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Johnny Cash sang like he meant business. He didn't get fancy and he didn't send his voice on missions it could not complete, but there was an urgency in his best songs that pounded them home. When he sang something, it stayed sung. James Mangold's "Walk the Line," with its dead-on performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon , helps you understand that quality. Here was a man who was blamed by his hard-drinking father for the death of his older brother, who said God "took the wrong son," who looked at Johnny's big new house and all he could say was, "Jack Benny's is bigger." In the movie you sense that the drive behind a Johnny Cash song was defiance. He was going to sing it no matter what anybody thought -- especially his old man.

The movie shows John R. Cash inventing himself. He came from a hard-working Arkansas family and grew up listening to country music on the radio, especially the Carter Family. He wrote his first song while he was serving in the Air Force in Germany. When he came back to the States, he got married and got a regular job but dreamed about being a recording artist. When his first wife, Vivian, complained he was spending more time on music than on her, he referred to his "band" and she said, "your band is two mechanics who can't even hardly play."

She was just about right. When they finally got the legendary Sam Phillips ( Dallas Roberts ) of Sun Records in Memphis to let them audition, they sounded like carbon copies of third-rate radio gospel singers. Sam should have shown them the door. Out of kindness he asked John if he had anything of his own he wanted to play. Cash chose a song he wrote in Germany, "Folsom Prison Blues." One of the key passages in Phoenix's performance comes as he learns, while in the process of singing this song, how he should sound and who he should be. You can hear his musicians picking up the tempo to keep pace with him. He starts the song as a loser and ends as Johnny Cash.

"Walk the Line" follows the story arc of many other musical biopics, maybe because many careers are the same: Hard times, obscurity, success, stardom, too much money, romantic adventures, drugs or booze, and then (if they survive) beating the addiction, finding love and reaching a more lasting stardom. That more or less describes last year's " Ray ," but every time we see this story the characters change and so does the music, and that makes it new.

What adds boundless energy to "Walk the Line" is the performance by Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash . We're told in the movie that June learned to be funny onstage because she didn't think she had a good voice; by the time John meets her she's been a pro since the age of 4, and effortlessly moves back and forth between her goofy onstage persona and her real personality, which is sane and thoughtful, despite her knack for hitching up with the wrong men. Johnny Cash for that matter seems like the wrong man, and she holds him at arm's length for years -- first because he's a married man, and later because he has a problem with booze and pills.

The film's most harrowing scene shows Johnny onstage after an overdose, his face distorted by pain and anger, looking almost satanic before he collapses. What is most fearsome is not even his collapse, but the force of his will, which makes him try to perform when he is clearly unable to. You would not want to get in the way of that determination. When Cash is finally busted and spends some time in jail, his father is dependably laconic: "Now you won't have to work so hard to make people think you been to jail."

Although Cash's father (played with merciless aim by Robert Patrick ) eventually does sober up, the family that saves him is June's. The Carter Family were country royalty ever since the days their of broadcasts from a high-powered pirate station across the river from Del Rio, Texas. When they take a chance on Cash, they all take the chance; watch her parents as they greet Johnny's favorite pill-pusher.

It is by now well known that Phoenix and Witherspoon perform their own vocals in the movie. It was not well known when the movie previewed -- at least not by me. Knowing Cash's albums more or less by heart, I closed my eyes to focus on the soundtrack and decided that, yes, that was the voice of Johnny Cash I was listening to. The closing credits make it clear it's Joaquin Phoenix doing the singing, and I was gob-smacked. Phoenix and Mangold can talk all they want about how it was as much a matter of getting in character, of delivering the songs, as it was a matter of voice technique, but whatever it was, it worked. Cash's voice was "steady like a train, sharp like a razor," said June.

The movie fudges some on the facts, but I was surprised to learn that Cash actually did propose marriage to Carter onstage during a concert; it feels like the sort of scene screenwriters invent, but no. Other scenes are compressed or fictionalized, as they must be, and I would have liked more screen time for the other outlaws, including Waylon and Willie. Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis make brief excursions through the plot, but essentially this is the story of John and June and a lot of great music. And essentially that's the story we want.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Walk the Line (2005)

Rated PG-13 for some language, thematic material and depiction of drug dependency

136 minutes

Joaquin Phoenix as John R. Cash

Reese Witherspoon as June Carter

Ginnifer Goodwin as Vivian Cash

Robert Patrick as Ray Cash

Dallas Roberts as Sam Phillips

Dan John Miller as Luther Perkins

Larry Bagby as Marshall Grant

Shelby Lynne as Carrie Cash

Tyler Hilton as Elvis Presley

Waylon Malloy Payne as Jerry Lee Lewis

Shooter Jennings as Waylon Jennings

Directed by

• James Mangold
• Gill Dennis

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Walk the line, common sense media reviewers.

Fascinating biopic, best for mature teens and up.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Father and son tensions, couples argue over money

A fatal accident occurs off-screen, leaving family

A tasteful sex scene, some carousing by band membe

Some strong language (including f-word, and Johnny

Smoking; Johnny is addicted to amphetamines and al

Parents need to know that this film includes frequent images of drug use and drunkenness, as Johnny Cash was a famously driven, unhappy man, as well as a brilliant artist. The film concerns his relationship with his wife June Carter, which involves both divorcing other spouses and tensions as she helps him fight his…

Positive Messages

Father and son tensions, couples argue over money and moral principles.

Violence & Scariness

A fatal accident occurs off-screen, leaving family members with bloody clothes; boy dies in hospital bed; some fist fighting and drunken behaviors.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A tasteful sex scene, some carousing by band members on the road.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Some strong language (including f-word, and Johnny's father's use of the n-word).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Smoking; Johnny is addicted to amphetamines and alcohol.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this film includes frequent images of drug use and drunkenness, as Johnny Cash was a famously driven, unhappy man, as well as a brilliant artist. The film concerns his relationship with his wife June Carter, which involves both divorcing other spouses and tensions as she helps him fight his addictions. The film also features frequent cursing, drinking, and smoking, as well as fights between father and son. A boy is killed off-screen in a circle-saw accident. There is a brief sex scene and some adulterous behavior. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (8)

Based on 3 parent reviews

A High-Quality Biopic...

Mature content, but good biopic, what's the story.

WALK THE LINE tells the life story of Johnny Cash ( Joaquin Phoenix ) as he tries to please his disparaging father Ray ( Robert Patrick ), and finds solace in his passions for music and June ( Reese Witherspoon ). June and Johnny's legendary mutual devotion helps to make his equally infamous orneriness seem worthwhile. The film begins with Johnny's childhood trauma-that-becomes-life-crushing-guilt – the death of his older brother. Johnny joins the Air Force, and buys his first guitar while stationed in Germany in 1955. While in the Air Force, Johnny sees a newsreel about Folsom Prison, feels a kinship with the inmates, and writes "Folsom Prison Blues," the song with the dicey lyrics that convinces Sam Phillips ( Dallas Roberts ) to sign him. Johnny falls in love with fellow country singer June, but he's married to Vivian ( Ginnifer Goodwin ), who resents his absence and addictions. As Johnny's fame grows, his marriage falls apart and he desperately tries to win June, who inspires him in his career and eventually agrees to marry him.

Is It Any Good?

Fascinating and well-acted, WALK THE LINE's mythologizing of Johnny Cash is never very surprising (though Phoenix's performance is frequently remarkable). Predictably showcasing high and low points, this biopic wrestles the man's contradictions and passions into a typical, palatable shape. The dead brother story begs comparison to Ray Charles', as do the two films' structural similarities.

