Archive for the ‘Country Movies’ Category

Walk the Line

Saturday, March 7th, 2009
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What seperates the solid movie from the excellent? More often than not it is the quality and depth of the acting performances. 2005 saw a number of truly superior acting performances on the big screen, with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener in Capote, David Straithorn and George Clooney in Good Night and Good Luck, and Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

Walk the Line showcases the amazing depth and emotion of its actors on the big screen. Phoenix is truly in his element in this film, full of deep brooding emotions and charisma that matches that of the real life Cash. This is a career defining role, and one that took a toll on him in real life. Witherspoon does her finest work to date as June Carter Cash, and was well deserving of the best actress Oscar. As she said in her speech, June Carter was a real woman dealing with real life issues, and Witherspoon potrays that with sympathy, grace, and spirit, and just a little dollop of sass. Visually the film is impressive, lush and rich in color palettes, but Mangold’s camera work does not overly suprise. He basically frames the actors and lets them work their magic within the scene.

Not knowing much about either Cash or Carter in real life, I enjoyed how the movie told the story well enough without becoming overly bogged down. Like Ray, Walk the Line gives you enough back story and motivation to understand the characters and the challenges they face.(Cash and Ray led eerily similar lives.) The story of Walk the Line is enough to let you sit back and watch great actors work their magic in what overall is an excellent film, and one of 2005’s Top 3 movies.

Cast

  • Joaquin Phoenix - Johnny Cash
  • Reese Witherspoon - June Carter Cash
  • Ginnifer Goodwin - Vivian Cash
  • Robert Patrick - Ray Cash
  • Dallas Roberts - Sam Phillips
  • Dan John Miller - Luther Perkins
  • Larry Bagby - Marshall Grant
  • Shelby Lynne - Carrie Cash
  • Tyler Hilton – Elvis Presley
  • Waylon Payne - Jerry Lee Lewis
  • Shooter Jennings - Waylon Jennings

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Nashville

Saturday, March 7th, 2009
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The late Robert Altman was the past master of weaving a simple plot line and existential characters in order to form very interesting slices of the life in the American experience, with a wry sense of humor about that experience to boot. Shortly before his death he had produced Prairie Home Companion, essentially a Midwestern version of the presently reviewed film Nashville. He had an ear and an eye for the sometimes absurd characters who are part of the American landscape and those senses do not fail him here, although there is just a touch of datedness in the story line of the film.

Of course, the subject here, given away by the title, is a look at country music, as least how it looked in 1975, intertwined with a indeterminate but assumingly populist presidential campaign by a third party candidate. The mix of politics and music is an interesting choice although whether the electoral campaign could stand in for that of ex-Alabama Governor George Wallace on the right or an insurgent Eugene McCarthy-type campaign on the left is far from clear, probably purposefully so.

All the characters one would expect when one’s only sense of the Nashville country music scene is the Grand Old Opry are here; the mainstream male and female country singers modeled on George Jones and Loretta Lynn; the country folk `crashers’ trying to cash in on the popularity of genre; the wannabes working the open mikes off the main street in order to get a break; and, the truly talentless all striving to get ahead in the dog eat dog but lucrative world of country music. All looking for the main chance. All driven to be on a stage somewhere in front of some audience even if that of an eccentric presidential candidate. The sub-plot, which in the end holds the action together, is the random violence afoot then, as now, that is seemingly an endemic part of the American Way.

There are several outstanding musical performances highlighted by the film’s Loretta Lynn character, Ronee Blaklee. Her rendition of Dues still sounds good after over 30years. Try to find her work. The late Vassar Clements on the fiddle also should receive kudos.

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Coal Miner’s Daughter

Saturday, March 7th, 2009
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Sissy Spacek won raves and awards (including the Oscar) for her brilliant performance as country music sensation Loretta Lynn in this 1980 biopic `Coal Miner’s Daughter’ based on the auto-biography Lynn wrote with George Vecsey. Chronicling her rise to fame, `Coal Miner’s Daughter’ serves as much more than just a canvas for Spacek’s acting for the script itself is deserving of heaps of praise, following her life story with candor and authenticity, never over looking important points or focusing too lengthily on nonessential ones, this film serves as a template for all biopics to come on how to cover a persons life with grace, respect and justice.

At just thirteen years of age Loretta Webb marries hotshot Doolittle Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones in a performance that should have at least nabbed him an Oscar nomination) and quickly is thrown into a life she never imagined would be her own. There’s quickly marital problems, some due to her lack of experience `pleasing’ her man, most due to Doolittle’s temper, but by the sweet age of twenty she is raising four children and she’s far from home. Honing in of his wife’s love for music, Doolittle decides to buy her a guitar for their anniversary one year and this sparks in her a drive to success, igniting the road they soon travel in order to make her a country music sensation.

`Coal Miner’s Daughter’ covers her life accurately and fulfilled, leaving no rock unturned sort-a-speak. Littered with flawless acting on the parts of the two leads as well as Beverly D’Angelo who plays the late, great Patsy Cline not to mention the fabulous singing done by the stars themselves (I was floored, I mean they both sound amazing), this film is sure to please any fan of the biopic, anyone interested in the life story of one of country music’s leading ladies or any fan of films like `Walk the Line’ then this is a movie you are sure to enjoy over and over again!

Cast

  • Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn
  • Tommy Lee Jones as Doolittle ‘Mooney’ Lynn
  • Beverly D’Angelo as Patsy Cline
  • Levon Helm as Ted Webb
  • Phyllis Boyens as ‘Clary’ Webb
  • Bob Hannah as Charlie Dick
  • William Sanderson as Lee Dollarhide
  • Ernest Tubb as Himself

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