Walk the Line is a film chronicling the life of Johnny Cash, American country singer, focusing on his younger life, his romance with June Carter and his ascent to the country music scene, with material taken from his autobiographies. The title is taken from the title of one of Cash's best known songs, " I Walk the Line" .

Walk the Line's production budget is estimated to have been $28,000,000.

The film previewed at the Telluride Film Festival on September 4, 2005 and went into wide release on November 18.

Critics generally responded with positive reviews, garnering an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. For example, Baltimore Sun reviewer Michael Sragow wrote, " What Phoenix and Witherspoon accomplish in this movie is transcendent. They act with every bone and inch of flesh and facial plane, and each tone and waver of their voice. They do their own singing with a startling mastery of country music's narrative musicianship."

Yet some, like Las Vegas Weekly reviewer Jeffrey M. Anderson believed the film suffered from the typical fate of the biopic, stating that important events are distilled into meaningless and unrealistic circumstances. Further, Anderson wrote, the director Mangold " stretches and dilutes the core story until it resembles less a great man's life than a TV movie of the week."

In addition, some critics also state that this movie is more of an actor/actress showcase than a movie itself.

• When Jerry Lee Lewis is introduced, there is fringe on his jacket cuffs. After he introduces " Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two " , there is no fringe on the cuffs.
• When Johnny is in the recording studio for the first time, his guitar strap alternates positions over/under his shirt collar in almost every shot.
• In an early scene in the movie, Johnny and Jack Cash walk down the road on their way to the fishing hole, and Johnny quote a line from a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon. The scene supposedly takes place in 1944, however, Foghorn Leghorn didn't debut until 1946.
• When Vivian shows John the eviction notice from their house in Memphis, the document shows an address with a ZIP code. A city the size of Memphis would have had zone numbers in the 1950s (" Memphis 11, Tenn." ). ZIP codes started in 1963, and they weren't routinely used in places with one ZIP code for several years after that.
• The first time we see June singing with her band, the fiddle player standing to the left of her is shown playing a backbeat (bowing on the second half of every beat) but we don't hear any fiddle until later in the song.
• As the musicians' tour bus travels down the road in an early scene, the slate shows the year as " 1956" . In the next concert scene, banners in the school gym proclaim, " Class of 1955" .
• Early in the movie, Johnny Cash walks out onto the street in Memphis and you see old cars and an old mechanical parking meter. He walks along, and you soon see a digital 4-button (4-space) parking meter, definitely more recent technology.
• Bar code on Sam Phillips's Chesterfield pack.
• The second time that the band is in the Folsom prison, and Johnny is introduced, the guitar player (playing the telecaster) is playing different chords than what is heard.
• In the hotel room when June answers the phone in bed, Johnny's hands caress her lower back. When cut to the reaction shot of June, Johnny's hands are not yet on her back.
• When Johnny is fighting with Vivian while he is trying to hang up pictures, he is wearing a Hanes tagless white t-shirt from the late-1990s.
• When Johnny first moves to Las Casitas he is shown lying in a hammock. He sees a buzzard fly overhead but the soundtrack is a hawk.

  The Legend of Johnny Cash
(CD)

  Johnny Cash Poster Walk The Line Movie Poster
(Poster)

Details

Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon
• Directors: James Mangold
• Format: NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about

Joaquin Phoenix performed all of the songs himself without being dubbed and learned to play guitar from scratch.
June Carter Cash died before production began on the film, so Reese Witherspoon's research included looking through Carter's closet for inspiration.
Johnny Cash chose Joaquin Phoenix to play him in the film. June Carter Cash reportedly chose Reese Witherspoon for her role in the film. also.
Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix had vocal training for six months with music producer 'T-Bone Burnett '.
Sony, Universal, Focus Features, Paramount, and Warner Bros. all passed on the project.
Reese Witherspoon did her own singing. She also had to learn to play the auto-harp.
It took four years for the producers to secure the rights to the story from James Keach who is a friend of Johnny Cash and his family. After Keach agreed, it took another four years to get the film made.
Columbia Pictures passed on the project.
One of the fan letters Johnny receives is from an inmate at Folsom Prison named Glen Sherley. Glen Sherley was an inmate at Folsom when Johnny recorded " At Folsom Prison" and also wrote the song " Greystone Chapel" that Johnny recorded during that show.
The scene where Johnny Cash pulls the sink off the wall was not scripted. Joaquin Phoenix actually pulled it off the wall.
At 5' 8" tall, Joaquin Phoenix is six inches shorter than the 6'2" Johnny Cash.
When Cash collapses from a drug overdose he says, " Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency." That is a line from a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon after all his feathers are blown off by a stick of dynamite.
When Johnny Cash wakes up on the Tour Bus, just after the Folsom Prison performance, you see him walk past a passed out Luther Perkins (his guitarist) with a lit cigarette in his mouth. Just months after the 'At Folsom Prison' recording/performance, Luther Perkins died in his Tennessee home. He fell asleep with a lit cigarette and died from his injuries sustained from the fire.

