Walk the Line (2005)

As with the movie Ray, I would think that it would be difficult to make a dull film about such a larger than life figure as Johnny Cash. Beginning with the trauma-inducing death of his brother Jack in rural Arkansas, his overbearing father who blamed him for his brother's death, a tour in Germany with the Air Force where he wrote his first song, and his self-destructive addictions, the film takes us to Cash's eventual marriage proposal to June Carter on stage in Canada. Carter and her parents, for all practical purposes, saved Cash's life and career. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon (who won an Oscar for best actress for her performance) sing Cash's songs; no voice-over lip syncs here. My only disappointment with this film, like the film Ray, is that it ends while Cash is still a young man. He only got better with age. Others have complained that the film makes almost no mention of Cash's rather outspoken Christian faith. But these are minor quibbles about a good film about a great man and musician.