Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon and Ginnifer Goodwin in the James Mangold movie ‘Walk the Line’

Biopic movies have had a place in cinema since I began taking movies serious enough to rank movies. Country musician Johnny Cash received such treatment based in part on his autobiographies Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words of 1975 and Cash: The Autobiography, with Patrick Carr, of 1997 plus. Walk the Line (2005) received that plus deeper treatment with additional screenwriting from Gill Dennis and director James Mangold. Friend of the Matt Lynn Digital blog Cobra listed Walk the Line at #16 on his listing of top 20 movies as recently as 2018.

(From left, Reese Witherspoon as June Carter and Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in the James Mangold movie Walk the Line).

The movie itself begins with scenes of family life for the Johnny Cash from 1944 in Dyess, Arkansas. We meet Johnny Cash‘s mother Carrie, his abusive father Ray, and his brother Jack. Robert Patrick, Shelby Lynne, Lucas Till and Ridge Canipe portrayed Ray, Carrie, Jack and Johnny at this point of the movie, with tragedy befalling Jack and Ray severely resenting Johnny for it. Joaquin Phoenix would go on to portray Johnny Cash as an adult.

(Ginnifer Goodwin as Vivian Cash in the James Mangold movie Walk the Line).

It’s 1950 when Johnny Cash joins the U.S. Air Force. Cash takes a liking to writing songs while stationed in West Germany, developing Folsom Prison Blues before returning to the United States when discharged in 1954. Cash would marry his first wife, Vivian Cash as portrayed by Ginnifer Goodwin, before the couple moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Vivian inspired Cash‘s first hit song I Walk the Line.

(From left, Larry Bagby as Marshall Grant, Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Dan John Miller as Luther Perkins in the Larry Mangold movie Walk the Line).

The absence of success as a door-to-door salesman as a means of supporting his family, in part, led Cash to seek an audition with a small band for Sam Phillips, the owner of Sun Records. While Cash, Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant first aimed to play gospel music, it was Folsom Prison Blues that won the trio a contract and financial success. Among others, the three would begin touring with Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins, as portrayed respectively by Waylon Payne, Tyler Hilton and John Holiday. Dallas Roberts portrayed Sam Phillips.

(From left, Robert Patrick as Ray Cash and Shelby Lynne as Carrie Cash in the Larry Mangold movie Walk the Line).

The touring introduces Johnny Cash to June Carter, as portrayed by Reese Witherspoon. The influence Carter has on Johnny Cash is a source of friction for Vivian Cash. Feelings of love develop between the pair, though attempts from Johnny to initiate a romantic relationship with June are initially rebuffed. A large portion of the film is dedicated to this dynamic, the children between the separate marriages for the pair, and the familial drama that remains between Ray and Johnny Cash. The eventual intimacy, drug and alcohol overuse by Johnny, an eventful Thanksgiving on that path, and a dynamic journey to ultimately get there provides depth to the personal story that is told by Walk the Line.

(From left, director James Mangold, actor Joaquin Phoenix and actress Reese Witherspoon in the James Mangold movie Walk the Line).

Walk the Line is well crafted entertainment with a strong underlying narrative. The drama is true to the music style of June Carter and Johnny Cash, with feelings of love and social norms of the larger society factoring into the tale. Learning more about the music and the biography of the early part of Cash’s family and career was worthy of my time, too. I rate Walk the Line as directed by James Mangold at 4.0-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Matt Damon, Christian Bale and the film ‘Ford v Ferrari’

It was avid car aficionado in the form of Lynn‘s West Virginia uncle who turned me on to the biopic film about the 1966 automobile race 24 Hours of Le Mans. This particular film, and the facts underpinning it, tells the story about the stranglehold that the Ferrari brand had on the race at the time as well as the battle Ford had in becoming relevant there for a four year stretch beginning in 1966. The film that addresses this contest is Ford v Ferrari (2019).

(From left, Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby and Tracy Letts as Henry Ford II in the film Ford v Ferrari).

The crux of the film starts around the time that the Ford Mustang as a vehicle was introduced, with Ford owner Henry Ford II (as played by Tracy Letts) making an overture to Ferrari owner Enzo Ferrari (as played by Remo Girone) to acquire the motor company owned by Ferrari, and being soundly rebuffed in a move to increase the sales price to Fiat. This led to a courting by Ford of Carroll Shelby (as played by Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (as played by Christian Bale).

(From left, Stefania Spampinato as Enzo Ferrari‘s English Translator and Remo Girone as Enzo Ferrari in the film Ford v Ferrari).

The means of being rebuffed by Enzo Ferrari opened, or perhaps revealed, an emotional rivalry between he and Henry Ford II that revealed some interesting dynamics in the way Ford was operated as a company. Lee Iacocca, as portrayed by Jon Bernthal, brought Carroll Shelby into the Ford company when Henry Ford II demanded engineers and money into the company to have the wherewithal to compete with Ferrari at Le Mans.

(From left, Jon Bernthal as Lee Iacocca and Corrado Invernizzi as Franco Gozzi in the film Ford v Ferrari).

