Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Walk the Line

We haven't rented any movies lately. By rented I mean borrowed from the library, you gotta love that CLAMS card. But this week "Walk the Line" finally came in, which I'd requested months ago, along with it seems about 20 other people on the Cape. That's the only drawback in getting movies at the library, anything remotely new can take a while to reach you. But, what the hey, I'm not going anywhere.
So as I'm sure you know, "Walk the Line" is the Johnny Cash story. Reese Witherspoon won an Oscar last year for her portrayal of June Carter. Frankly I didn't think the movie was very good. It wasn't convincing and I especially didn't like the part about Johnny getting drugs from Elvis! Way to frame a dead guy.
But anyway, I am not a movie reviewer so I am not going to try and review the movie for you. Go see it yourself, and let me know.
Upon returning "Walk the Line," my librarian friend recommended "Finding Neverland," about author J.M. Barrie and his inspiration for Peter Pan. This movie is considerably better than "Walk the Line" and not just because Johnny Depp is cuter than Joaquin Phonenix. Again, see the movie yourself and let me know.
What was really interesting though, and yes I'm finally getting to my point, was the similarities between the two men. It's kind of like the famous Kennedy/Lincoln coincidence piece .
For example, Both Barrie and Cash had older brothers, who were favored by their parents and died when they were kids. Both Barrie and Cash used initials to identify themselves, Barrie wrote under his initials J.M. Barrie and before he becomes famous, Johnny Cash introduces himself as J.R. Cash.
Plus, at least according to the movies, both men were married to nagging, unhappy women. Johnny Cash as we all know ends up happily married to June Carter, Mr. Barrie? Well, I won't spoil it for you.
I guess the bottom line is, if you happen to be the older brother of an aspiring writer or musician, you'd better watch your back.

song: Walk the Line • artist: Johnny (J.R.) Cash

No comments: