Ring Of Fire

Some have pointed out that the Johnny Cash bio-pic Walk The Line ought to be named after a different hit song, "Ring of Fire". Apparently, "Walk The Line" was dedicated to Cash's first wife, while "Ring of Fire" concerned his turmoil with pain-killers and his affair with June Carter -- and the movie is definitely about the latter.

Like "Ray", the movie is a warts-and-all portrayal of a musician driven to live his life on his own terms. And both plots turn on the detail of the star's reaction the early death of a brother. But where "Ray" bordered on pop-psychology in equating guilt with drug addiction, "Walk The Line" never wavers in showing Cash's own responsibility for his actions.

James Mangold's direction helps give Joaqin Phoenix's Cash time to breath; we can feel Cash's slow-burning anger. Though Phoenix doesn't have the fearsome physical presence Cash did, he's able to convince us that whoever he is, he's quick to anger and insanely in love with June.  Reese Witherspoon performs wonderfully as June Carter, using her well-known perkiness to good effect, never letting her natural optimism hide the fact that her character knows full well what's going on with her relationshop to Cash.

Robert Patrick, as Cash's father, is similarly well directed. Patrick's been on TV a lot and had seemed to have settled in to a very limited range of acting; here's he's very different, a mean-spririted, beaten father who has no idea how to relate to his famous son.

Final note: no bio-pic can show an entire life story in detail. Cash was profoundly more religious than the move allows. In fact, he produced and co-wrote Gospel Road, a personal version of the passion of Christ (with June Carter as Mary Magdalene!). A few clips from that film are used to strong effect in the haunting video for Cash's rendition of the Ninch-Inch-Nail's song Hurt.