Walk the Line

Walk the Line is a 2005 chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis. While growing up in the Great Depression era, Johnny Cash takes an interest in music and eventually moves out of his Arkansas town to join the air force in Germany. While there, he buys his first guitar and writes his own music.

In chapter 3 of our text, it talks about dramatic structure of a piece of art. The different types of structure are linear, or chronological structures, and nonlinear structures. In the linear or chronological structure, the first of the story is called the exposition which introduces the characters, shows some of their interrelationships, and places them within a believable time and place. In the beginning of Walk the Line, we meet Johnny Cash, his mother and father, his friends who become part of his band later on, Vivian, and later on June. The next section of the film is the complication where a conflict begins to grow. In Walk the Line, the conflict is when Johnny starts using drugs and starts having problems with his wife. The next part of the film is called the climax. The climax in Walk the Line is when Johnny's wife gets fed up with the way he drinks and uses drugs, and leaves him. He gets so bad where he can barely get out of bed in the morning. The ending part of the the film is called the denouement and that is where June helps Johnny with his struggle with drugs.

There are many ways of characterization in films whether it's through appearance, dialogue, external or internal action, reaction of other characters, dramatic foils, caricature and leitmotif, choice of name, or the varieties of characters; each film has unique characters.

There are different kinds of conflicts, external or internal. The external conflict in the film Walk the Line is the way that Johnny's use of drugs get in the way of his family life and causes trouble. The internal conflict in the film is the way Johnny treats the ones he loves when he drinks and uses drugs.

I thought Walk the Line was a excellent movie to portray Johnny Cash's life. The characters chosen for the film fit it very well. Joaquin Phoenix doesn't show much expression, but it was perfect for Cash, a quiet man with a deep voice. I think Joaquin did an great job to act like Cash by copying his mannerisms, his speech patterns, and his way of walking. Reese Witherspoon also did a good job of acting out June's spunky personality.