I've seen two films lately about the early years of musical legends.
Scorcese's No Direction Home is a documentary about Dylan's early folk period.
It paints Dylan as a simple man with a great gift being worn down by constant labeling and heckling by the pretentious, the idiotic, the closed-minded, and the politically manipulative. It is the story of a young man confronted by a world of fools, harassed to the point where he stops touring.
Interesting and well-made film if you're a Dylan fan; you'll fall asleep if you're not.
Walk the Line is a biopic of the early years of Johnny Cash.
Fittingly, the man in black's life would make for the perfect country song. Young man from poor background with sorrows in his past somehow finds fame and then descends the familiar spiral of drugs, alcohol, lawbreaking and promiscuity before the love of a good woman makes him repent and find the right path.
Walk the Line starts and ends with the rehabilitated Cash performing in that seminal gig for the lifers in Folsom Prison, June Carter Cash by his side.
I'm a big Johnny Cash fan so I loved this film. Like a good country song, it's simple, solid, and has everything that matters.
Posted by Setsunai at March 20, 2006 2:41 PM