June's dedication to Johnny is admirable and profound, She supports her man in all circumstances, even when Johnny makes it hard to love him. It makes all the difference, as the film loves their glorious duets and returns repeatedly to her moral and emotional schooling. Throughout the film, June's gaze makes Johnny seem inspired and exceptional. It's a familiar story, the good woman who stands by her man. And it's tantalizing too, suggesting that another, perhaps less typical story might be found in June's life.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether or not they feel this is an accurate portrayal of the events in Cash's life. Are there biases involved in the storytelling? Does the movie further the myth of Johnny Cash or provide new insight into his character? From whose point of view is the story told?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 18, 2005
• On DVD or streaming : February 28, 2006
• Cast : Ginnifer Goodwin , Joaquin Phoenix , Reese Witherspoon
• Director : James Mangold
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 136 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : some language, thematic material and depiction of drug dependency.
• Last updated : February 26, 2023

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Walk the Line Reviews

Johnny Cash gets the biopic treatment in this superior portrait of the man, his music, the demons he battled and the love that saved him.

Full Review | Jul 28, 2022

This is not a malicious or embarrassing work; the viewer simply feels that Mangold has not genuinely tackled a single one of the complex and potentially rich problems bound up with the lives of Cash and Carter.

Full Review | Jul 9, 2020

I love this movie so much.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Feb 28, 2019

The film boasts of extremely competent performances, particularly the extraordinary Phoenix. As for Witherspoon, with her nasal twang and perky persona, she is sweet and sassy...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 10, 2019

Walk the Line -- although conspicuously well acted -- is really no different from previous efforts, and that's a good thing. It shares the charm of the (musical biopic) genre.

Full Review | Jan 16, 2018

Not only does the film show just how hungry Cash was to sing his songs, it understands how hungry society was for the cataclysmic changes such music brought.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2017

It's a tidy Hollywood arc imposed on a messy real life, but it gets the job done.

Full Review | Nov 19, 2013

the acting compensates for the weaknesses in the script

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 2, 2013

What made this film work, and what ultimately won it most of its acclaim, were the performances of the actors.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 31, 2012

Reverently reductive

Full Review | Sep 1, 2009

A fun, well acted, and well directed piece of filmmaking...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 29, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 20, 2008

Walk the Line isn't as great a biopic as Ray, but it's still a fine tribute to the Man in Black and his muse.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 22, 2008

a very solid piece of filmmaking... but as a biopic it walks the line between conservative and bland.

Full Review | Aug 16, 2007

A sturdily conventional biopic.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 24, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 14, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Witherspoon delivers a full-bodied, note-perfect performance as sassy, no-nonsense June, and proves herself an able singer in the process.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 17, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 12, 2006

Reese Witherspoon is a marvel.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 4, 2006

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Walk the Line

T here's a warm and generous richness to this biopic of country singing legend Johnny Cash; you'd need a heart of stone not to love it, and toes of stone not to tap along to the music's driving force. Director and co-writer James Mangold tells a seductive story packed with loving period detail of Cash's grim boyhood picking cotton in Depression-era Arkansas, his excruciating guilt at the death of a brother, unhappy military career, too-early marriage and children, all before that deep groan of a singing voice found ecstatic expression as that of the "Man in Black", discovered by Sam Phillips in the Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.

He became the existential outlaw who shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die - and maybe nothing in the rest of his career matched the brilliance of that one line. But Cash's instinctive tendency to side with the poor and the dispossessed made him the hero of prison inmates all over the US, despite having had himself only a handful of overnight stays in prison. (The movie, with some narrative sleight-of-hand, also appears to suggest a little trouble with the military authorities.) To tell his story, Mangold flashes back from Cash's finest hour: his live gig at Folsom Prison, California in 1968, which as a popular music event here looks like a shot of neat whiskey to the gallon of Diet Coke that was Live8.

The plot has the same Horatio Alger-ish trajectory as the recent film about Ray Charles, starring Jamie Foxx. That didn't have anything to match the equal-status love affair of Cash and country singer June Carter, though. The lovers are here played by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, who also do a very impressive job of singing all the songs.

And it is actually Witherspoon's film. With a sweet-natured intelligence and the kind of humility that upstages all the male alpha-egos, Witherspoon turns June Carter into a superbly watchable character. She's the sassy gal who makes up for what she thinks of as a second-rate singing voice with a gift for snappy comedy at the microphone, enduring the sour testosterone on the tour bus, with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. No one who saw Witherspoon in Alexander Payne's Election could doubt her outstanding talent - which went behind a cloud for those lucrative but moderate Legally Blonde movies - and it has come to full, unironic flower here. Witherspoon has one of the most extraordinary faces in the cinema, with an effortless mile-wide grin to match and eclipse Julia Roberts or Hillary Clinton. Her shovel-sharp chin and candid eyes are positioned in a face that is almost hyperreal in its clarity and intensity. It is as eloquently drawn as a cartoon.

One moment really stands out. June is accosted by a middle-aged woman in the Bible Belt. Believing this person to be a fan, June turns on the full beam of her southern politeness and charm. But the woman merely snarls that June's recent divorce was an abomination. June replies humbly: "I'm sorry I let you down, ma'am." Her face turns pale and the corners of her mouth turn down - but she snaps back into cheerfulness a minute later. Her contrition is genuine, but so is her innate self-belief. Another sort of movie might have required this woman to be bested and humiliated in some retaliatory scene, but the incident is merely left alone (though the woman's glowering face appears in the audience later) as testament to June's essential grit. It demonstrates something similar in Witherspoon, too. And it is her face, that radiant moon of a face, which shines out.

Phoenix is fractionally less impressive, though still very good. He wields his acoustic guitar not like a gun but like a badge or a shield, hoiking it up across his chest like a boy with a grownup instrument too big for him: a strange, but distinctive and oddly affecting gesture. Phoenix's best moment is when he and his boys audition for Phillips with a dull gospel number; Phillips curtly silences Cash, and challenges him to imagine being hit by an automobile and sing the song he'd want to be remembered for. Right there is where Cash's dark, melancholy, passionate voice is born.

Joaquin Phoenix would deserve an Oscar, if he got one; but my vote, and my hope, is to see fellow nominee Witherspoon get up on stage to give a twangy speech. Or at the very least sing one of the songs.

Most viewed

• Twentieth Century Fox

Summary The story of the young Johnny Cash and his incendiary love affair with June Carter Cash come to life in Walk the Line. (20th Century Fox)

Directed By : James Mangold

Written By : Johnny Cash, Gill Dennis, Patrick Carr, James Mangold

Walk the Line

Where to watch.

Joaquin Phoenix

John r. cash.

Reese Witherspoon

June carter.

Ginnifer Goodwin

Vivian cash.

Robert Patrick

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, ezra carter, clay steakley, w.s. 'fluke' holland, johnathan rice, roy orbison, john holiday, carl perkins.

Ridge Canipe

Young Jack Cash

Carly nahon, young reba cash, mcghee monteith, critic reviews.

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Walk The Line Review

03 Feb 2006

136 minutes

Walk The Line

Musicians sing songs of three minutes and live lives in three acts. They all struggle to crack the big time, they all succumb to the temptations of the road and practically everyone manages to clean up in time for one final hit. Little wonder that ever since Elvis died on the crapper, the heady mix of pop and problems has excited almost as many TV movies as broken homes and bowel cancer.

