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  • 5/10/2025
John (Joaquin Phoenix) performs "Cocaine Blues" and gets the prisoners revved up in Folsom Prison.

FILM DESCRIPTION:
James Mangold's Walk the Line tells the life story of country music legend Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix), focusing primarily on the long courtship he had with June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). The film is structured as an extended flashback opening with Cash readying to take the stage at his historic Folsom Prison Concert. The film touches on his childhood, relating a horrific early incident from his life and establishing the troubled relationship he would have with his father (Robert Patrick). Cash joins the military and leaves home. During his time in the armed services he begins writing songs and romances a hometown girl (Ginnifer Goodwin). After the end of his duty he settles down and attempts to begin a music career, but his wife has trouble adjusting to his dreams. Cash auditions for Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts), signs to Sun Records, and soon finds himself on tour with a roster of young soon-to-be legends that includes Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton) and Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Malloy Payne). On this tour he meets June Carter, the daughter of the famous Carter family, and they take a liking to each other, although she refuses any serious advances from him. Cash gains world-wide fame thanks in part to the inspiration he gets from June, but eventually his marriage crumbles and he develops a serious drug addiction. The film is based on Cash's autobiographies. Phoenix and Witherspoon performed all of their own singing in the movie, just as Sissy Spacek and Beverly D'Angelo did in Coal Miner's Daughter a quarter-century before.

CREDITS:
TM & © Fox (2005)
Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Cast: Larry Bagby, James Keach, Dan John Miller, Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon
Director: James Mangold
Producers: Alan C. Blomquist, John Carter Cash, James Keach, Cathy Konrad, Lou Robin
Screenwriters: Johnny Cash, Patrick Carr, James Mangold, Gill Dennis

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Transcript
00:00You know, standing back there in your shop catching my breath,
00:07I come to admire you even more.
00:10You see, I never had to do a hard time like you.
00:13Although I have, on occasion, got myself busted.
00:19Close in El Paso, I have to try to...
00:22Have you heard about that?
00:23You better know me also, too.
00:25Well, anyways, I felt tough, you know.
00:27Like I'd seen a thing or two, you know.
00:33Well, that was till a moment ago.
00:35Because I got to tell you, my hat's off to you now.
00:40Because I never had to drink this yellow water you got here at Close.
00:54This song's for your war.
00:57Only one morning while making the rounds, I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down.
01:05I went right home and I went to bed.
01:09I struck that love and .44 beneath my head.
01:13Got up next morning and I grabbed that gun.
01:17Took a shot of cocaine and away I run.
01:20Made a good run, but I want to slow.
01:21Made a good run, but I want to slow.
01:23They overtook me down in Juarez, Mexico.
01:25Laid in the hot joints, taking the pill.
01:27And walked the sheriff on Jericho Hill.
01:29He said, well, they knew your name is not Jack Brown.
01:30You're the jury, hack that shot your woman down.
01:32I was dressed in black.
01:35When I was arrested, I was dressed in black.
01:40They put me on a train and they took me back.
01:43Had no plan for to go by bill.
01:44They stopped and got a carcass in the county jail.
01:48The judge's father who picked up his day.
01:49Ninety-nine years in the Folsom tent.
01:51I was dressed in black.
01:52I was dressed in black.
01:53I was dressed in black.
01:53I was dressed in black.
01:54When I was arrested, I was dressed in black.
01:55I was dressed in black.
01:56I was dressed in black.
01:57When I was arrested, I was dressed in black.
01:58They put me on a train and they took me back.
02:00And got a carcass in the county jail.
02:02The judge's father who picked up his day.
02:07Ninety-nine years in the Folsom tent.
02:30Transcription by CastingWords

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