnathan Rice Roy Orbison
Johnny Holiday Carl Perkins
Ridge Canipe Young Johnny Cash
Lucas Till Young Jack Cash
McGhee Monteith Reba Cash
Carly Nahon Young Reba Cash
Wyatt Entrekin Young Tommy Cash
Hailey Anne Nelson Rosanne Cash
Clare Grant Audrey Parks
Kerris Dorsey Kathleen "Kathy" Cash

Original Sound Track :
1. Get Rhythm - Joaquin Phoenix
2. I Walk The Line - Joaquin Phoenix
3. Wildwood Flower - Reese Witherspoon
4. Lewis Boogie Blues - Waylon Payne
5. Ring Of Fire - Joaquin Phoenix
6. You're My Baby - Johnathan Rice
7. Cry Cry Cry - Joaquin Phoenix
8. Folsom Prison Blues - Joaquin Phoenix
9. That's Allright Mama - Tyler Hilton
10. Jukebox Blues - Reese Witherspoon
11. It Aint Me Babe - Joaquin Phoenix/Reese Witherspoon
12. Home of the Blues - Joaquin Phoenix
13. Milkcow Blues Boogie - Tyler Hilton
14. I'm A Long Way From Home - Shooter Jennings
15. Cocaine Blues - Joaquin Phoenix
16. Jackson - Joaquin Phoenix/Reese Witherspoon

Plot :
The film details Johnny Cash's life from his growing up as the son of a cotton picker in Dyess, Arkansas, dealing with the death of his brother, his drug addiction, subsequent rescue by future wife June Carter, and his famous concert at Folsom State Prison.

The film opens in medias res with an exterior shot of Folsom State Prison in 1968. An audience of inmates cheer for Johnny Cash's band, which is playing a vamp. Johnny Cash is sitting near a table saw, reminding him of his youth and particularly of the death of his brother.
In 1944, Johnny (then known as "J.R.") and his brother Jack are listening to a young June Carter on the radio. The brothers discuss their respective strengths and weaknesses with regard to the Bible and hymns. Jack, who is training to become a pastor, and therefore "needs to know the Bible front to back," is much better at recalling the words and stories of the Bible. J.R., who can sing well like his mother, is adept with the hymns they sing at church. Jack is sawing wood on a job for a neighbor with J.R. when J.R. leaves to go fishing. He is later taken home by his father, Ray, and they find out Jack has been fatally injured in an accident with the saw. J.R.'s relationship with his father, already strained, becomes much more difficult after Jack's death.

In 1952, J.R. joins the Air Force and is posted to Germany. He seems not to enjoy his time there, but finds solace in playing a guitar he buys and writing songs - one of which will become "Folsom Prison Blues," inspired by a B-movie shown to the troops, Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison. Following his discharge, he marries his girlfriend Vivian Liberto. In 1955, Vivian and John (as he is now generally known) live in Memphis in relative poverty while John works as a door-to-door salesman to support his growing family (Cash's eldest daughter Rosanne is an infant, and Vivian mentions "another one on the way"). One day, he walks past a recording studio and has an inspiration to organize a band (made up of guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant, whom his wife describes as "two mechanics who can't hardly play") to play gospel music.

Cash's band auditions for Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records. As they play a pedestrian gospel song ("I Was There When It Happened"), Phillips interrupts and asks Cash to play a song that he really feels. As a result, Cash and his band play "Folsom Prison Blues," and Phillips accepts it. The performance results in a contract, in fulfillment of which Cash begins touring in 1955 (as Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two) with other young Sun artists. Among those he meets on the tour - along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Waylon Jennings and Elvis Presley - is June Carter, who performs as both a singer and a comedienne.