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

Broadcast Film Critic Awards

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon
• Best Soundtrack

Florida Film Critic Awards

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

Golden Globe Awards

• Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
• Best Actress - Musical or Comedy, Reese Witherspoon
• Best Actor - Musical or Comedy, Joaquin Phoenix

Kansas Film Critcs Awards

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

Las Vegas Film Critic Awards

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

National Society of Film Critics Awards

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

New York Film Critics Awards

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

Online Film Critics Society

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

Phoenix Film Critics Awards

• Best Use of Previously Published or Recorded Music

San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

Satellite Awards

• Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical, Reese Witherspoon
• Outstanding Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

Washington Area Film Critics Awards

• Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon

Jerry Lee Lewis: We're all going to hell for the songs we sing!
June Carter: And what about me Jerry Lee, am i going to hell too?
Jerry Lee Lewis: No, June you're beautiful.
[Later] Jerry Lee Lewis: She's making me fall in love with her

• Johnny Cash: OH NO! WE SURRENDER!
  June Carter: Ya'll can't walk no line!
  
  
• Johnny Cash: June, I've asked you to marry me 40 different ways, and I'm waiting for a fresh answer!
  
  
• Jerry Lee Lewis: That boy Elvis sure talks a lot of poon.
  
  
• [on stage w/John] June Carter: We've got these people all revved up, John. Now c'mon, let's sing Jackson for 'em.
  Johnny Cash: You've got me all revved up. Now I've asked you forty different ways and it's time you come up with a fresh answer.
  June Carter: Please sing.
  Johnny Cash: I'm asking you to marry me. I love you, June. Now I know I said and done a lotta things, that I hurt you, but I promise, I'll never do that again. I only want to take care of you. I will not leave you like that dutch boy with your finger in the dam.
  [shakes head] June Carter:
  Johnny Cash: You're my best friend. Marry me.
  [quietly] June Carter: Alright.
  Johnny Cash: Yeah?
  [They kiss & the crowd cheers]
  
  
• [to the cops in the elevator] Luther Perkins: How do you get those shirts so... stiff.
  
  
• June Carter: It burns. It burns.
  
  
• Johnny Cash: You're my best friend.
  
  
• Vivian Cash: With you all dressed in black, you look like you're goin' to a funeral.
  Johnny Cash: Maybe I am...
  
  
• Jerry Lee Lewis: Nice job out there, Cash!
  Johnny Cash: Hey Jerry Lee, does your mama know you're out this late?
  [laughing] Jerry Lee Lewis: HAHA! She knows... she knows.
  
  
• Johnny Cash: It's funny, you know, because I haven't talked about Jack in a long time. After he passed I talked about him all the time. But I guess people grew tired of it... so I just stopped.
  
  
• June Carter: There's too many " if" s in that sentence.
  Johnny Cash: There's only one actually.
  [shouting]
  Johnny Cash: There's only one " if" in that sentence, June!
  [looking at Jerry Lee]
  Johnny Cash: I-I thought it was a good point... I mean, there is only one.
  
  
• Elvis Presley: Want some chili fries?
  
  
• Johnny Cash: You got something against the Air Force, Mr. Phillips?
  Sam Phillips: No...
  Johnny Cash: Well, I do.
  
  
• Johnny Cash: Next time I ask you to marry me, I'm gonna come up with a different way.
  June Carter: Good cause i hate reruns.
  
  
• Johnny Cash: You know, when I was in the service, I used to look at pictures of you. In magazines.
  June Carter: ...Oh?
  Johnny Cash: Oh, no. It's... It's not like that.
  
  
• June Carter: Ya'll can't walk no line.
  
  
• June Carter: Rule number 1 - never propose to a woman on a tour bus. Rule number 2 - Don't tell her it's because you had a bad dream.
  
  
• Jerry Lee Lewis: God said not to touch the apple. He didn't say have a nibble, He didn't say touch it every once in a while! He said " Don't. Touch. It." Don't think about touchin' it, don't sing about touchin' it, don't think about singing about touchin' it. Don't touch it!
  
  
• Record Company Executive: Your fans are gospel folk, Johnny. They're Christians, and they don't wanna hear you singing to a bunch of murderers and rapists, tryin' to cheer 'em up.
  Johnny Cash: Then they ain't Christians.
  
  
• [Performing at Folsom Prison] Johnny Cash: Now, I'd like to remind you all that we're recording live, so you can't say " hell" or " s***" or anything like that!
  
  
• [to Johnny] June Carter: You got a hitch in your giddy-up?
  
  
• Johnny Cash: Tell me you don't love me.
  June Carter: I don't love you.
  [grinning] Johnny Cash: You're a liar.
  
  
• [after collapsing on stage from a drug overdose] Johnny Cash: Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency.