"Walk the Line" trailer Video

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Created: 10/31/2005
Video description: In 1955, a tough skinny guitar-slinger who called himself J.R. Cash walked into the soon-to-be-famous Sun Studios in Memphis. It was a moment that would have an indelible effect on American culture. With his driving freight-train chords, steel-eyed intensity and a voice as deep and black as night, Cash sang blistering songs of heartache and survival that were gutsy, full of real life and unlike anything heard before. That day kicked off the electrifying early career of Johnny Cash. As he pioneered a fiercely original sound that blazed a trail for rock, country, punk, folk and rap stars to come, Cash began a rough-and-tumble journey of personal transformation. In the most volatile period of his life, he evolved from a self-destructive pop star into the iconic "Man in Black" - facing down his demons, fighting for the love that would raise him up, and learning how to walk the razor-thin line between destruction and redemption. The story of the young Johnny Cash and his incendiary love affair with June Carter Cash comes to life in "Walk the Line," directed by James Mangold from a script by Mangold and Gill Dennis, based on Cash's books "Man in Black" and "Cash the Autobiography". Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon is June Carter. Phoenix and Witherspoon sing every note of their roles themselves in live performances that capture the spirit of the music that drove Johnny and June's relationship. At the film's core is the passionate and revved-up music that knocked the complacency out of popular culture in the 1950's, which Mangold felt could only be captured in its most emotional and authentic from by having the principal cast perform many of the film's songs live. "The early fifties were the height of the smooth post-war sound, Doris Day and 'easy listening,'" says Mangold. "Musak was invented the year John released his first singles; even country music of the early fifties was highly produced, the edges smoothed for greater 'appeal'. One of the things I wanted the music in the film to convey was the startling roughness, the good humor, the cockiness, the urgency, heat and fire that shook people when these boys first played to crowds." This movie was nominated for numerous Academy Awards. Click here to see videos of other Oscar nominees on Download.com.

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