Reviewing Movies

Walk the Line is a biopic based on the life of John Cash. Until I finally watched it I had never thought much about the man behind the legend. His start as a Gospel Singer, the depth of his relationship with the Carter Family. It is on subsequent viewings that the small details start jumping out at one, he became Johnnie Cash because that was the name Sam Phillips chose to put on his record labels. He became the “Man-in-Black” because that was the only colour shirt he and his band-mates all had in common. That he’d had an older brother who died after being hacked nearly in half by an open saw blade while John was off fishing. That his father didn’t share his love of music and that their estrangement was only solidified by the death of his brother whose devotion to child labour John didn’t share. Knowing this background helps explain the rebellion that flavours so much of his music.

Joining the armed service to escape home. His failed marriages. His drinking and the drugs. The itinerant life of a recording star and the adulation of swarming fans did nothing to provide him with a stable home life. Attaining stardom is not all it’s cracked up to be. The scene in which a bank teller patiently explains to him that she cannot instantly cash a cheque for $5000 because it’s too large brings it home to him. He tears it up in frustration and tosses the pieces. He would not be the first young star to self-destruct and he owed his survival to friends who looked out for him.