I finally saw the movie yesterday and I have to say it was fucking awesome! It was mostly filmed in Memphis, and I knew several people who worked on the film, including one of my oldest friends from childhood who was a costumer (she said it was the hardest shoot of her life). I called her as soon as I got home to congratulate her on being a part of such a kickass movie.
I really don’t know anything I would have done differently. Witherspoon just about stole the show. Remember, this is the chick from Legally Blonde! Stunning. And Phoenix was just perfect, despite being totally the wrong body type to play Johnny.
Awesome film. Better than Ray. I give it my highest recommendation.
If I were to make an applicable madlib with your question, it would read something like:
Could you imagine [insert pretty much anything happening in/near] your own house involving “rural mountain” (northern California is about as far from Appalachia s you can get) [insert adjective of your choice] fanatics who chased [insert pretty much any category of person] off at gunpoint?
And I wouldn’t hesitate to answer, “Why yes…yes I could.”
I thought for sure I’d previously posted the cattle trailer story, but maybe I’m just going senile. Either way, I can’t seem to find it to link to.
I’ve already divulged the puchline of the story, but oh well.
A family friend woke up one morning to the sound of a couple of navigationally challenged female fugitives from the law trying to steal her car. Not that I’m saying women can’t navigate :D, just stating the facts… It seemed they had already stolen one car “in town” (about an hour and a half away over the twisty mountain road) and decided to drive it in the direction of our quiet little rural hamlet region known as the Mattole Valley. The only problem was, the road in Mattole that they chose to take ended up being about a 3 hour’s drive loop that was just going to take them back “into town”, where they’d stolen the first car.
But the first car they stole broke down or ran out of gas before they had figured any of that out, which brought them to Leslie’s car, which they were able steal while she was trying to wake up. Probably because she’d left her keys in the car in true Mattole fashion, as car theft is about as common as getting hit by lightening while winning the lottery in those parts.
Leslie’s car was extremely important to her, as she used it to make the hour and a half commute, one way, every day, to her job at the Community College “in town”. So she called down the road about 40 miles and explained the situation to the good folks at Capetown Ranch, who proceeded to pull their full length cattle truck across the road and sit there waiting for the unknowingly-driving-in-a-big-circle-joyriders with a couple of rifles across their knees.
Saw it the other day, and had a terrible movie-going experience: the projector broke down three times, the sound went out in parts, and the fire alarm kept going off. Yeah, I’m going back to THAT theater real soon. In spite of that I enjoyed the movie (especially because of the performances), even if I wasn’t completely blown away by it – A. O. Scott’s review summed up my feelings pretty well.
One thing that kind of bugged me was that a lot of the material felt awfully familiar (especially after “Ray”). So many musician biopics have such a similar arc: poor childhood, early golden years, experimentation with drugs/alcohol, affairs leading to failed marriages, rehab, redemption. It’s not Cash’s fault that that happens to be the life he led, but it still feels pretty redundant.
I’d like to chime in here. I watched the movie as a person that had no real opinion of Johnny Cash one way or another. I was aware of his work but never took the time actually listen to any of his albums.
I was blown away after seeing this film. I loved the music (and I’m NOT a country fan). and I thought the acting and the acting of performing were awesome.
I just went back to my visit my parents when they told me they had seen Johnny Cash live in Oakland, CA back in the late sixties (they love Cash).
Would anyone know how I would be able to find more information on the tour/concert they went to (they can’t remember the exact year)? It might have been the oakland coliseum or maybe the The Henry Kaiser Auditorium . I think it would be the greatest thing in the world if I can find and buy the ticket stubs to this show somehow and give them as a gift to them.
Any ideas? I intend to post the question on the johnnycash.com board as well but I thought the dopers who had an interest in Cash would have good ideas too.
Sorry to bump this thread, but I just saw this last night, and I have a question about this. Cash’s son is listed as an Executive producer and also has a credit as someone named Bob Neal. I also can’t find a credit for anyone as Cash’s dealer, so…I’m wondering if that was John Carter Cash playing his dad’s dealer?
Again the thread gets a bump. After seeing Munich today, I decided to see another flick. Walk The Line, a film I only wanted to see because I am sure it will be an Oscar darling, fit my schedule.
I really enjoyed it. It played to a fairly full crowd, who really responded well to the flick.
A few thoughts, which I am sure no one will read since I came into this thing a month late:
I agree with Thudlow Boink. I thought Cash’s first wife was a sympathetic character. Her only real “negative” trait was reacting poorly to Cash’s crappiness. The guy really treated her shabbily. Before he was famous, he was kind of a do-nothing. After he was famous he was a womanizing drughead. I heard that the children from Cash’s first marriage shared the same criticism as VC03 and LoganDear, but I just didn’t see it that way. I felt terrible for her when Cash was trying to hang up pictures of June.
*Reese Witherspoon was excellent. I knew Joaquin Phoenix did his own singing, but I had no idea she did. I thought it was a professional. When I heard the real June Cash at the end, I thought to myself, I liked the movie June’s voice better.
Witherspoon is my choice for best actress. She went from bubbly to bitter in seconds. I could see her drawing from personal experience of putting on a public face.
I liked the Sam Phillips scene. It was a small scene, but it just clicked. His mannerisms and execution were much better than even the lines. Phillips is kind of an interesting guy in the history of music. I wouldn’t mind seeing that Dallas Roberts guy star in a biopic of him.
It was cool the way, through the eyes of Johnny Cash, some of the biggest names in history were just his drinking buddies. That scene where they blew up the tree branch had me rolling. Wouldn’t you love to have seen a rock and roll show that featured Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, AND Elvis?! Anyone know of any books about the road shows of these guys?
The comparisons to Ray were hard to avoid. Rock Legend. Died not too long before the film. Drug habit. Arrested for his drug habit. Disloyal to his wife. Good music.
There have been a lot of rock legend biopics lately. One I would like to see is Willie Nelson.
A cliche-fest, for the most part. Overlong, drawn-out story I’ve seen a hundred times before.
The part I disliked most was the utterly unnecessary inclusion of unlikely material which (even if it were true) just detracted from the overall probability of the story-line. For example, in the audition scene, Sam Phillips puts JC’s gospel singing down, so he starts singing “Folsom Prison Blues” solo as his backup boys whisper “Johnny, whatever you’re about to play, we ain’t never heard it” --now, some critic remarked that within that one song Cash starts out a loser and ends up a star, which may be accurate and perhaps necessary (IMO, it would seem more realisitic if Phillips kind of liked FPB but didn’t make up his mind about JC until he’d heard a few more songs) but why on earth did the film have the backup musicians playing some kickass backup after hearing the first few notes? Were they supposed to be brilliant musicians or arrangers? Hardly. They were shown as fairly crude technical musicians just before–this scene is rendered the way it is to make JC’s breakthrough moment more dramatic, but this film needed less dramatizing, and not more.
I remember walking by (the stage was just in the middle of the bar district,) and hearing Perkins’s voice. The group I was with wasn’t familiar with him, but I thought it was kind of cool. We stayed and listened to his cover of Memphis. I can’t seem to find it on any CD, but I really liked it.
I only got to hear a few songs because my group (they were new friends, so I couldn’t boss them around yet) wanted to hit the bars.
When I read he died, I was happy I got to see him. He looked like he was having a ball rocking out. Surely he knew he was sick at the time. He must have looked at it as a fun gig.
He was doing like what Les Paul’s doing now, playing as much as he could, since radio wouldn’t play his stuff,and he knew he wasn’t going to be around much longer, and if there was a chance of the young kids learning how you’re supposed to make music, then it was up to him.