Movie RX
Dr. Benjamin prescribes movies that help and heal through his own experiences or the experiences of others.
Movie RX
Walk the Line (2005) ft. Jen
Producer Jen comes back for a hard hitting episode about Walk The Line (2005)! Join The Movie RX Producer and Dr. Benjamin as they cover the many facets of the film, everything from highlighting the importance of love, resilience to addiction and redemption, examining how Johnny's descent into substance abuse affected his relationships and career. Be sure not to miss this one!
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We all beat the same song. We all beat the same song. We all need the same. Hello and welcome to MovieRx, where I prescribe entertainment one movie at a time. I am your host, dr Benjamin PhD. What does the PhD stand for? Please have decency Nothing. I suppose that works good, uh, as you hear, bringing in for the. Uh, I don't know how many times, but my producer is joining me again on the show, the movie movie rx. Producer jen uh, my inspiration is is here again.
Speaker 1:Welcome back, jen thanks so this is a movie that neither one of us had watched until like since it was new yes, it is I.
Speaker 1:The last time I saw this was in the theater oh wow, yeah, see, I've seen it a lot more recent than that, but like, but still it was. It was when it was fresh out on DVD, uh, that that I watched this and, uh, this movie actually kind of changed my mind about Johnny Cash. Oh yeah, it was just I. I wasn't, I wasn't the type to ever go out of my way to listen to Johnny Cash. After watching this movie it almost felt like I needed to.
Speaker 2:So now I have to buy you that record.
Speaker 1:Right, Well, something that, like, uh, Jamie and I do a lot is like if, if an artist is struggling with addiction, um, or or something like that, and then they get clean, then we'll go buy an album.
Speaker 1:I remember you telling me that like uh amy winehouse, we did uh britney spears even and I am not a britney spears music fan, um, but it's. It's just kind of one of those things where if they're if they're making an effort to make themselves better, then you know, the least can do is is to show support that way.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Um, they're just lucky enough to have that, that way that I can help support them in their in their recovery. This movie is also a Bonnie Wright feel good movie. Bonnie Wright played uh Jenny Weasley in the Harry. Potter movies. We know that for real, jen Jen. You know that because you you have the story, so I'll let you tell it.
Speaker 2:Uh. So, being as we're, you know, big nerds and my love of Harry Potter, we went to, uh, Denver. I believe they call it pop culture con, cause they can't call it comic con.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is now copywritten.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we went to Denver Pop Culture Con and I went and stood in her line to get a picture with her and to get her autograph and while she was signing stuff I, you know, was sitting there talking to her and I asked her you know what is like? Your go to movie? And at the time it could change, because movies come out all the time.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:At the time she said that it was Walk the Line and that actually really shocked me because I don't know, I guess I just don't think of people overseas watching American country music movies.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But I mean she did have that like button up shirt on with the pearl buttons.
Speaker 1:So I guess yeah, no see, that's. That's a cool story. I think it's cool when we find out those little, those silly little things about, you know, celebrities that nobody really cares about, but nobody, most of the time, asks right like everybody's all concerned about who's dating who, who's divorcing who and who's having kids with who and it's like I don't know. I think I think it's really cool and we can ask the people in our movies about their movies, like the movies that they like and things like that.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, I was not expecting that.
Speaker 1:I figured it was a movie from you know hot fuzz maybe not, let's think of the, let's think of the most famous british productions monty python only yeah. Only because, only because she's british, she can only watch brit movies.
Speaker 2:I just yeah. I figured we have so many movies over here, so I figured you know other countries did too.
Speaker 1:Well, hollywood does kind of you know, invade. I mean, there's so many other places around the world use our movies that they just dub and, and you know, subtitle and everything but.
Speaker 2:I just forget that, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh. The goofiest thing you'll ever see is is an action movie, but in French, I don't know it's it's for some reason.
Speaker 2:it's just funny to me or a love story in German or a love story in German Uh, it, it, uh. It ends up coming off like a marriage story or something yeah, where they love each other but they also sound like they hate each other right, exactly so, uh, basic movie info on this movie uh, it's a 20th Century Fox production released in 2005, directed by James Mangold.
Speaker 1:I've already done one movie that he's directed. That was Girl Interrupted. I did that episode with Jamie. He also directed 310 to Yuma. This movie stars Joaquin Phoenix, reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Goodwin.
Speaker 2:Can I just say how fun Joaquin's name is. Joaquin, it's just fun to say.
Speaker 1:In high school I was a little jerk and I'd just say Joaquin. All the time.
Speaker 2:You being a jerk, no.
Speaker 1:It got so bad that some of my friends thought that I wasn't even joking and I'd be like you know joking Phoenix.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, my Atlanta Sorry.
Speaker 1:Continue. Imdb description on this movie is a chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, jerry Lee Louie and Carl Perkins. I mean kinda that's a really good synopsis for the first part of the movie.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Um, I mean, I guess the rest just falls in, I suppose.
Speaker 2:Just come along for the Johnny Cash story. There you go.
Speaker 1:Or you could just watch the movie for the music. That works too. Next, I kind of go into the initial movie impression. This is like a more technical sort of thing. I'll go first. The cinematography I thought was really great. They had really good utilization, uh, of stage lighting and spotlights for movie lights, um like the. They use the spotlight quite frequently, frequently as a backlight for silhouettes and, uh, dramatic effect, uh, things like that to kind of make you feel like you're really there on the stage with them, and stuff like that. They were super creative with the lighting in this movie and and I think I think that's a big uh, a big selling point for this movie Music pretty well wrote itself. I think it was. It was, uh, johnny Cash, mostly the uh, the movie original soundtrack was pretty well what it needed to be and, um it it kind of took a backseat to to a lot of the, the more notable, uh, I guess more recognizable tunes.
Speaker 2:Yes, for sure, like um, well, you know me, I'm, I don't, I listen to a little bit of everything, but I don't listen to a lot of country. Um, but the ones that they played were definitely the ones that I know, but there is one that I was a little sad that they didn't like sneak in in the credits or something. Oh yeah, yeah, his cover of hurt oh, I love that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Trent resner apparently had said that that song doesn't belong to him anymore because it's so, it's so fit. Johnny cash and his story and the way he sang. It was just so heartbreaking. He was like it doesn't, it's not my song anymore. Have you seen the music video Johnny Cash and his story and the way he sang. It was just so heartbreaking. He was like it doesn't, it's not my song anymore.
Speaker 2:Have you seen the music video for that? Oh God, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, terry up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's for sure, like one of my, one of my favorite songs that he has sung. I know it's not technically his song, but you know it's still a banger.
Speaker 1:The. I know it's not technically his song, but it's still a banger. The acting in this movie there's not really much to complain about. I mean, it's Joaquin Phoenix, reese Witherspoon. What do you expect? Now, what I will say is and I don't know if this was intentional or not, but there was a huge difference between Johnny Cash singing on his porch and Johnny Cash singing on stage. Yes, like when he was singing on the porch, even when he was auditioning with that first song, it like it sounded bad, I don't. I don't know if it was intentional, but once he started doing the Johnny Cash persona on stage, then, damn, he was spot on.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like what the producer at the record label said. I don't believe you.
Speaker 1:Right. I love how he took that literally. I don't believe you. You saying I don't believe in God.
Speaker 2:Let's just say that he probably didn't get a whole lot of education.
Speaker 1:Well, no, Of course we don't want to jump too far.
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, Too far ahead. You tell me when to say thanks. Too far ahead.
Speaker 1:You tell me when to say things. Yeah, the singing was pretty astounding from just about everybody. For the vastest majority of the movie it was just the beginning. That was kind of eh, and there were even times that, like, june Carter, had a very unique sound and, uh, not to say that she was a bad singer, but she wasn't. She wasn't the talent that her sister was and and so she, uh, her very unique sound, was it? It didn't play to her benefit at the time, um, and there were times that Reese Witherspoon was even able to replicate that, um, like the the honky tonky uh song that she did. That she, she could really like catch that at at certain points in that song and it was like Ooh, wow, that's really close to what it really sounds like, you know, um she cracks me up, like when she performs it, just I feel like that's kind of how she is in real life, is just super goofy.
Speaker 1:Everywhere June Carter went was a USO show Like the. The girl was just funnier in hell. I mean she said in the movie like I had to funny because anita was the one with the talent and she wanted to offer something and, and she still wanted to offer something to showbiz, and sure shit, I think. I think she's pretty well the real start of what could be called classic stage stand up comedy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great, great, great stuff, which is crazy because, like it, I feel like it took women, like women had to go through a bunch of shit, basically to to do any kind of stand-up, because you know how many guys out there like girls aren't funny right, well, I mean, look at, uh, look at the productions that you see there's so few women on stage for, uh, for that kind of stuff of stuff.
Speaker 1:But at the same time you look at those shows and you look at some of the greats from that stuff. Um, you know, I mean that that's where Bette Midler got to start, you know, was doing USO shows and and that kind of stuff. And, uh, I mean some of those really heavy hitting performers, cause they're not singers, they're not comedians, they're not actors, they're just performers, because they're not singers, they're not comedians, they're not actors, they're just performers because they do everything. And, uh, and she was definitely that probably better at the comedy than the vast majority of the people that she toured with yeah, especially like and you see her with the whole running into Johnny and getting stuck on his guitar and she just.
