The Orbis

Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash "biopic", arrived in theatres on November 18 and has since maintained a firm number-two spot at the box office, right behind the new Harry Potter film. As a movie, the film ultimately succeeds in doing what it sets out to do, yet there are a few idiosyncrasies that cannot be overlooked.

To clarify, the movie is not really a biopic at all. Walk the Line devotes around fifteen minutes to covering Cash's childhood and then jumps entirely into the beginnings of his music career, followed by family troubles, drug use, and the general debauchery of his early rock-and-roll life. Yet a majority of the film focuses on the loves of Cash's life: first Vivian Liberto and ultimately June Carter. Walk the Line is more a love story than a biographical film. Having grown up surrounded by all of these people (Johnny Cash was my grandfather, Vivian Liberto was my maternal grandmother, and June Carter was my maternal step-grandmother), I can safely say that on the whole, the film captures all their personalities quite well, with the only exception being that of Vivian Liberto. In the film she comes across as a seemingly one-dimensional, petulant housewife-cum-daddy's girl who resents Cash's career. Since I was not alive during Grandpa and Grandma's divorce, I cannot speculate as to how much of this portrayal is accurate. What I can say, however, is that I knew Vivian Liberto for twenty years of my life, and hardly any of this film's depiction of her (portrayed by Ginnifer Goodwin) is even vaguely reminiscent of my grandmother's personality.

Keep in mind that I'm not discounting the movie's merits or credibility. Fox Studios took much creative license to dramatize specific details and events in an effort to get the broader picture correct, which it ultimately is. To date, I have seen the film four times and still get goosebumps when the opening credits roll, when Cash plays his first Vegas gig, and during the concert scene at Folsom Prison. There are parts of the movie that are simply awe-inspiring and simply badass (for instance, it was "charming" to see Cash pull a sink out of a wall and smash a guitar after popping a few pills). Joaquin Phoenix does an amazing job of capturing the characteristics, performance style and idiosyncrasies of my grandfather. Reese Witherspoon is equally impressive; there are moments where I'm so reminded of my grandmother through Witherspoon's portrayal that my eyes well with tears. Both are surprisingly talented singers as well, having sung every song on the soundtrack themselves after six months of extensive vocal training.

Bottom line, the movie is good. Inaccuracies are few and far between, and one walks away from the movie having learned something about Johnny Cash but wanting to know more. Since the movie came out, I've told my friends (after seeing it at a screening in September), "If you want both entertainment and surface knowledge of Cash, see the movie. If you want to delve deeper, get an autobiography and an album or two."

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