The compelling notion of what worked in the movie Ford V Ferrari was first the racing story with the fortunes of two automobile companies at the center of it. Also there were the personalities within Ford, with Shelby and Miles as clearly outsiders to the corporate culture of the larger company. Iacocca was a bit of a middleman between that culture and the work getting done by Shelby and Miles.

(Josh Lucas as Leo Beebe in the film Ford v Ferrari).

Josh Lucas as Leo Beebe was the face of that corporate culture, and in many ways vilified for his role in how the 24 Hours of Le Mans came to a resolution in 1966. There was natural tension in his trusted role in Ford and the natural conflict that arose in holding the Shelby / Miles team to an account that also reflected on the public face of what Ford wished to project. Said another way, a story of Ford v Ferrari was the means for how mean with well-defined senses of self worth worked together. This came into play as well between Shelby and Miles, the both of them and Beebe, and the full lot of them and Henry Ford II with Iacocca in the middle. Ken Miles and his wife, Mollie Miles as portrayed by Caitriona Balfe, had their own form of intrigue as shown in Ford v Ferrari.

(From left, Caitriona Balfe as Mollie Miles and Christian Bale as Ken Miles in the film Ford v Ferrari).

I found the movie Ford v Ferrari both entertaining and interesting. There’s history in the telling, despite some clear fictionalized dramatization included for the sake of the telling. The fiction offered something that worked for me in this case, though there are some muscle car folks that might not agree. I rate Ford v Ferrari at 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The X-Men movie ‘Logan’ entertained this reviewer

Logan (2017) is the latest foray into the X-Men movie universe, having been released in March of 2017. The movie is as emotionally mature as any movie in the franchise, in this reviewer’s humble opinion, surpassing the original X-Men (2000) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) in this regard. Rating well among critics and audiences alike, if you enjoy action movies coupled with a compelling story that tells a compelling conclusion to compelling characters, you could do much worse than the story offered by Logan.

(Hugh Jackman)

Hugh Jackman reprises his role as Wolverine, or Logan, as the namesake of the movie Logan. We encounter an aged Logan in Mexico as a limousine driver and caretaker to the mentally and physically deteriorating Charles Xavier, played by Patrick Stewart. Logan and Charles are clearly suffering from health issues. Charles has Alzheimer’s Disease, though we never learn of the illness of Logan. Both took medicine to keep their symptoms under what semblance of control can be had.

(Patrick Stewart)

Feeling morally corrupted for hunting mutants before the beginning of Logan, the character Caliban has taken to supporting and hiding out with the very mutants he once pursued. Portrayed by Stephen Merchant, Caliban tries to confront Logan on the source of his disease. He (Caliban) had aimed to help Logan, if only Logan would trust in the friendship that Caliban attempts to offer.

(Stephen Merchant)

Boyd Holbrook plays the antagonist pursuing the three mutants we’ve met already in this review, namely Logan, Charles Xavier, and Caliban. As Pierce, Holbrook forwards the agenda of ridding the world of mutants while a cabal of his friends assist him in this work and other dastardly plans. Part of those plans include the continued experimentation on the child Logan never knew he had, namely Laura.

(Boyd Holbrook)

Laura is played by Dafne Keen, a child less than 13-years-old in the movie who appears to Logan in Mexico seeking safe travel with Logan to North Dakota and then on to Canada. It was Keen’s fluency in Spanish and English that helped land her a role as Laura. Charles Xavier knows of Laura being Logan’s child. Charles finds a way to communicate with the apparently mute Laura. It isn’t until after much traveling, and some unfortunate circumstances befalling Caliban and Charles that we learn Keen can talk.

(Dafne Keen)

The film Logan is filled with action and the kind of fighting scenes that would attract many action film fans. Much of the action bears away from the traditional X-Men fighting into territories of intense hand-to-hand combat. That there is the expected X-Men flare of Wolverine-style action from Laura, Logan, and younger variants of Logan do not disappoint.

There were thoughts of Terminator 2 that came to mind with the Spanish language dialogue, the Mexican border action, and the prolonged indestructibility of Logan. This part struck true to much of the Logan / Wolverine character  that we came to know throughout the series of X-Men movies. This is also true of much of the self-loathing and ambivalent dysfunction between Logan, Charles, and Laura.

The terminal outcome for characters who were critical to the X-Men series in Logan provided a degree of satisfying finality and closure; mostly the outcomes for the characters of Professor Charles Xavier and Logan are the ones I mean.

The movie Logan felt like a parting chapter in a way that was true to their larger narrative while not compromising the story that preceded it. In a sense, a fitting tribute for carrying on their legacy with another generation of characters was a seed we’re also planted.

I came away satisfied with the story told by Logan. If you had some doubt about watching a movie series based on comic book characters, let me say that there are plenty of choices of lesser caliber than X-Men. Consider the X-Men series, with Logan last, if ever you would be so inclined.

My appreciation here for the direction and writing for James Mangold. I further appreciated the added writing efforts of Scott Frank.

Matt – Friday, February 9, 2018