Speaker 2:I can keep this funny for like two more minutes, don't worry, right yeah, god, I mean we this is.
Speaker 1:This is normally when I go into the character section, but it's like this story is about Johnny Cash and then after that it's about Johnny Cash and June Carter. But the reason why it's first about Johnny Cash and then after that it's about Johnny Cash and June Carter, but the reason why it's first about Johnny Cash, is because it's about Johnny Cash and his uh and his addiction and something that that came really like that, that became really evident in that in a lot of those addiction struggles was was trauma. I mean to talk about that, I suppose we should just jump right into the movie. I think right off the bat you find out, you know, you figure out that his dad's a drunk every time I see that man in something, he is usually an asshat that's very accurate and every time I see face, I'm sure he's a nice human being, but I want to punch him in the throat.
Speaker 2:Like every time he talked in this movie, I'm like, yep, you need a throat punch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that was Robert Patrick. He was the T-1000.
Speaker 2:Like of course it's the horror of my childhood, yeah.
Speaker 1:You didn't recognize that he was also the, that he was also t1000 I did, but I didn't put it together until just then.
Speaker 2:But yes, he was the thing of nightmares in my childhood yeah, so yeah, that's why you don't like him.
Speaker 1:Uh, I mean, well, you don't like him because you're not supposed to like him.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Because he's Ray Cash. Ray Cash was recorded as being quite a douchebag, but I don't know. You can't argue with Robert Patrick's acting in anything he's ever in, but he does a really great job of making you hate him.
Speaker 2:Yes, very much so.
Speaker 1:Everything from forcing his entire family to do his job for him Picking crops because whoever it is that is going to come by to pick him up is they're going to want what they need and or what they were promised, and he doesn't have it because he was too busy drinking, you know.
Speaker 2:And he complains about not having money, but he goes to the bar every Saturday and drinks that away.
Speaker 1:One thing that I did like from that, though, that you pointed out, is that his mom was really good at setting boundaries.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Like she called him out on his drinking and like don't, don't be getting on the boys, because, because you screwed up.
Speaker 2:And on top of that she's like you're not selling my dad's piano.
Speaker 1:You're not going to get rid of my heirloom for to satisfy your addiction, yeah, which I mean first off at that time balls in your face, like that woman. That woman had big old testes to stand up in front of her man, like at that time. Because I mean, it was just that, wasn't? That wasn't something that was typical at the time and and I what I really liked about the very beginning of the movie is, in a very short period of time they were able to convey to you what kind of connection Johnny Cash had with his older brother, jack. I mean, it's not unusual at all, for you know families in that time where the oldest is kind of the star child.
Speaker 2:And takes on a lot more responsibility than they should, as a kid.
Speaker 1:Right, johnny even asks him you know what's? Why are you so good, you know? And and he just chalks it up to being, to being older and bigger and stronger and and all of that stuff. But there was a line that he that he had said, you know, he made it clear that he wanted to become, that he wanted to become a preacher, that he needed to know the Bible front and back. Uh, and, and he said, because you can't help nobody if you don't know the right story, I, I completely agree. Granted, I don't, I don't use any of the biblical, biblical stories or anything. But you know people, people who know stories of, of hardship and things like that, tend to be able to help the people who are, you know, in in those struggles.
Speaker 2:Well it's, it's like the main thing with our job. I mean, if you have the right tools you could do anything. But it's not. Everybody has the right tools.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I mean that's that's kind of why that stuck with me, is that you know if you, if you got the right story, you can help um and and yeah, I really dig that. But yeah, so anyway, they're uh, they're two brothers, they're super, super close and then it gets. It gets dark very quickly I.
Speaker 2:I had completely forgot well, because it had been so long since I'd seen the movie, but the second I saw that scene come in.
Speaker 1:I'm like the second you see the saw and and then then you see it malfunction, uh and and kick that wood up and Johnny goes in and stops the saw. If it's been a decade since you've seen this movie, that will jar you loose and go oh God, I know what's coming, because it's graphic, like they don't show. They don't show anything about it, uh, except for you know when, when he's laying on the bed, you know, and and covered in bandages, and things like that.
Speaker 2:Can I just say that shop class was horrifying for me, cause you know my luck, you know how. You know my luck, you know how you know, graceful I am I? I can hurt myself with, just like slicing an apple, like how many times have you got after me when I have a knife in my hand? Yeah and they trusted, like way younger me around power tools right like those. I'm like what is wrong with you?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah see, I don't think, I don't think I'd be able to, you know, teach any sort of a class with power, like table saws and things like that, with middle schoolers.