And yet it is the particular misfortune of James Mangold’s bubblegum biopic of country pioneer Johnny Cash to be released just 11 months after Taylor Hackford’s glossy Ray snaffled a clutch of Oscar nominations and every conceivable acting award for star Jamie Foxx. The similarities between the two stories are striking: from the social and political upheaval of the American South in the post War period, to the poor country boy haunted by guilt about the brother he lost, large chunks of the territory traversed here were mapped out by Ray. Like R’n’B innovator Ray Charles, Cash was a musical rebel determined to forge a new sound back when such things were possible, and just like Charles, the monumental Cash was very nearly undone by drugs.

Factor in the proximity and the superficial resemblance can become dazzling — expect critics to glibly cite this as yet another example of Hollywood’s herd mentality (see Volcano vs. Dante’s Peak etc.)

But hell, since we must be glib, the correct comparison is this: Walk The Line is the Deep Impact to Ray’s Armageddon. Where Hackford’s film was an overblown, emotional blockbuster precision-engineered for Oscar- (rather than box-office) glory, Mangold’s movie is a more composed affair, studiously focused on a slow-burning romance rather than straining to capture an entire life. As such, Walk The Line feels like a more rounded work; it may lack some of Ray’s pizzazz — heroin is a better villain than prescription speed — but it moves more smoothly and eventually arrives at a natural stopping place.

Interestingly, though, there is little to be made of the most obvious creative difference. Hackford’s decision to have Foxx, an accomplished singer, mime to the inimitable Ray Charles proved to be a sound decision, but Mangold’s riskier gamble — for the untested Phoenix and Witherspoon to provide all the vocals — also pays off handsomely. It is not so much that the pair’s impressive impressions would ever fool a discerning ear, it is that the high-wire thrills tendered by watching amateurs stretch themselves on film is not so far from the buzz of live performance.

Walk The Line’s greater reserve should endear it to any delicate palates who choked on Ray’s sentimental bluster, but in truth, both movies are fundamentally genre pictures elevated to a different league by two simple ingredients: a killer soundtrack and knockout performances.

For a life so chaotic and a star so singular, Mangold coughs up a structure so predictable it wouldn’t look out of place on the Hallmark Channel. Much like those unstoppable Cash rhythms the narrative remains on rails, ticking off major life events and chalking up star cameos (Elvis! A namecheck for Bob Dylan!) without ever really bringing the Man In Black into the light. Then again, perhaps it all depends on how black you like it: as a psychological study of the complex Cash, Walk The Line is perfectly pat; as a celebration of the romance between Cash and Carter, it is perfectly sweet.

The appeal of the central couple is a direct result of tireless work from the two leads. Phoenix makes hay with the rich soil he’s given to till, but if anyone suffers from close proximity to Ray, it is Phoenix. The broody actor is very good here — terrific, even — but, unlike Foxx, he is never astonishing.

Reese Witherspoon, though, comes mighty close. Witherspoon’s June is a pistol — a sugar-rush of screwball energy and cornball Southern sass that’s meticulously earthed with grace notes of sadness, hinting at the stolen childhood and broken marriages that all take place off screen. With a thin field likely confronting Witherspoon in March, this largely supporting role may well land the film its only major honours.

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• DVD & Streaming

Walk the Line

• Drama , Musical , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash; Reese Witherspoon as June Carter; Ginnifer Goodwin as Vivian Cash; Robert Patrick as Ray Cash; Shelby Lynne as Carrie Cash

Home Release Date

• James Mangold

Distributor

• 20th Century Fox

Movie Review

A young Johnny Cash, growing up in Depression-era Arkansas, loves listening to music on the radio with his older brother, Jack. The boys’ sharecropper dad, whose days consist of hard toil in the cotton fields, doesn’t see the point of music at all, though. And he clearly favors Jack. So when Jack is accidentally killed, the grief-stricken father indirectly blames Johnny.

Johnny grows up and joins the Air Force, where he teaches himself to play guitar and begins to write songs of heartache and despair. He marries a girl he barely knows, Vivian, and moves to Memphis, Tenn., to make his mark in music. It’s a fertile time to be in that city. Along with other up-and-coming musicians creating a new sound—including Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison—Johnny signs a contract with Sun Records and becomes a music star. The price? A relentless touring schedule that leads Cash to start popping pills just to keep up. All that time away from home also starts to put a strain on his marriage.

That strain sets the stage for what happens when he meets June Carter (of the legendary Carter Family gospel singers). There’s an instant attraction between the two, but she’s just coming out of a bad divorce, and he’s still married to Vivian. Commercial success and a growing attraction to June leads Johnny to walk a fine line: between self-control and addiction, between his family and a flirtatious affair. It’s a line he can’t walk for very long. The only question is on which side he will fall.

Positive Elements

The Carter family—June and her parents, Maybelle and Ezra—are walking examples of Christian charity when they set aside any distaste they might have for Johnny’s self-destructive antics and nurse him back to health and sobriety. June explains simply, “I had a friend who needed help.”

Johnny’s mom, Carrie, is a steady, loving presence in his life, even in his adult years. She introduced Johnny to the Christian faith, and even as he struggles with drug addiction and a failing marriage, she never abandons him. On the other hand, Johnny’s dad is a negative example of what a bad father can do to a son, as Johnny never quite gets over not just the death of his brother but his dad’s resulting rejection.

Another negative example arrives in the form of Johnny and Vivian’s marital relationship. It’s driven home time and time again just how damaging a “cheatin’ heart” is to a couple’s future. It’s shown that long periods of time away from a spouse opens you up to temptation and that when husbands and wives withhold support and appreciation, disaster follows.

Johnny lives out Hebrews 13:3 (“Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering”), responding to prisoners who write to him and giving a concert to cheer them up.

Spiritual Elements

Jack wants to be a preacher when he grows up, and young Johnny idolizes him for that. “You know every story in Scripture,” he tells Jack. Graciously, Jack responds, “But you know every song in Mama’s hymnal.” (Their mother encourages Johnny’s love for music by teaching him hymns.)

As Jack dies, he asks, “Can you hear them angels? They’re so beautiful.” Johnny’s dad, in despair over Jack’s death, says, “The devil did this.”

We hear several gospel songs, including “I Was There When It Happened” (“Yes, I know when Jesus saved me/He took away my sins/Gave me peace within”). We also hear Bob Dylan’s “Highway ‘61 Revisited” (“God said to Abraham, ‘Kill me a son’/Abe says, ‘Man, you must be puttin’ me on’/God say, ‘No’/Abe say, ‘What?’/God say, ‘You can do what you want, Abe, but the next time you see me comin’/You better run’”).

Jerry Lee Lewis (cousin to televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, by the way) goes off on a rant about himself and his fellow musicians, saying they’re all going to hell because of the songs they sing. “God showed us a great big apple and said don’t touch it,” he explains. “He didn’t say you could touch it once in a while. He didn’t say we could think about touching it or sing songs about thinking about touching it.”

Legendary record producer Sam Phillips indicates how stupid it is to sing about faith without truly believing. Then he says, “It ain’t got nothing to do with God, Mr. Cash. It’s about believing in yourself.” Much later, a record executive tries to talk Johnny out of performing at Folsom Prison: “Your fans are Christians. They don’t want to hear you singing to murderers and rapists, trying to cheer them up.” Johnny responds, “Then they’re not Christians.”

A woman ungraciously condemns June for being divorced. “Your ma and pa are good Christians. I’m surprised they still talk to you after your divorce,” she says. “Divorce is an abomination.”

After Johnny finally wakes up sober under the watchful eyes of the Carters, he tells June that he doesn’t deserve such kindness and he should have been left to die. June counters, “God has given you a second chance to make things right.”

