From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Does Anson think "Walk the Line" is a classic masterpiece?

No, he doesn't; but he thinks the film is still worth watching.

"Walk the Line," the original title, can be understood as moving forward all the way. Johnny Cash, with the help of June Carter, regains his strength, climbs out of the darkness, and finds his life again.

At the same time, it can also be understood as teetering on the dangerous edge of a high-altitude tightrope, showing how Johnny Cash struggled in the shadow of his family and the whirlpool of fame and fortune, and finally achieved redemption.

Unfortunately, the translated name failed to capture the artistic conception behind the words.

The film has great ambitions, but the narrative is slightly scattered, just as Edgar said. Because the script was created while Johnny Cash was still alive, it is inevitable to see him trying to show his redemption process, which to a large extent prevented the director from piecing together the fragments.

Truly excellent biographical films often grasp an accurate core, perhaps a person, perhaps an era, perhaps the struggle of human nature or philosophical thinking, and build the characters around this core. Otherwise, it is too difficult to use a mere film to tell the magnificent life of a person.

The core of "Walk the Line" is good, but the script does drag it down.

Nevertheless, Anson still thinks the film is worth watching for two reasons.

First, the music.

As the two Jameses said, they hoped to use the film to show how Johnny Cash drew inspiration from a terrible life and evolved into music. Mangold did grasp the key point for this.

To this end, Mangold required the two actors to sing all the songs themselves.

In his previous life, Joaquin and Reese each received professional vocal training. When other Hollywood biographical films were all about lip-syncing, they personally completed all the singing in the film.

And these musical performance plots did give the film its soul.

Second, the acting.

The two actors have their own merits, but Anson thinks Reese is better.

Joaquin is an excellent actor, no doubt; but he relies more on emotional outbursts and speculation. In this regard, he is indeed impressive.

However, he is slightly weaker in establishing the emotional context and performance framework of the role. It's not bad, but it's not outstanding. Therefore, Joaquin's memorable roles are often of the type with emotional tension or outbursts, such as "The Master," "Gladiator," "Joker," and so on.

In "Walk the Line," Joaquin's struggle and tension as Johnny Cash falls into darkness is still first-class, and you can even see the prototype of the performance tension he later used in "Joker" to walk on the edge of danger; but Joaquin's musical performance is... unsatisfactory.

You can see that he tried his best, but he never grasped the essence of his understanding of the emotional context of the music and the control of the live performance.

And Reese forms a small contrast.

Throughout the film, June Carter, played by Reese, has almost no emotional outbursts or acting releases. She is more like a ray of sunshine shining into Johnny Cash's life.

Reese gives the character life with a light and cheerful performance. Such a performance seems simple and not difficult, which is why she is criticized as a "water queen," effortless, but in fact, she needs to grasp the measure, less is not powerful, and more is pretentious.

The most intuitive comparison is "Glee" or "High School Musical," the entire performance seems to be a fake-high Barbie after applying three hundred layers of filters.

And Reese's grasp is just right, this skill is admirable.

In addition, the truly wonderful part of Reese lies in her singing. She shows her power over music, her control over performance, and her rare musical talent.

The essence of the singing part of the film should be on Johnny Cash, but Reese made June Carter's performance bloom with superstar charm.

Without comparison, there is no harm. Reese still made Joaquin a little embarrassed.

Of course, this is not to say that Joaquin is not good, but just to strive for perfection.

Unfortunately, for the general public, the most common and common standard for judging the quality of acting is often explosiveness.

The most intuitive example is that if a person can enter a state of emotion and burst into tears within thirty seconds anytime and anywhere, people will exclaim, applaud, and think that this is a sign of superb acting skills.

Of course, actors who need eye drops for crying scenes deserve to be criticized; but being able to cry whenever you want is definitely not a sign of excellent acting skills.

A performance like Reese's, which recreates the character's charm and is effortless, may be more difficult.

The point is that Mangold once again shows his sensitivity as a screenwriter. In the past, he used words to speculate and imagine the edges and colors of the characters; now, he completes an interaction through the lens and the actors.

Mangold always knows how to capture the emotions revealed by the actors.

This point is also fully demonstrated in the later "Logan," even in a superhero comic book movie, Mangold also filmed the vicissitudes and tragedy of a Western movie hero's twilight years.

Perhaps Mangold is not a gifted director. He has never won any mainstream award nominations for director; but he is undoubtedly a director who respects actors, loves actors, and knows how to tap into actors.

From this perspective, Mangold and Kitcher at least grasped the core of the film. Their judgment of the film was correct, and their conception was also correct. Musical performance is the soul, so they went around looking for Anson—

And it was still after contacting Joaquin.

At least, on this point, they are honest.

As an audience member, Anson will not be overjoyed and unable to sleep because of "Walk the Line," but he will still recommend friends to watch it once.

As an actor, Anson believes that "Walk the Line" is a challenge.

Think about it carefully, maybe this is the best opportunity for Anson to break the shackles of the vase label, because the essence of the film all falls on the musical performance, which is somewhat similar to pure acting but not completely the same. Instead, it can become Anson's entry point to carefully ponder the role.

After all, so far, there hasn't been a single role that has truly given Anson the space to perform and delve into the character—

The commercial genre attributes of "Catch Me If You Can" and "The Butterfly Effect" take the upper hand. Anson wins the opportunity to show his acting skills in a few specific scenes, but he does not have the opportunity to construct his own performance framework and character context.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" does have such an opportunity, but Charlie Kaufman's screenwriting shadow completely shrouds the entire film, swallowing the actors' own performance space. He is still trapped in Charlie Kaufman's script.

The script of "Walk the Line" is slightly fragmented and cumbersome. All the focus falls on Johnny Cash, but it does not give the character a clear framework and context. This may instead become an opportunity—

Just like Reese Witherspoon, completing her own understanding in the space of imagination.

Just right, this script gives the actors enough space to play and improve.

So, Anson told Edgar that he thought this might be an opportunity:

He was serious.