History Film / WalkTheLine

** Similarly, Music/ElvisPresley offers Johnny amphetamines and cheese fries, two of the things that would lead to "The King"'s own heavyset phase and early death.

* HappilyEverBefore: The film ends at Cash's performance of his Folsom Prison Album and marriage to June in 1968 at perhaps the height of his career commercially and only the beginning of his "superstar" period. He would go on to have a son with June (John Carter), play another prison album (San Quentin), and do more big shows like Madison Square Garden, but he would also relapse into addiction and suffer marital troubles. He'd eventually be dropped by Columbia Records and essentially be forgotten by his Mercury label, before a resurgence under producer Rick Rubin, but he'd be near the end of his life while enduring immense pain, stuck in a wheelchair and nearly blind. Almost enough material for a sequel.

** When Johnny Cash wakes up on the tour bus, he walks past a passed out Luther Perkins (his guitarist) with a lit cigarette in his mouth and he casually put it out. Luther Perkins died months after the "At Folsom Prison" recording/performance when he fell asleep in his Tennessee home with a lit cigarette in his mouth, and died from injuries sustained in the resulting fire.
** Similarly, Music/ElvisPresley offers Johnny amphetamines and cheese fries, two of the things that would lead to his own heavyset phase and early death.

* HappilyEverBefore: The film ends at Cash's performance of his Folsom Prison Album and marriage to June in 1968 at perhaps the height of his career commercially and only the beginning of his "superstar" period. He would go on to have a son with June, John Carter, play another prison album, San Quentin, and more big shows like Madison Square Garden but also relapse into addiction and suffer trouble with his marriage and even be dropped by Columbia and essentially be forgotten by his Mercury label before a resurgence under producer Rick Rubin near the end of his life while enduring immense pain, stuck in a wheelchair and nearly blind. Almost enough material for a sequel.

* ForegoneConclusion: Anyone who is familiar with country music in general would know that Johnny Cash would overcome his drug addictions, his Folsom Prison concert was a success, and he eventually married June Carter.

** In real life Johnny's drug rehabilitation was a much more drawn out endeavor. While he did detox at the Carter house, it just brought his drug use down to a manageable level. Case in point, he was high when he recorded ''Live at Folsom Prison''. He continued to abuse pills up until the birth of his son in 1970, two years after the movie ended, and didn't clean up for good until ''1992''.

* CoolOldGuy and NeverMessWithGranny: When Johnny was undergoing his self-imposed detoxification, his dealer, unaware that anything was going on, showed up at Johnny's house with his supply of pills. The dealer was met by Johnny's future father-in-law Ezra Carter, with a shotgun. Backing up Ezra was his wife "Mother" Maybelle. With her ''own'' shotgun.

''Walk the Line'' is a 2005 {{Biopic}} on the life of CountryMusic singer Music/JohnnyCash (Creator/JoaquinPhoenix), directed by Creator/JamesMangold. Based somewhat on Cash's real life, it follows him through his formative years as he loses his brother to a sawmill accident, and then joins the Air Force. Later on, he returns to the U.S. and tries to work as a salesman, but ends up signing to Sun Records because his heart is in the music business. Along the way, he marries and then divorces his first wife, Vivian, then meets and befriends June Carter (Creator/ReeseWitherspoon). After some drug-induced tumult, he eventually cleans up and performs his now-legendary concert at Folsom Prison. Johnny and June then perform a concert in Canada, where he interrupts a song to propose to her. She accepts. (No, this wasn't a Hollywood romance ending. That really did happen.)

The film was met with generally positive reviews, praising in particular Phoenix's and Witherspoon's roles, as well as the fact that both actors did all of their own singing and instrument playing. It grossed over $186 million worldwide and won Witherspoon several awards, most notably the Best Actress Oscar, and is often considered her best work to date. One noted critic of the movie was Rosanne Cash, Johnny's daughter from his first marriage, who said it was "painful"; Rosanne had a very good relationship with her stepmother June, and even spoke at her funeral. Mangold justified the somewhat unflattering portrayal of Roseanne's mother Vivian by saying that as a character, she was being seen from Johnny's perspective as he fell in love with June.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: June tends to give these to John.

** Cash generally sticks only to the mild, old-school country boy stuff like "damn" and "hell". But in the scene where he performs on stage drunk/high, he acts very strange, playing the guitar with a dazed smile on his face and making an unusually harsh aside to his drummer: "Play the fucking thing." Moments later, he collapses. This surprising usage of the word catches the viewer off-guard and lets them know something bad is about to go down.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Johnny Cash actually did propose to June on stage. This was not an invention of Hollywood.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Johnny Cash, birth name JR Cash. And his brother, Jack Cash.

* BetterByADifferentName: How about that Music/ElvisPresley miniseries with Creator/JonathanRhysMeyers, about a man whose brother dies in childhood, but he becomes famous as a musician, and then falls into substance abuse, but overcomes it with the love of a good woman? Or that Music/RayCharles movie with Creator/JamieFoxx, about a man whose brother dies in childhood, but he becomes famous as a musician, and then falls into substance abuse, but overcomes it with the love of a good woman? Well then came the Music/JohnnyCash movie with Creator/JoaquinPhoenix, about... Interestingly, the success of these stories actually increased with each example.

* RaceLift: Vivian Cash had slight African-American ancestry (one of her maternal great-great-grandmothers was a mixed-race slave later freed by her father); this, along with her Italian grandparents, led to a campaign of racist attacks on her claiming she was a black woman married to a white man (a major no-no in the South of the 50s and 60s).
In the film she's played by totally Caucasian actress Creator/GinniferGoodwin.