June gives Johnny a copy of The Prophet by the mystic Kahlil Gibran.

Sexual Content

As Johnny becomes successful, several scenes show groupies coming backstage to meet him, and in one instance Johnny kisses the girl as the camera cuts away, implying that sex is to follow. Johnny’s wife complains that fan mail from girls is “obscene” and often contains pictures of them in their bathing suits.

Johnny tries to kiss June at her hotel room door, and there’s considerable sexual tension between them over the course of their 10 years of touring together. They finally end up in bed together with him in a T-shirt and her in a camisole. (Incidentally, for years they insisted that they never slept together while touring. But as this film was being written, they finally confessed that they gave in to temptation that one time in Las Vegas.)

Violent Content

While high on amphetamines Johnny tears up his dressing room in a fit of rage. An argument with Vivian turns physical, with her slapping at him; he pins her to the ground and shouts into her face and seems ready to strike her before his children’s cries stop him. June angrily throws empty beer bottles at Johnny and band mates.

June’s dad threatens a drug dealer with a shotgun. We see Johnny’s brother dying in bed wrapped in bloody bandages. Johnny watches a movie that features a fight scene in Folsom Prison. One of the band members constructs a homemade bomb as a prank, and he blows a limb off a tree with it. In a drunken rage Johnny drives a tractor into a lake. In a flashback, Johnny and Jack’s dad threatens to beat them if they don’t turn off the radio and go to bed.

Crude or Profane Language

One f-word. Two s-words. And a handful of other, milder crudities. God’s and Jesus’ names are abused once each. A musician contemptuously refers to “n-gger” music.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Johnny became addicted to uppers and downers fairly early in his musical career. In fact, the movie implies that Elvis introduced him to amphetamines. There are many scenes of Johnny drinking beer and washing down pills with beer or booze. His fellow musicians drink prodigiously, too, and we see the aftermath of an all-night drinking party, with smashed beer bottles and drunken musicians.

Johnny sneaks into Mexico to buy drugs and is arrested for possession upon crossing back into the States. (In reel life we never hear what happened to those drug charges, but in real life he received probation.) A drug dealer delivers a package to Johnny’s house, and Johnny apparently got a willing physician to write prescriptions for these drugs, too, as we see several prescription vials on his bedside stand.

Many characters smoke cigarettes, including Johnny. Johnny’s dad chews tobacco.

Johnny Cash was many things. Groundbreaking singer-songwriter. Drug addict. Adulterer. Failed father. Hurting son. Compassionate man and, ultimately, lover of the Lord. Writer and director James Mangold has done a serviceable job of capturing all of these character traits except the last one.

Johnny’s story—the whole story, that is—is a hopeful one, because it’s about redemption. Mangold hints at this in Walk the Line , but moviegoers are left thinking that salvation came not from Jesus, but rather from a hit record recorded live at Folsom Prison.

That’s not fair and it’s not true. As Johnny explained in his autobiography, Man in Black , the influence of his brother’s faith had never quite left him: “Jack’s death, his vision of heaven, has been more of an inspiration to me than anything that has ever come to me through any man.” He later wrote, “How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.”

Mangold, though, was much too interested in Johnny and June’s love affair with each other to spend much time on what God was preparing them for.

And what of that early affair? Mangold thinks it was “magical”: “There was something magical about the idea that for a decade the only place John and June were allowed to be alone together was onstage in front of 10,000 people.” Allowed? He makes marriage vows sound like shackles. Sure, Johnny and Vivian entered marriage foolishly, but they took their vows while in full possession of their faculties. Johnny and June ultimately racked up three wrecked marriages between them, and that makes it pretty hard to rejoice with them when they finally fall into each others arms seconds before the credits roll.

Johnny was certainly walking on the wide road then. But he made his way to the narrow path before he died. And one can scarcely doubt that he is now enjoying his heavenly rest. It’s a shame that the makers of Walk the Line couldn’t somehow manage to work that into the end of their version of his life.

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Sturm and Twang

Walk the Line arrives not merely as a movie—a biopic about the music and marriage of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash—but as a full-blown pop-cultural phenomenon; its advance media spray is impressive. You’d have to be living under Harold Bloom not to know that Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon do their own singing; that director James Mangold got the late Johnny’s benediction to make the movie, and recorded hours of interviews with Johnny and June; that there’s early Oscar buzz, particularly for Witherspoon. The movie arrives accompanied by two recently released CD compilations and an all-star CBS special on November 16. Walk the Line is a pre-sold barn burner, approved both by Johnny and his heirs (the singer gave his blessing before his 2003 death to the casting of Phoenix; his son John Carter Cash worked closely with Mangold) and critics (I myself wrote after seeing the film at the Toronto Film Festival that they may as well give Witherspoon the Best Actress Oscar now).

So is Walk the Line that good? Yes and no. It commences spectacularly, with an explosive re-creation of Cash’s 1968 Folsom Prison concert. Phoenix gets the low, guttural sound of Cash’s speaking and singing voice down here (it wobbles unpredictably elsewhere), and the actor clearly relishes portraying an artist who took pleasure in entertaining a captive-by-law audience.

Walk the Line then backs up to the fifties, so we can follow Cash’s progression from a poor rural kid—emotionally scarred by the early death of his brother and a bad relationship with his dad (Robert Patrick)—to rockabilly hell-raiser, to neglectful husband in his first marriage, to humble suitor of June, the springy offspring of the Carter family singers. I think one reason Phoenix, for all his dedication, doesn’t come off as glowingly original as Witherspoon is that we’ve seen this sort of protagonist in just about every sort of pop-music movie, from Elvis Presley playing a convict in Jailhouse Rock to Dennis Quaid channeling Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire , while June Carter Cash’s kind of entertainment is relatively unknown beyond country cognoscenti.

Witherspoon, a Tennessee gal herself, knows exactly the kind of mixture of showbiz and authenticity June Carter represented in offering a grinning, polite, slightly folkier version of her elders’ God-fearing mountain music. To be sure, there was a core toughness to June—she may have been a Grand Ole Opry mainstay, but she was barely one generation from both the source-music and relative poverty—that gave even her exuberant onstage whoops the ring of conviction. Not to mention the “Ring of Fire,” a harrowing song about forbidden, agonizing love, co-written with Johnny.

This sentiment is also the center of Walk the Line , the title taken from another Cash hit. “Because you’re mine / I walk the line” is the salient couplet, compressing everything in this movie: Because Johnny wanted June so badly, and because June wouldn’t put up with any lawlessness that wasn’t stagecrafted persona, Cash began walking the line—the straight-and-narrow, crafting a stage image as the Man in Black (a color, he sang in yet another song of the same name, he associated with the downtrodden and the exploited). This is where acting trumps the script (by Mangold and Gill Dennis) and the direction. I mean, come on: Did you really expect the guy who made Cop Land and Girl, Interrupted to pull a masterpiece out of his newly bought cowboy hat? But Phoenix and Witherspoon find the emotional truths behind such standard movie moments as lovers’ quarrels that end in a kiss, or going cold turkey to shake a drug habit. Mangold downplays the Cashes’ eventual rock-ribbed religiosity for the East and West Coast markets. But if, as has been suggested, he and his studio are hoping for Coal Miner’s Daughter –size popularity, I’m guessing they’ll be disappointed, for this reason: There are too many musical performances in this movie, even for a country fan such as myself, to keep the city slickers engaged. This bespeaks great faith in the charisma of the stars, who merit it. They also, however, deserved a better script.

