Walk the Line

Walk the Line

2005

Director: James Mangold

Writer: Johnny Cash, Patrick Carr, Gill Dennis, and James Mangold

136 Minutes

If Johnny Cash had one chance in life, it was in the recording studio of Sam Phillips. Often times, we get only one chance to do something great. Most of us ignore, reject, or pass over a chance of a lifetime in fear of failure and more so, fear of success.

In the scene above, Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) almost missed his chance when he started playing the same old Jimmy Davis tune at his audition with Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts).

When Phillips stops him, Cash admits he didn’t let him bring it home, in which Sam replies:

“Bring... bring it home? All right, let's bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing *one* song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you're dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin' me that's the song you'd sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day, about your peace within, and how it's real, and how you're gonna shout it? Or... would you sing somethin' different. Somethin' real. Somethin' *you* felt. Cause I'm telling you right now, that's the kind of song people want to hear. That's the kind of song that truly saves people. It ain't got nothin to do with believin' in God, Mr. Cash. It has to do with believin' in yourself.”

Like magic, Cash sings Folsom Prison Blues - a song he wrote in the United States Air Force. It was something Cash felt. It was something different. It was something people wanted to hear.

This moment, a catalyst, started the career for one of the greatest musicians in history. Teaming up with his love June Carter (Reese Witherspoon), Cash and Carter toured the country giving us songs like, “Jackson,” “Ring of Fire,” and the title of this film, “Walk the Line.”

But it all started with the scene above. It all started with a moment in Sam Phillips recording studio.

As history goes, Cash wasn’t the only musician to come out of that studio. Superstars like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and BB King were all guided by Sam Phillips and his company called Sun Records.

Johnny Cash will forever live in our hearts, dressed in a black suit and sunglasses, looking like he was going to a funeral. Even when asked that question on why he dressed like he’s going to a funeral, he responded, “Well, maybe I am.”

It’s because Johnny Cash was. His one chance, pushing the envelope with Rock and Roll music might have felt like that to him - that each decision would have been the death of him.

Yet, he always managed to escape it.

In the end, if you were giving one song that let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth - one song that would sum you up – what would it be?

Johnny Cash’s was Folsom.