Walk the Line EXTENDED CUT [HD]

They Got Married In A Fever
I will preface this by saying I was never a big Johnny Cash fan, but after seeing the excellent way Hollywood handled Ray Charles ("Ray") and Bobby Darin ("Beyond the Sea") I was anxious to see what it would do for The Man in Black. The results are phenomenal. Now, I'm sorry I didn't pay more attention to John and June when they were still living.

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are phenomenal as Johnny and June Carter Cash. This unlikely casting yields such outstanding results that I would hand them both the Oscar right now if I could. I read that Reese almost bailed on the project when she found out she had to do her own singing, but you would never know it from the great vocals and spunky performances she delivers.

The film focuses on their love affair, first as friends and then torrid even while he was married to his first wife and the mother of his children. His drug abuse is highlighted but it is Johnny Cash, the complex man and his love for June...

Movie is great but 2nd Disc a Disappointment
A dilemna here. I loved the movie- think the performances are just terrific. The sound and video are really top-notch and the music really enjoyable. I also enjoyed the deleted scens on the first disc and really to think this is a movie worth adding to the personal collection. The problem I have is the features added to the 2-disc collection. They just are not very good. An example- a special on the Folsom Prison concert- clearly one of the most important steps in Cash's career. The special, though it has interesting excerpts of interviews from people who were there, does not have any footage or stills of the actual concert. I found the same to be true of the other specials on the disc as well. Lots of shots of the two stars but very little of the "Man in Black" himself. I would encourage people to buy the movie but to skip the special edition. It just is not worth the extra money, unless you really need five postcards of the stars from the film.

Hmmm. Doesn't look like Nancy and Lee
In WALK THE LINE, Joaquin Phoenix shows that he's come a long way since his role as the crazy Caesar in GLADIATOR.

Those going into WALK THE LINE thinking it's a comprehensive film bio of Johnny Cash may perhaps come out slightly disappointed. While there's a relative brief sequence of his early years growing up on an Arkansas cotton farm, an even briefer sequence of his time in the Air Force in the early 50s, the film really begins in 1955 when, failing as a door-to-door salesman and wannabe gospel singer, he cuts a rock 'n' roll record for Sun Studios in Memphis and his career as a CW crooner takes off. The film ends with his marriage to June Carter in 1968. In between, against the backdrop of early hits, it focuses on his failed marriage to first wife Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin), his self-destructive abuse of amphetamines, and rocky relationship with singer/actress Carter (Reese Witherspoon), a twice-divorced single mother of two.

The real treat of WALK THE LINE...

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