Walk the Line Directed by James Mangold. 20th Century Fox. PG-13.

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Walk the Line

• A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash 's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Carl Perkins .
• While growing up in the Great Depression era, Johnny Cash takes an interest in music and eventually moves out of his Arkansas town to join the air force in Germany. While there, he buys his first guitar and writes his own music, and proposes to Vivian. When they got married, they settled in Tennessee and with a daughter, he supported the family by being a salesman. He discovers a man who can pursue his dreams and ends up getting a record with the boys. Shortly after that, he was on a short tour, promoting his songs, and meets the already famous and beautiful June Carter. Then as they get on the long-term tours with June, the boys, and Jerry Lee Lewis, they have this unspoken relationship that grows. But when June leaves the tour because of his behavior, he was a drug addict. His marriage was also falling apart, and when he sees June years later at an awards show, he forces June to tour with them again, promising June to support her two kids and herself. While the tour goes on, the relationship between June and John grow more,and his marriage to his first wife ends. June finds out about the drugs, and help him overcome it. True love and care helped John eventually stop the drug usage, and finally proposes to her in front of an audience at a show. — kayleigh
• The story of Johnny Cash, music legend. From his time growing up on a small farm in Arkansas, to his time in the US Air Force where his musical talented first started to manifest itself, to the early days of his career, through the trials and tribulations of being a star and beyond. We also see his relationships, particularly with his older brother Jack, his father, his first wife Vivian, and, most importantly, with June Carter. — grantss
• Having found solace in music and songwriting after the shocking 1944 accident and the impact of childhood trauma, Johnny Cash writes his first song while serving in the U.S. Air Force in Germany. After getting a regular job and marrying his first wife, Vivian Liberto , Cash moves to Memphis, Tennessee, where he starts a gospel band, The Tennessee Two , and auditions for Sun Records founder Sam Phillips . While on tour with Elvis Presley , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Carl Perkins , Johnny Cash meets the love of his life, June Carter Cash . But touring takes a toll on Johnny's marriage and health. As their relationship gets a second chance, Cash performs at Folsom State Prison and records his first live album, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. During a live performance at the London Ice House in Ontario in 1968, Cash proposed to Carter while singing the country hit single, Jackson. The couple remained married for 35 years until June's death in May 2003. Four months later, Cash followed. — Nick Riganas
• Johnny Cash grew up in Arkansas, and served in the Air Force in Germany, where he bought a guitar. He returned from the war and married. Singing and playing with two other men, he cut a record in Memphis. His reputation growing from airplay and live performances, Cash became a star, touring with the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and others. On tour, he suffered the effects of drug addiction. He also met June Carter, who would later become his wife. Responding in part to the fan mail he received from prisoners, Cash played a legendary concert for the inmates at Folsom Prison in California. — Ken Miller <[email protected]>
• In 1968, an audience of inmates at Folsom State Prison cheer for Johnny Cash's band as he waits backstage near a table saw, reminding him of his early life. In 1944, Johnny, then known as J.R., grows up the son of a share cropper on a cotton farm in Dyess, Arkansas, and is adept with hymnals, while his brother Jack is training himself to become a pastor. While Jack is sawing wood for a neighbor, J.R. goes fishing while he finishes. However, Jack injures himself with the saw, and dies of his injuries. Cash's strained relationship with his father Ray, becomes much more difficult after Jack's death. In 1950, J.R. (Joaquin Phoenix) enlists in the United States Air Force as Johnny Cash, and is posted in West Germany. One day in 1952, he finds solace in playing a guitar he bought and writing songs-one of which will become "Folsom Prison Blues". Cash is eventually discharged, and marries his girlfriend Vivian Liberto. The couple move to Memphis, Tennessee, where Cash works as a door-to-door salesman to support his growing family. He walks past a recording studio, which inspires him to organize a band to play gospel music. Cash's band auditions for Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records. Phillips interrupts the audition and asks Cash to play a song that he really "feels", prompting them to play "Folsom Prison Blues". The band is contracted by Sun Records. The band begins touring as Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two. He meets many different artists on tour, including June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), with whom Cash soon falls in love. Cash begins spending more time with June, who divorces her first husband, Carl Smith. After an attempt by Cash to woo June backfires, he begins to take drugs and alcohol. After his behavior peaks during a performance with June, they go their separate ways. Over Vivian's objections, Johnny persuades June to come out of semi-retirement at an awards show and tour with him. The tour is a success, but backstage, Vivian is critical of June's influence. After one Las Vegas performance, Cash and June sleep together in her hotel room. The next morning, she notices Cash taking several pills and begins to doubt her choices. At that evening's concert, Cash, upset by June'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. Cash's marriage to Vivian begins to crumble and after a final violent dispute, the pair eventually divorce and Cash moves to Nashville in 1966. In an attempt to reconcile with June, Cash buys a large house near a lake in Hendersonville. His parents, and the extended Carter family, arrive for Thanksgiving, at which time Ray dismisses his son's achievements and behavior. After eating, June's mother-aware of her daughter's true feelings toward Cash-encourages her to help him. After a long detoxification period, Cash wakes up with June by his side. June says she, and God, have given Cash a second chance. Although not formally a couple, the two begin to spend most of their time with each other. Cash discovers that most of his fan mail comes from prisoners, impressed with the outlaw image that Cash has cultivated. Cash visits his recording company he signed with in 1958, Columbia Records, and proposes that he record an album live inside Folsom Prison. Despite Columbia's doubts, Cash says that he will perform regardless and the label can use the tapes if they wish. At the Folsom Prison concert, Cash tells how he always admired prisoners, explaining that his arrest for drug possession helped him to relate to them. The concert is a great success, and Cash embarks on a tour with June and his band. While on a tour bus, Cash goes to see June in the back of the bus. Waking up June, he proposes to her, but she turns him down. At the next concert, June tells him that he is only allowed to speak with her on stage. There, Cash persuades June to join him in a duet. In the middle of the song, Cash stops playing, explaining that he cannot sing anymore unless June agrees to marry him. June eventually accepts and they share a passionate embrace on stage. The two marry and eventually raise their kids together and spend time with their families.

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Movie Review

Walk the line.

US Release Date: 11-18-2005

Directed by: James Mangold

Starring ▸ ▾

• Joaquin Phoenix ,  as
• Johnny Cash
• Reese Witherspoon ,  as
• June Carter
• Ginnifer Goodwin ,  as
• Vivian Cash
• Robert Patrick ,  as
• Dallas Roberts ,  as
• Sam Phillips
• Dan John Miller ,  as
• Luther Perkins
• Larry Bagby ,  as
• Marshall Grant
• Shelby Lynne ,  as
• Carrie Cash
• Tyler Hilton ,  as
• Elvis Presley
• Kerris Dorsey as

Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line .

I would like to here by declare a moratorium on bio-pics of music legends until Hollywood comes up with something new to say in them. Do we really need another movie about a small town singer who faces adversities growing up, finds music success, fails at an early marriage, becomes addicted to drugs, finds redemption through love and goes on into music immortality? It's the kind of story that has been beaten to death through countless movies and reruns of VH1's Behind the Music series. We've seen these types of stories so many times that it's hard to care anymore.

This time around it is country legend Johnny Cash's life that receives the big screen treatment, but despite high-caliber performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon as Johnny and his second wife June, the movie is so reminiscent of other bio-pics that even they can not rescue the story from a feeling of, "Been there, done that."