* RaceLift: Vivian Cash was African-American, and is played by Caucasian actress Creator/GinniferGoodwin.

A 2005 {{Biopic}} on the life of CountryMusic singer Music/JohnnyCash (Creator/JoaquinPhoenix), directed by Creator/JamesMangold. Based somewhat on Cash's real life, it follows him through his formative years as he loses his brother to a sawmill accident, and then joins the Air Force. Later on, he returns to the U.S. and tries to work as a salesman, but ends up signing to Sun Records because his heart is in the music business. Along the way, he marries and then divorces his first wife, Vivian, then meets and befriends June Carter (Creator/ReeseWitherspoon). After some drug-induced tumult, he eventually cleans up and performs his now-legendary concert at Folsom Prison. Johnny and June then perform a concert in Canada, where he interrupts a song to propose to her. She accepts. (No, this wasn't a Hollywood romance ending. That really did happen.)

* PleaseDontLeaveMe: These are the exact words J.R. says to his dying brother.

* RunningGag: Johnny repeatedly asks June to marry him. It never goes over well.

* ShownTheirWork: Phoenix and Witherspoon learned to sing and play guitar and autoharp, respectively, for their roles. Witherspoon also looked through June Carter Cash's closet for inspiration. According to music supervisor and legendary producer T-Bone Burnett, Phoenix had trouble getting to Cash's iconic tone that they nearly resigned themselves to dubbing him over before Phoenix's voice dropped to the correct octave a week before shooting. Phoenix also had difficulty with his breathing before watching some of Johnny's live performances. Cash's idiosyncracy of tilting his head back after each line was a way of straightening his throat so he could take in a full breath quicker than if he'd kept his head in a normal position.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: June tends to give these to John.

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: Johnny Cash is distant and generally a dick to his first wife, while openly pursuing June Carter who, by contrast, is entirely unwilling to betray her husband. But he's portrayed sympathetically, and has a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming when he finally winds up with her. He ''is'' Johnny freaking Cash though.

A 2005 {{Biopic}} on the life of CountryMusic singer Music/JohnnyCash (Creator/JoaquinPhoenix), directed by Creator/JamesMangold. Based somewhat on Cash's real life, it follows him through his formative years as he loses his brother to a sawmill accident, and then joins the Air Force. Later on, he returns to the U.S. and tries to work as a salesman, but ends up signing to Sun Records because his heart is in the music business. Along the way, he marries and then divorces his first wife, Vivian, then meets and befriends June Carter (Creator/ReeseWitherspoon). After some drug-induced tumult, eventually cleans up and performs his now-legendary concert at Folsom Prison. Johnny and June then perform a concert in Canada, where he interrupts a song to propose to her. She accepts. (No, this wasn't a Hollywood romance ending. That really did happen.)

A 2005 {{Biopic}} on the life of CountryMusic singer Music/JohnnyCash (Creator/JoaquinPhoenix), directed by Creator/JamesMangold. Based somewhat on Cash's real life, it follows him through his formative years as he loses his brother to a sawmill accident, and then joins the Air Force. Later on, he returns to the U.S. and tries to work as a salesman, but ends up signing to Sun Records because his heart is in the music business. Along the way, he marries and then divorces his first wife, Vivian, then meets and befriends June Carter (Creator/ReeseWitherspoon). After some drug-induced tumult, he eventually cleans up and performs his now-legendary concert at Folsom Prison. Johnny and June then perform a concert in Canada, where he interrupts a song to propose to her. She accepts. (No, this wasn't a Hollywood romance ending. That really did happen.)

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The movie makes it look like Jack Cash's death occurred on the same day that he was cut almost in half by a tablesaw. In real life, he suffered for '''''over a week''''' before he died.

* RaceLift: In real life, Johnny Cash's first wife was black. She's played by the Jewish Creator/GinniferGoodwin in the movie.

!!Tropes present:

* BadassGrandpa / BadassGrandma: When Johnny was undergoing his self-imposed detoxification, his dealer, unaware that anything was going on, showed up at Johnny's house with his supply of pills. The dealer was met by Johnny's future father-in-law Ezra Carter, with a shotgun. Backing up Ezra was his wife "Mother" Maybelle. With her ''own'' shotgun.

** Similarly, ElvisPresley offers Johnny amphetamines and cheese fries, two of the things that would lead to his own heavyset phase and early death.

* BetterByADifferentName: How about that ElvisPresley miniseries with Creator/JonathanRhysMeyers, about a man whose brother dies in childhood, but he becomes famous as a musician, and then falls into substance abuse, but overcomes it with the love of a good woman? Or that Music/RayCharles movie with Creator/JamieFoxx, about a man whose brother dies in childhood, but he becomes famous as a musician, and then falls into substance abuse, but overcomes it with the love of a good woman? Well then came the Music/JohnnyCash movie with Creator/JoaquinPhoenix, about... Interestingly, the success of these stories actually increased with each example.

%%* RaceLift: In real life, Johnny Cash's first wife was black. She's played by the Jewish Creator/GinniferGoodwin in the movie.

** Cash generally sticks only to the mild, old-school country boy stuff like "damn" and "hell". But in the scene where he performs on stage drunk/high, he acts very strange, playing the guitar with a dazed smile on his face and making an unusually harsh aside to his drummer: "Just play the fucking thing." Moments later, he collapses. This surprising usage of the word catches the viewer off-guard and lets them know something bad is about to go down.