Movie Music Monday – Walk The Line

On this day in 2005, Walk The Line opened in US theaters. The biographically film starred Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter.

The movie was based off of two Cash autobiographies. The first being “Man In Black: His Own Story in His Own Words”” from 1975. The second: “Cash: The Autobiography” from 1997.

The film was praised by many and won numerous industry awards, including an Oscar for Reese Witherspoon. However, some critics found the film too constrained by Hollywood plot formulas of love and loss, ignoring the last twenty years of Cash’s life and other more socio-politically controversial reasons he was considered “the man in black.”

Johnny’s daughter, Roseanne Cash, had mixed feelings about the film. She did not enjoy the “painful” experience of seeing the film, “because it had the three most damaging events of my childhood: my parents’ divorce, my father’s drug addiction, and something else bad that I can’t remember now.  I don’t resent them making it – I thought it was an honorable approach.”

The soundtrack featured nine songs sung by Joaquin Phoenix, and four songs by Reese Witherspoon. It was well received and won a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Pictures. While there are so many songs to choose from on this soundtrack, I will go with my favorite Johnny Cash song – here is Ring of Fire.