Like last year's Ray , Walk the Line opens with a traumatic event of the lead character's childhood. Also like Ray , the trauma is the death of a brother and that trauma haunts him for the rest of his life and the rest of the movie. The story then jumps ahead to Johnny's time in the Air Force where he starts writing songs. Following his time in the service, he returns home, marries his sweetheart and soon manages to land a recording contract that puts him on the road touring with the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the true love of his life, June Carter (Witherspoon).

The movie then follows Cash's early success and his addiction to drugs. He spends time in jail following a drug arrest. It is his drug use and the fact that he's in love with June that eventually ends his marriage, but this opens the way for him to finally get together with June and began his rehabilitation. The movie's climax comes with his seminal concert inside Folsom Prison, from which he recorded a live album that went to become one his best selling ever.

Joaquin does a great job as Johnny. He does a great job of capturing a rising star who's nearly destroyed by his own success. Even more amazing, he does all of his own singing and does it well. Reese, who also does a great job of acting, does all of her own singing as well. While she may never cut a best selling album, she does manage to embody a country singer's twang perfectly.

Drugs are so often a recurring theme in musical lives that it's become such a cliché. If this was a fictional story of a singer's life, I wonder if a writer or director would even bother to include them. What is there to say that hasn't already been said? Drug addiction is bad and can destroy your career and your marriage. We get it already.

Perhaps if Ray hadn't come out last year and if their life stories weren't so similar, I might have enjoyed Walk the Line more. Unfortunately though, it did and they were.

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line .

Musicians and drugs: is there a way to separate them? Elvis, The Beatles, Jim Morrison, Ray Charles, Tina Turner and Johnny Cash all did them and they are but a few of the many. A drug using performer is such a tired cliche. I always find it hard to watch a movie about a famous, rich person who has such little mental stability that they feel the desire to do drugs. I just can't muster enough pity to empathize for them.

The other problem with all of these musical bios is that we, the audience, never fully understand why these people, who have so much, waste so much on drugs. Cash's big emotional problem, according to Walk the Line , is that he had Daddy issues. Is that why he did drugs? The movie explains it by someone handing them to him with the assurance that it's okay because Elvis does them to. Like Ray , the drug aspect acts as the movie's antagonist but never is a valid rationalization made for the drug use.

The best part of Walk the Line is the love story. Witherspoon and Phoenix have great chemistry as Cash and Carter courting each other. “Next time I ask you to marry me I'm gonna come up with a different way." Cash says to Carter, who replies, “Good cause I don't like reruns." Phoenix has Cash's on stage poise and his singing mannerisms down pat. Witherspoon is a delight as the singing, comic June Carter. Her best line in the movie is when she says to Cash, “You gotta hitch in your giddy-up?"

Like Scott, I felt this was a remake of many other musical bios. I think if you combined every other script page from Patsy Cline's movie bio, Sweet Dreams and every other script page from Ray you would have the script for Walk the Line . Just because someone is famous does not mean their life story is worth making a movie about.

Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line .

OK, OK so this script is similar to other movies made about famous musicians. That would matter if this was a movie about a made-up singer, as it happens it's about a real one. Unlike my brothers I was able to see this movie on its own terms and as an individual product. In my opinion what separates this movie from Ray is that this is much more of a love story. It is June's story nearly as much as it is Johnny's.

Eric says he doesn't understand how a rich, famous person can do drugs. I can. Maybe I have more sympathy for human frailty, I don't know, but I understand how someone living the life of a big singing star could very easily fall into the downward spiral of an addiction, after all drugs provide an instant physical thrill that is difficult to convey onscreen and the life of a famous musician would provide such easy access. Eric goes on to say that these movies never explain the reason these artists use drugs. Again, I think that most people couldn't give a reason why they do drugs, other than it's fun and/or it's an escape. Drugs aren't that complicated or intellectual, they are an instant thrill that becomes an addiction; they aren't a problem until they become one. What's not to get?

That said, I agree that the performances are great. Very few actors could pull of the singing required for these roles. Joaquin doesn't sound that much like Johnny Cash, his speaking voice isn't nearly as deep for one thing, but he does manage to inhabit the character well. It is not as much of a dead-on impersonation as Jamie Foxx's Ray Charles.

Reese Witherspoon is delightful as June Carter. Very few roles call for singing, drama and comic ability. Reese makes like Streisand in Funny Girl and pulls off all three successfully however.

Despite the well-worn plot, and my brothers' reservations, Walk the Line is a very good movie.

Photos © Copyright 20th Century Fox (2005)

© 2000 - 2017 Three Movie Buffs. All Rights Reserved.

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Walk The Line

Dove review.

“Walk the Line” is another Bio-pic that is very well written and contains some mighty fine acting by Joaquin Phoenix (Johnny Cash) and Reese Witherspoon (June Carter). These two performers sing the songs themselves and the work they do in this film is some of their best. There is no doubt in my mind that they both will not only be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actor and Best Actress category, but that they both will win an Oscar.

While “Walk the Line” was well made, it is not considered a family film by Dove standards. The obscene language, the adulterous affairs and Cash’s drug addiction put it out of reach to receive the Dove Seal.

I expect “Walk the Line” will be a box office and critical success.

Dove Rating Details

Boy hurt in accident while cutting wood with a saw, blood shown on bandages; woman hits man;

Adulterous relationships strongly implied; man and women shown in bed together.

N-word-1; H-4; D-6; A-4; F-1; OMG-1; J-1; B-1; S-2

Lots of beer drinking; Cash takes and becomes addicted to prescription drugs; man arrested for bringing drugs across the boarder; men get drunk a few times

Strong redemptive theme

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Walk the Line (United States, 2005)

When I spoke to Roger Ebert shortly before first seeing Walk the Line , he remarked that he knew almost all of Johnny Cash's songs by heart. I cannot make the same claim. I'm familiar with a few of them - mostly those that got radio play - but many of the titles in his catalogue are unknown to me. That didn't impinge upon my ability to enjoy Walk the Line , but the statement is necessary to explain my background. Cash devotees may have a different reaction to this picture. In fact, although I liked it, my bet is that they will love it.

Inevitably, Walk the Line will be compared to last year's Ray . It's understandable. Both are high profile motion pictures about major recording stars who recently died (Cash passed away in 2003, four months after the death of his wife). The kind of music is different, but there are similar plot elements, chief among which are marital infidelity and drug use. Walk the Line is a better film. It's put together with more elegance, the director has more control over the trajectory, it's not boring ( Ray has a tendency to drag), and it feels more like a straightforward account instead of hero-worship. Ray did more whitewashing and fictionalization than Walk the Line . Plus, this movie has a driving plotline that Ray lacked - a love story. To me, that's what elevates this film.

Walk the Line opens in 1944 Dyess, Arkansas, where it introduces us to a 12-year old Johnny Cash, and depicts one of the key events in his early life. The film then skips forward to Landsberg, Germany in 1952 (with Joaquin Phoenix taking over the part of Cash) and Memphis in 1955. While there, living with his wife, Viv (Ginnifer Goodwin), and young daughter, he starts a band: Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two. After a successful audition with a record producer, Johnny finds himself on tour with Jerry Lee Lewis and June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). His music elevates him to stardom, but drug use (uppers) and alcohol abuse threaten to drag him down. They also impede a possible romance with June, the love of his life, even after Viv has left him. The film continues Cash's story into the late 1960s, including scenes from the famous Fulsom Prison concert, and ends on an up note.

Director James Mangold has streamlined his film to focus on two things: the music (a number of Cash songs are played uninterrupted) and the love story. Johnny's drug use becomes a key element in the romance, since it's ultimately June's perseverance that saves Johnny, not some innate desire to get clean. Ray portrayed its protagonist as an heroic figure. Walk the Line takes a different approach. Johnny is shown to be a flawed human being with a great talent. There's nobility in Johnny, but also more darkness than we see in Ray.