Cash's career expands, and he finds himself spending more time with June, who divorces her first husband, Carl Smith, at this time. Cash is offered drugs and alcohol after his romantic intentions backfire and soon begins to behave erratically. On a subsequent tour, in 1958, June tells him (and many of the other artists on the tour) at one point that they cannot "walk the line," prompting Cash to write "I Walk the Line." The erratic behavior peaks one night when Cash invites June on stage to sing a duet. Cash suggests a love song ("Time's A Wastin'") which June recorded with Smith. She feels uncomfortable performing it with Cash, but he ignores her protests and kisses her in the middle of the performance. She storms off the stage and they go their separate ways, despite Cash's protest that "it was only a song."
In 1964, Cash (Ray tells him that he would do well to start "sleeping at night...or eating...or both") takes Vivian to an awards program which June also attends. Despite his wife's objections to the level of interest he is paying her, Cash persuades June (who is divorcing her second husband, a stock car driver) to come out of semi-retirement and tour with him. The tour is a great success, but backstage, Vivian is critical of June's influence. After one Las Vegas performance in 1965, Cash and June sleep together in her hotel room. The next morning, as June is on the phone with one of her daughters, she notices Cash taking several pills and begins to doubt the wisdom of continuing the previous night's relationship. At that evening's concert, Cash, upset by Carter's apparent rejection, behaves erratically and eventually passes out. June disposes of Cash's drugs and begins to write "Ring of Fire", describing her feelings for Cash and her pain at watching him descend into addiction.

On his way home, Cash travels to Mexico to purchase more drugs and is arrested in El Paso, Texas. Vivian is upset and the tensions in Cash's marriage rise when he tries to put up his band's pictures at their house despite her objection. After a final violent dispute, the pair eventually separate and Cash moves to Nashville, where he shares living quarters with Waylon Jennings (played by Jennings' son Shooter) in 1966.

Cash attempts to reconcile with June, which involves a long walk to her house (his car is in the shop and he has no cash to reclaim it), but he collapses in the rain. Later, he sees a large house near a lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee and promptly buys it. His parents, and the extended Carter family (June, her daughters and her parents, Maybelle and Ezra) arrive for Thanksgiving, at which time Ray dismisses Cash's achievements and behavior, citing as an example of Cash's carelessness, an expensive tractor stuck in view of the house. After a tense meal, Cash decides to prove his father wrong by freeing the tractor. June and her family watch in concern as Cash struggles with the machine; June's mother, apparently aware of her daughter's true feelings toward Cash, encourages her to go help him, because "he's mixed up." June helps Cash when the tractor goes into the lake. After a long detoxification period, June sits with Cash. He wakes up and she gives him some fresh fruit. He then tells her that she's "an angel." June, however, admits that she's made mistakes as well. June then reveals that she has given Cash a second chance and he cleans himself up.

Cash notices in fan mail that many of his fans are prisoners, dresses in his customary black, visits his recording company (now Columbia Records) and makes a proposal to record an album live inside Folsom Prison. His record company is doubtful, arguing that the musical world has changed in the time Cash was rehabilitating, but he says bluntly that he will perform on a given date and the label can use the tapes if they think the music is any good.

While at Folsom Prison, the warden requests that Cash not play any more songs that would remind the inmates that they are in prison. Cash laughs wryly and replies, "You think they forgot?"

At the Folsom Prison concert Cash tells how he always admired prisoners, explaining that his brief prison stay after his drug bust really made him "feel like I'd seen a thing or two, you know?" But, he continues, he now realizes his experiences really can't compare because "I ain't never had to drink this yellow water you got here at Folsom!" Performing "Cocaine Blues" to great acclaim from the prisoners, the concert is a great success, and Cash embarks on a tour with June and his band.

While on a tour bus, Cash, disturbed by "bad dreams...memories," goes to see June in the back of the bus. (On his way he removes a cigarette from the mouth of a sleeping Luther Perkins, who in real life died around this time when his house caught fire; in his biography Cash said he believed Luther Perkins' house fire was caused by a cigarette.) Waking June at 2 AM, he proposes to her, but she turns him down. Cash tells her that that was the last time; June tersely replies, "Good." and that she doesn't like "re-runs". At the concert, June tells Cash that he is allowed to speak to her only on stage.

The concert, which is in London, Ontario, Canada, features "Ring of Fire", for which Cash acknowledges June. He then persuades her to join him in a duet of "Jackson". In the middle of the song, Cash breaks off; June looks concerned. Cash explains that he "just can't sing this song any more" unless she agrees to marry him. June is reluctant to give an answer, but after Cash proposes to her, June accepts. At his house, Cash watches his father interact with his newest daughters Rosie and Carlene. He jokes with his father, their tense relationship having apparently begun to heal. Cash continues down the stairs to the pier, looking up, and meeting June's eyes where she is fishing with her father. They look at each other and a smile from Cash closes the film.

Pictures :