I’m not a huge fan of country music, but there are a few artists I enjoy listening to:  Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire. Faith Hill and Tim McGraw among them.  Another favorite is Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash.  Not all the of the music they recorded was my cup of tea, but it was often heartfelt.  Because of that, I was looking foward to seeing Walk the Line.  I haven’t seen Capote, so I can’t speak to whether Joaquin Phoenix was robbed, but both he and Reese Whitherspoon gave the best performances of their careers so far.  Reese Whitherspoon was well-deserving of her Oscar win.  Joaquin Phoenix may not have looked like Johnny Cash in any way, shape, or form, but he captured the essence of cash and did a wonderful job singing the songs as Cash sang them.

The movie was based on two memoirs written by the Man in Black himself and he didn’t sugarcoat his life in any way.  The movie is very honest in depicting Cash’s struggle with drugs (thanks to a pill-popping Elvis), his troubled first marriage, and his failures as a father.  It was also interesting to see what June Carter had to endure because of her divorces.  The movie also shed light on the early careers of both Cash and Carter.  I had no idea they toured with the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, with June often the only women on stage with them.  I found the way in which the toured very interesting because it is so different from the mega tours we see today.  They were much more personal back then.

I have to mention one section of the movie I thought was quite hilarious.  After a terrible Thanksgiving in which Johnny’s father once again lit into him, Cash nearly drowns my driving his tractor into the lake.  June and her parents decide to watch over Johnny as they force him to dry out from all the drugs he’s been taking.  At one point, Johnny’s drug dealer shows up and has the misfortune to meet up with June and her parents, Ezra and Mother Maybelle, who proceed to run him off using shotguns, including Mother Maybelle!  What the film makes clear is that Johnny was lucky to have the Carters in his life, most especially June.

Of course, we have mention the music.  Most of the music seems to be Johnny’s early work, which sounds more like early Rock and Roll than country, but I really enjoyed the duets sung by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Whitherspoon, especially "Time’s a Wastin’" (which isn’t on the soundtrack CD) and "Jackson."  Whitherspoon and Phoenix are competent singers, but they really shine when dueting.