Oscar nominations are likely for Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix, and it will be tough to argue against them. Witherspoon gives one of her finest performances in years (granted, she has been appearing mostly in fluff lately), and Phoenix astonishes. His physical resemblance to Cash is superficial, but he has perfected the voice, both when speaking and singing. Supporting actors include Robert Patrick as Johnny's unloving father, Tyler Hilton as a young Elvis Presley, and Shooter Jennings as his father, Waylon.

The running length of Walk the Line is just about right. 135 minutes is long enough to develop a coherent narrative (rather than making this feel like a "best of" story) without dragging things out. I will admit to not having been excited about seeing Walk the Line before sitting down to watch it, but Mangold, Phoenix, and Witherspoon converted me. During the course of the picture, someone describes Johnny's voice as being "steady like a train, sharp like a razor." That sounds to me like a fitting description of Walk the Line , as well.

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WALK THE LINE

"over the line".

What You Need To Know:

WALK THE LINE, a biography of country music legend Johnny Cash, begins by telling the tragic death of Johnny Cash's older brother. Johnny feels guilty about his brother's death. His father's criticisms don't help. After serving in the army, Cash takes his wife and daughter to Memphis. Despite the admonishments of his nagging wife to get a real job, Cash pursues his music career until he hits it big with Sun Records. Cash tours with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and June Carter of the famous Carter Family. Cash easily falls in love with June, but his marriage and addiction for amphetamines push June away. After his divorce, only June's love can save him from himself.

(Pa, RHRH, AB, C, B, LL, V, S, N, AA, DDD, M) Strong pagan worldview with mixed elements including revisionist history that tones down the Christian elements in a true story, at least one anti-Christian element when Christian woman admonishing another woman for adultery is made to look foolish, some Christian elements but toned down such as woman takes man to church and boy studying Scripture expresses desire to be a preacher and is repeatedly called a good person, and some moral, biblical elements; 14 obscenities (including one "f" word), one possible strong profanity, one light profanity, and Jerry Lee Lewis tells Johnny Cash and Elvis Pressley that he and they are going to Hell because of the songs they sing; blood on boy's short after implied saw accident, singer busts floodlights, married couple fight, people chase off drug dealer with shotguns, and angry man trashes dressing room; married singer goes off with female groupies and themes of adultery with implied fornication between married man and woman; upper male nudity; alcohol use and drunkenness; smoking, heavy amphetamine use, man sells illegal amphetamines, and man sings cocaine song; and, negative father figure.

More Detail:

WALK THE LINE, a biography of country music legend Johnny Cash, tones down the Christian elements in Cash’s story to concentrate on his image as a rebel and an outlaw.

WALK THE LINE begins well by telling the tragic story of Johnny Cash’s brother, a serious Bible student who dies after a tragic accident with a saw. Johnny feels guilty about his older brother’s death. The admonishments of his strict father, who criticizes Johnny’s interest in country music, don’t help.

In the army overseas, Johnny begins writing songs in earnest. After his service, he takes his wife, Vivian, and daughter to Memphis. Despite the admonishments of his nagging wife to get a real job, Cash pursues his music career until he hits it big with Sun Records with his early hits “Cry, Cry, Cry” and “Get Rhythm.” He and his band go on tour with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and June Carter of the famous Carter Family.

Cash easily falls for June. Though June rebuffs him because they’re both married, his wife Vivian’s nagging drives him further away. June continues to rebuff him even after she gets a divorce, and Cash’s addiction for amphetamines threatens to kill him. Cash’s marriage finally breaks up, but his addiction continues. Only June’s love and friendship can save him from himself.

After a shaky start, Joaquin Phoenix does a great job of capturing Johnny Cash’s stage presence. The chemistry between him and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter is good, though it’s not as powerful as some have advertised. Part of the problem may be the movie’s episodic structure. Even so, Johnny and June’s sizzling rendition of “Jackson” comes off here as pretty limp.

Except for a scene where June takes him to church, WALK THE LINE shies away from portraying how she led Cash to Christ. Instead, the movie focuses on showing how June and her family helped Johnny get over his amphetamine addiction at his country home by keeping him away from the drugs. In addition to drug addiction, adultery and rebellion play a major role in the movie. Although Cash kicks his amphetamine habit, he sings joyously about taking cocaine during his classic performance at Folsom Prison.

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Classic Film Review: Frankenheimer and Peck learn what Johnny Cash meant when he sang “I Walk the Line” (1970)

The last time I interviewed screen legend Gregory Peck , I had the temerity to ask if there were any “regrets” among his 58 on screen credits.

He didn’t hesitate. “McKenna’s Gold,” he said. Something about the unpleasant ensemble experience, the silly story, the odd action beats, riled him decades after making it. And he didn’t want to dwell on it.

So I did two tactful things, as one should when meeting a screen idol of one’s youth. I dropped it. And I didn’t contradict him. Because while the cheesy action epic “McKenna’s Gold” wasn’t anybody’s idea of an awards’ season contender, and there are some who ridiculed his Nazi turn in “The Boys from Brazil,” “I Walk the Line” might be the consensus selection “worst film” of those who followed Peck’s long and storied career.

The vague memories of my parents taking it in on TV, being Johnny Cash fans, are all that’s stuck with me about it through the decades. But being a John Frankenheimer completist, I thought I’d take another look.

It’s a 1970 film parked squarely in the highly-paid doldrums of Frankenheimer’s career, years removed from “The Manchurian Candidate” and “The Train,” coming after “The Gypsy Moths” and the disastrous “The Extraordinary Seaman.” According to Peck, Frankenheimer skipped town before editing “I Walk the Line” to go make an Omar Shariff bomb titled “The Horsemen” overseas. He later made the “French Connection” sequel, the terrorism blockbuster (and bust) “Black Sunday,” and didn’t really salvage his reputation until 1998’s “Ronin,” after first reaching the very bottom, thanks to “The Island of Doctor Moreau.”

Frankenheimer had Alvin Sargent, already an acclaimed screenwriter (“The Sterile Cuckoo”) and bound for Oscar glory in the late 70s (“Julia”) and early ’80s (“Ordinary People”), the man entrusted with two Tobey Maguire “Spider-Man” sequels in the 2000s.

And he had an Oscar winning star twice as old as his leading lady, a tall, thin and heroic actor hitting the end of his leading man years, wholly miscast as a “righteous” but restless rural sheriff facing an existential crisis, and temptation, in the form of a hillbilly moonshiner’s daughter stereotype played by Tuesday Weld.

It’s a Cracker Gothic Tennessee tale, similar to the grittier and even more stereotypical “Lolly-Madonna XXX” which came out a few years later, neither of them great films but the latter outing much more exciting and watchable.

Sheriff Tawes is introduced, staring mournfully out over a Jenkins Co. dam and reservoir (Gainesboro, Tenn. was the location), pondering the past and staring at the ever-narrowing confines of his future. He lives with his aged father, tween daughter and a chatty wife ( Estelle Parsons ) whom he barely speaks to.

And then he pulls over some joyriding rednecks, a boy recklessly at the wheel with his older sister (Weld) cackling at their hijinks. Maybe the sheriff notes what’s in the bed of that 1940s Ford pick-up. Maybe he’s distracted by the pretty 20something. But her widowed father ( Ralph Meeker, in fine form) is all questions when she gets home and confesses.

