Blackness

Mr. Johnny Cash is one of my few idols. I've always admired those people who are flawed but manage to still break through to the mainstream. And although I'm not religious by any stretch of the imagination, it's the side of Johnny that continually strives for redemption that I feel the most connected with. I've read books about his life, and more importantly spent many lonely nights listening to his music while coming down from a night of drinking. And in those quiet, dark hours we've formulated a wonderful friendship over the years. I've only cried three times when I've heard about the passing of a famous person, and Mr. Cash was one of those. What's ironic to me is that the two other times were when I heard about Roy Orbison dying, a man who had a similar persona to Cash but with a lot less brushes with the evils in life like drugs, and when I heard about River Phoenix overdosing outside the Viper Room when I was in college. Seeing River's baby brother Leaf, now known by Joaquin, portray the man in black and prove that he is a very capable actor only made me think about the lost potential of River even more. But that's a topic for another day, as today is Mr. Cash's day.

Walk The Line is a very cookie cutter musician bio-pic not unlike Ray or The Buddy Holly Story, how on earth do you cram a lifetime of successes and failures into 2 hours anyway? You have to resort to cliches and corny montages set to the featured artist's hits. What makes Walk The Line good in my opinion has to do with it's fine performances by Joaquin and dare I say Reese Witherspoon, an actress that is not my favorite, and of course the songs of Johnny Cash that are sprinkled in throughout the film. Both Phoenix and Witherspoon give singing their best shot, with Phoenix completely becoming Cash about mid-way through the film either through dead-on impersonation or pure embodiment of the character. Whatever it is, it's fantastic to watch. I wish the story was more limited and focused, less expansive, but I did like the interplay of Cash with Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis and Waylon Jennings. These scenes had fun with our memories of these artists, but never took the camera away from our man Mr. Cash for too long and added something more than just a standard look at Cash's troubled marriage, pursuit of June Carter and rampant drug use set to music.

On the eve of Thanksgiving, it's the time of year that we give thanks and today I am thankful that Johnny Cash picked up a guitar in Germany and decided to put his thoughts out there in the form of songs. Because when the silence fills the room and I feel like I'm the only one feeling like crap, I can always turn him on and turn him up and let a friend talk me down.