Regular Price $29.99

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix,  Reese Witherspoon,  Ginnifer Goodwin,  Robert Patrick,  Dallas Roberts, 
Directed By: James Mangold, 
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Release Date: 2005-11-18
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: AC-3,  Closed-captioned,  Color,  Dolby,  DTS Surround Sound,  Dubbed,  DVD-Video,  Subtitled,  Widescreen,  NTSC, 

Editorial Reviews and DVD Information about Walk the Line (Widescreen Edition)

Product Description
Joaquin Phoenix stars in this drama detailing early years in the life and career of music legend Johnny Cash whose work transcended musical boundaries to reach out to everyone. A testament to making art and music and being young the film explores the world he came from and his experiences beginning a career during the birth of rock and roll. It also is a love story detailing Cash's burgeoning relationship with June Carter.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 024543224228 Manufacturer No: 2232422

Amazon.com
A solid and entertaining biopic, Walk the Line works less as a movie than an actors' showcase for its stars. Joaquin Phoenix's total immersion into the skin of singer Johnny Cash is startling--watching it, you can't believe this is the same guy who whined about being "vexed" in Gladiator. As he evolves from a farm boy to gospel croonin' plunker to the Man in Black, Phoenix disappears into Cash's deep baritone, his way of slinging the guitar onto his back, and his hunched-up style of strumming. But it's more than just picking up mannerisms: Phoenix also sings as Johnny Cash, and it's quite impressive.

The story of how Johnny Cash became Johnny Cash traces from his childhood under a distant father (Robert Patrick) to his early attempts at a music career, during which he married his girlfriend Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin). During a tour with the likes of Elvis (Tyler Hilton) and Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Malloy Payne), he encounters singer June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), and his love for her--and her rejection of him through the years--spurs him into drugs, drinking, and depression. As with most movies based on real-life singers, as his popularity grows, the women come a-flockin', and the childhood demons surface. Witherspoon, who matches Phoenix drawl for drawl, plays June both as a sassy spitfire whose charm breaks your heart, and as a sympathetic friend who tries to help Cash get over--well, her. The love story is what endures, but the movie comes most alive during its musical numbers, and even if you're not a country fan, it may just get you to run out and buy a Johnny Cash album.--Ellen A. Kim

Customer Reviews for Walk the Line (Widescreen Edition)

a testament to both the legend of its subject, and to the talents of its stars
Joaquin Phoenix probably would have won the Oscar for his portrayal of Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line" if only Jamie Foxx hadn't won the prize a year earlier for playing Ray Charles. The Oscars didn't want to look like the Grammys, so they gave the golden guy to Philip Seymour Hoffman for a less complex performance as Truman Capote.

Phoenix is better, though (and does his own singing), and director James Mangold, in a commentary, praises the actor unabashedly. One of the most memorable scenes has Cash watching from the wings as Elvis Presley (played by Tyler Hilton) wows a crowd of screaming teenagers. Without uttering a single word, Phoenix conveys a range of emotions. At first, he's admiring. Then he appears momentarily jealous of qualities Elvis has that are lacking in his own performance. Finally, he shakes off any feelings of envy he may have and is once more admiring, much too impressed with his colleague to let petty feelings intrude.

Biopics tend to follow a too predictable path, an unavoidable template when dealing with the kind of lives considered worthy of cinematic treatment. There's the early life and its troubles often depicted as providing the impetus for the subject's later success. There's the scene in which the hero discovers his talent or calling and struggles to effectively develop or present it to whomever (in this case, Sun Records' producer Sam Phillips) holds the power to bring it to the world. Then you've got the predictable rise and, sometimes, the fall. "Walk the Line" doesn't stray from the formula yet makes the cliches of the genre seem fresh because they allow Johnny Cash to appear not merely as a legend, an almost Mount Rushmore figure in popular music, but as a man full of doubts about his talent and his soul, and Phoenix captures him superbly.

Cash never really had a downfall comparable to Elvis Presley's, but he struggled with addiction, only overcoming his demons through the love of June Carter. He had career setbacks, but the film ends before Cash was dumped from the Columbia label and also stops short of detailing his eventual return to glory through the series of brooding recordings he made for producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings. It's a fine, superbly realized film, a testament to both the legend of its subject, and to the talents of its stars.

Brian W. FairbanksWalk the Line (Widescreen Edition)

BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!
LOVE ROCKABILLY. LOVE JOHNNY CASH. THIS MOVIE WAS SO GOOD.I LAUGHTED CRIED AND ROCKED OUT. GOTTA HAVE IT TYPE OF MOVIE.Walk the Line (Widescreen Edition)

Best movie even if you don't care for the Cash!
Unbelievable performance by Joaquin so give the award to Reese right?! She was good but what about the Phoenix! HELLO! Its a movie you can watch again and again.Walk the Line (Widescreen Edition)

walk the line
this was a great movie.
i liked all the music they played
a movie all family would enjoyWalk the Line (Widescreen Edition)

A waste of my time.
I struggled to sit through the majority of the DVD. I finally gave up the ghost during the scene where Cash's wife left him. I did not find this either entertaining or inspiring and was actually left with a very bad impression of Johnny Cash... very disappointed. The actors did do a good job, it just was not a good story. As I told my husband, "Now that was 2+ hours of my life that I will never get back."Walk the Line (Widescreen Edition)

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