Run, don’t walk to Walk the Line!

So for most of my life, Johnny Cash has been that old guy with the deep voice that my grandma liked. The Man in Black, Cash, country music legend. And for a large majority of my life, I’ve claimed not to like country music. But these days, with my growing appreciation for all things musical, I have to say I like good music, and I can no longer deny the influence of the House of Cash on music of all kinds–country, rock, and most of it good!

So when I heard about a Johnny Cash movie, I wasn’t all that thrilled, but it grew on me. Cash is undeniably interesting to me, as is June Carter Cash, for her family’s influence on music to her long dedication to a very flawed man. But a whole movie? And Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon playing Johnny and June? Yeah, I couldn’t imagine! But the idea of Phoenix and Witherspoon singing–oh, yeah, I had to see that. And I tend to love biopics (CoalMiner’s Daughter, I have to watch it everytime it’s on!) So as the opening weekend neared, I knew I had to see Walk the Line, if it was just to see Phoenix and Witherspoon belt it out.

The movie is amazing. I had my doubts that anyone could pull off the massive persona that is Johnny Cash, but Phoenix does it. Part of the way into the movie, when he comes on stage and says in that deep voice, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” I wanted to jump out of my seat and say, “Oh, yes, you are!” You completely forget about this being Joaquin Phoenix portraying Cash; for all intents and purposes it is Cash up there on the screen. And Reese, although much prettier than June, pulls it off. She’s got the spirit, the tenor, the tone of June Carter Cash down. She’s not so much playing her as channeling her.

But the story is what made me fall in love with this movie. It’s about redemption and love. It’s about a deeply flawed man who becomes whole in the redemptive love of a woman. It’s about a man who so badly yearns to believe in God yet doubts because he knows how bad he’s been; he knows he’s not worth it. At one point, after an accident that could have killed him, he simply tells June, “You should have left me.” Yet somehow, through all the addiction, pain, disaster, suffering, and all the flaws, he prevails. He’s “redeemed.”

Don’t you just love a good love story?