They Walk The Line
I caught the last hour of "Walk the Line" on HBO last night. That's what my movie viewing has become lately: the last hour of something on HBO. I don't know why I even HAVE a Netflix membership anymore. I watch a movie once every five weeks or so and I'm paying a monthly fee of $13 just for the privilege of keeping a movie queue 80 flicks long that I'll never see until retirement.
Anyway, I did love the last hour of this film and mostly because Joaquin Phoenix was such a smoldering hot hunk of burning love. How come Joaquin didn't get the Oscar for so brilliantly incarnating the tormented Johnny Cash, and Reese Witherspoon got one for sticking out her chin and playing an autoharp as June Carter? If you ask me, Phoenix had twice the range she did, and I felt like Reese was just playing Tracy Flick with a Southern accent (actually, I love Tracy Flick more as a character).
This movie was just plain fun. It had all those great costumes and de rigeur drugged-out-musician scenes that make you stuff huge gobs of popcorn into your mouth with total concentrated concern ("Oh mah goh, what if he DIES?") and the obligatory screaming fight with the cheated-on wife to get your heart racing with worry for the kids who are weeping in the background. It was a lot like "Ray," but white. It really was. Even down to the "I'm Especially Tormented Because I Had a Sweet Little Brother Who Died In A Terrible Farm Accident And I Lived" detail.
I loved the singing, I loved the bitterly tense Thanksgiving scene, I loved the proposal on the bus scene, and I'm so corny I even loved the "I'm Sure It Didn't Happen But Hell, This is HOLLYWOOD" on-stage proposal when June finally, finally says "YES" and she and Johnny smooch like mad teenagers in love and he lifts her in the air and that's the final big image. Even though as a fat girl, I had the moment of upsetness thinking, "And the moral of the story IS... you can be as feisty as you want with your man, just make sure you're good and petite about it so he can pick up up and swing you off your feet and hold you way up in the air in the final shot! So that everyone knows you're really soft and dainty underneath all that southern spice."
Anyway, it's not June Carter Cash's fault that she wasn't a fat, sassy Yankee girl who can't get a date. I love me some June Carter, even if I think she was a whole lot more homey and real than the actress who portrayed her. Did you ever see her play Robert Duvall's mother in "The Apostle?" That is one of my favorite characters of ALL TIME!
So I need to see the first hour of this film.
Anyway, I did love the last hour of this film and mostly because Joaquin Phoenix was such a smoldering hot hunk of burning love. How come Joaquin didn't get the Oscar for so brilliantly incarnating the tormented Johnny Cash, and Reese Witherspoon got one for sticking out her chin and playing an autoharp as June Carter? If you ask me, Phoenix had twice the range she did, and I felt like Reese was just playing Tracy Flick with a Southern accent (actually, I love Tracy Flick more as a character).
This movie was just plain fun. It had all those great costumes and de rigeur drugged-out-musician scenes that make you stuff huge gobs of popcorn into your mouth with total concentrated concern ("Oh mah goh, what if he DIES?") and the obligatory screaming fight with the cheated-on wife to get your heart racing with worry for the kids who are weeping in the background. It was a lot like "Ray," but white. It really was. Even down to the "I'm Especially Tormented Because I Had a Sweet Little Brother Who Died In A Terrible Farm Accident And I Lived" detail.
I loved the singing, I loved the bitterly tense Thanksgiving scene, I loved the proposal on the bus scene, and I'm so corny I even loved the "I'm Sure It Didn't Happen But Hell, This is HOLLYWOOD" on-stage proposal when June finally, finally says "YES" and she and Johnny smooch like mad teenagers in love and he lifts her in the air and that's the final big image. Even though as a fat girl, I had the moment of upsetness thinking, "And the moral of the story IS... you can be as feisty as you want with your man, just make sure you're good and petite about it so he can pick up up and swing you off your feet and hold you way up in the air in the final shot! So that everyone knows you're really soft and dainty underneath all that southern spice."
Anyway, it's not June Carter Cash's fault that she wasn't a fat, sassy Yankee girl who can't get a date. I love me some June Carter, even if I think she was a whole lot more homey and real than the actress who portrayed her. Did you ever see her play Robert Duvall's mother in "The Apostle?" That is one of my favorite characters of ALL TIME!
So I need to see the first hour of this film.
posted by PeaceBang at 9:25 PM
3 Comments:
Yes - you must see the first hour, too.
Joaquin did so much work for his transformation - and he succeeded! How many actors can say they woke up one morning in the midst of preparation and found a whole new and deeper octave in their voice - one that could be maintained through production? He should have had the Oscar.
And I second the thanks for allowing unregistered blogging comments. I have reached capacity for keeping track of passwords.
In fact, Johnny Cash did propose to June Carter onstage in London, Ontario!
Great movie; Joaquin Phoenix is one of the best actors of my generation.
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