“Did he TOUCH you? Did he WANNA touch you?” And most importantly, “Did he see the SUGAR?”

Alma and her kin are moonshiners. And veteran character actor Meeker lets us see the wheels spinning as he turns over in his head how he can turn that “attention” to their advantage.

An oily, lazy and officious “Federal” Internal Revenue man (Lonny Chapman ) is in town, a “revenuer” looking for moonshiners. The drawling, shifty and ever-spitting deputy ( Charles Durning) is eager to help. The sheriff? That just got a bit more complicated.

“People here just try to survive, that’s all. Some make a little moonshine, don’t really harm nobody.”

His lust might be getting the better of him, not that Peck was ever that good at playing lust. But something’s blinded him, because anybody watching this can see the honey trap he’s walking into and the line he hasn’t walked, not since we first met him, contemplating ways to get out of this backward hellhole.

Southern stories like this turned up in the ’60s and ’70s, often dealing with race (“In the Heat of the Night”) or some florid Tennessee Williams vision of a decayed, corrupt South where even the “local characters” could no longer fit in.

The Eastern half of Tennessee was never plantation country, so “race” in the film is limited to a single slur. Even today, Gainesboro, Tennessee is 94% white. We never see a Black face.

The accepted rural white Southern tropes of “Deliverance” are here, in montages of the old, the barely-above-the-poverty-line locals and the tumbledown houses. We never see evidence of how “without this still, we ain’t got nothing,” because even with this still, the McCain family has nothing — an abandone kid house they may rent, a derelict grist mill where they hide the still.

That lowers the stakes, which are pretty low to start with. There isn’t much to this script, based on a Madison Jones novel. Which is one reason Columbia Pictures bought the rights to a few Johnny Cash tunes to give this a timeless, tragic folk song narrative quality — the title tune, “Flesh & Blood,” etc.

Peck does what he can, and Weld, Meeker, Parsons and Durning carry more than their share of the load, seeing as how little Sheriff Tawes says and how blind he is to what’s coming.

And in the end, we’re left with the frustrating feeling that we still haven’t seen what this movie is and is about.

Blame Peck. Bame Frankenheimer, who really lost his mojo through most of the ’70s and all of the ’80s. A few good lines of dialogue don’t absolve Sargent, either.

It must have been a relief to any and all the survivors of “I Walk the Line” when “Walk the Line” came out and erased this black mark from internet searches, a “classic” that never was.

Rating: PG-13, violence, a racial slur, one sexual situation

Cast: Gregory Peck, Tuesday Weld, Estelle Parsons, Charles Durning and Ralph Meeker.

Credits: Directed by John Frankenheimer, scripted by Alvin Sargent, based on a novel by Madison Jones. A Columbia release on Tubi, Amazon, etc.

Running time: 1:37

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Is On The Line Worth Watching? Breaking Down The Mel Gibson Movie's Reviews & Rotten Tomatoes Scores

• On The Line found new life on Netflix, but its predictable plot and poor acting make it a skip for many viewers.
• Mel Gibson shines in this thriller, but the movie's unrealistic twists and lack of tension disappoint audiences and critics alike.
• Despite its absurdity, On The Line caters to fans of twisty thrillers and Mel Gibson's nostalgic performances.

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for On The Line.

Although not as popular as some of Mel Gibson 's more notable work, 2022's On The Line has found new life on Netflix, which brings into question whether the movie is truly worth a watch . On the Line sees Gibson as Elvis, a popular radio host who, after receiving a threatening call from an unknown caller, has to race against the clock to save his wife and daughter. Although some of Gibson's action movies have found renewed success on Netflix , it's to be expected given his status as one of the industry's most beloved action stars.

Despite Gibson's age, he's still starring in action thrillers, as demonstrated by movies like, On The Line and the upcoming Lethal Weapon 5 . Although On The Line is decidedly different from the actor's usual work, it features Gibson in what is easily one of the more fun, albeit inconsistent, performances of his career. Additionally, On The Line sees Gibson starring alongside many fresh faces, which effectively speaks volumes to his star power in the modern filmmaking climate. Nevertheless, from plot twists to Rotten Tomatoes scores, On The Line 's recent popularity has been brought into question .

The 10 Best Mel Gibson Movies Of All Time, According To IMDb

Discussions of self harm are included in this article.

On The Line Has A 21% Score From Critics On Rotten Tomatoes

The movie's rotten tomatoes audience score is 32%..

On The Line 's reception among audiences and critics boils down to a predictable thriller marred by an unrealistic plot and poor acting performances from the majority of its cast. Save for Gibson, the consensus regarding On The Line is that the movie doesn't really offer anything worthy of viewers' time . While Gibson delivers a performance that is entertaining, it's overshadowed by a plot that feels dated in addition to lacking any genuine thrills beyond its initial moments. On The Line 's first act is arguably its best, as the tension is palpable and engaging at that point.

The confusing plot twists and underwhelming ending are also among some of On The Line 's most contentious elements.

However, once the supporting characters have more screen time, the movie quickly devolves into a not-so-subtle commentary on social media and its negative impact on the personal lives of respected celebrities and otherwise influential personalities. From puns and one-liners to Gibson's over-the-top delivery of some of Elvis's jokes, On The Line shifts from an enthralling thriller to a B-movie horror movie without any of the self-awareness necessary to make it work . The confusing plot twists and underwhelming ending are also among some of On The Line 's most contentious elements.

On The Line's Reviews Criticize Its Lack Of Tension, Plot Twists & Ending

The final plot twist didn't stick the landing with critics & audiences..

Elvis falls deeper into a cat and mouse game of death with a deranged caller named Gary, but it loses its tension by juxtaposing the thrills with one too many plot twists and bad jokes that, despite their prevalence, never really land. As seen earlier on, Elvis enjoys pranking his employees, and after a particularly harsh prank was played on Lauren, his former switchboard operator, she commits suicide. Unbeknownst to Elvis, Lauren was friends with Gary, and despite never being properly established beforehand, her death causes him to break into Elvis's house, where he threatens to kill his family.

After Gary forces Elvis to jump off a building to ensure his family's safety, Elvis fakes his death, but Gary reveals he knows Elvis faked it as he secretly had a drone circling the building. After then being forced to put an explosive vest on one of his interns, Dylan, for his trickery, Elvis and viewers witness Gary drop the detonator, but Dylan doesn't explode. As it turns out, the entire tense situation was one big prank that Elvis's crew orchestrated to get revenge for the years he pranked them. Despite its absurdity, On The Line still has an audience .

On The Line Is Worth Watching For Fans Of Mel Gibson Movies & Twisty Thrillers

The mel gibson thriller has plenty of plot twists in store..

Audiences familiar with Gibson's body of work will likely appreciate On The Line more than anyone else since , despite the movie's ridiculous plot, On The Line still features an inspired performance from Gibson that hearkens back to his '80s and '90s careers, respectively. Additionally, the movie's various plots could work well for people who enjoy them in other movies despite their lack of credibility or plausibility. Unfortunately, the majority of people who've seen it aren't too crazy about its twists, as demonstrated by its overwhelmingly negative feedback.

While Elvis's firing of Dylan is a prank that makes sense, Dylan's true identity as a stuntman named Max who orchestrated what is essentially an act of domestic terrorism and not facing any severe repercussions doesn't. Additionally, the police allowing such a prank to be broadcast live makes even less sense. While there is a moral about not taking people for granted, On The Line features too many twists for it to really work. Mel Gibson's movies are usually realistic , and while On The Line isn't, Gibson's performance and even the more absurd twists might be worth it for some .