Speaker 2:Yep Middle school. Middle school I I did. I had to use a lot of those tools and I'm like you guys are stupid yeah.
Speaker 1:When Jack goes in to go and do the uh, to chop the wood, you know he sees that Johnny wants to go fishing and he just gives in and says you know what, go ahead and go fishing, I'll finish this up and he leaves. You know, as he's walking home, you know, with his fishing pole or whatever he gets, his dad rolls up beside him in a car. He starts getting on his case you know where you been, where you been and makes him get in the car and they go to the hospital where where he finds out that his, that his brother's dying, and he and in the car and they go to the hospital where he finds out that his brother's dying and he sits there and watches his brother die. The way that his dad eyeballed him and said where you been, you could definitely see that he was holding Johnny responsible for what happened to Jack.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%, which is so not fair and I'm sorry. Where was he Right? That's a more appropriate job.
Speaker 1:Sorry, where was he Right?
Speaker 2:That's a more appropriate job for a grown ass man.
Speaker 1:Right, and that was something that Johnny brought up later in life, which, you know, we'll get to that a little bit later. But he blamed his what? 10 year old son. I think he said 12 when he talked about it later, it's like really and that is a great point Like so, when, when are you going to take responsibility as a parent and not monitoring what your kids are doing?
Speaker 2:Well, not only that, why is?
Speaker 1:your kid going and working for a dollar to cut wood to save your ass.
Speaker 2:Right? Well, I was just going to say not only that, like you're putting blame on little kids, but you're also putting all of that responsibility to make money for the family on your young children.
Speaker 1:Right, which I mean we're. We're really bagging on Ray here, but it's fine, he deserves it. The nice thing to remember is that Ray did get better.
Speaker 2:Barely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it took him a long time and it's and it was well after.
Speaker 2:he should have gotten better, but he did get better but see, like the way that they ended that, like you don't know if he actually got better with everyone or if he was just a nice grandpa that's probably a good way to soften soften anybody's heart, that's, you know, douchey.
Speaker 1:But then we start to see, like after after jack dies, we start to see that there's almost a pointed hatred from ray cash to his, to his son yeah, he said that.
Speaker 1:He said that it was satan that took the wrong son well, yeah, because you know he was getting on or something he was getting on uh, johnny's case for listening to the radio, and his mom told him hey, knock it off. He didn't do this. And ray said the devil did this. He took the wrong son. I mean, imagine growing up with that. I mean, if he was 12, the next talking point we have he's going to the air force.
Speaker 1:They, they skipped over that whole time. From the time that he's 12 to the time that they skipped over that whole time, from the time that he's 12 to the time that he leaves for the Air Force. I couldn't imagine what living in that hell would be like. Knowing that your dad feels that way, and you could definitely tell when he did leave for the Air Force what kind of state the house was in. Like the rest of his family was sad to see him go. They were proud of him but they were sad to see him go. They were proud of him but they were sad to see him go, and his dad just seemed like he couldn't wait to get him off the farm.
Speaker 2:And he belittled what he was going to do.
Speaker 1:Right, good on him for getting out of that, because sometimes, yeah, even though you've got family and it's kind of stuck in that, you still have to also think of your own. Well, and then he got himself out, went into the air force and bought himself a guitar and learned how to play it. But, yeah, after that he you know, I mean after his, his service in the air force he got married, uh, had a daughter and moved to Memphis. He was pursuing his dreams. He was really reaching for him and and it really seemed like that it wasn't going to happen. Is that kind of what you felt?
Speaker 2:taped on the side of the base. Oh yeah, so yeah, he had a rough start, but I mean, I feel like it was rougher because his wife didn't believe in him.
Speaker 1:That was really hard to watch sometimes, like the few interactions that they had between Johnny and Viv through that whole starting section in Memphis was really painful. I mean, on one hand you totally sympathize with Viv on being concerned about him. You know selling stuff and making money to be able to pay bills and things like that and that her dad had a job for him back home. You know where he would have a guaranteed job and guaranteed pay. But at the same time she wanted that more than she wanted him to realize his dream.
Speaker 2:I don't know that she ever admitted that to herself or to him I don't, I don't think so, like I think she yes, she had a right to be worried. Like it's the same thing. I tell you you do, you do what makes you happy. As long as we can pay the bills after that I'm good. But like even when, even when he was trying and getting going, she just never seemed happy with anything he did there were a lot of times that it definitely felt like.
Speaker 1:It definitely felt like they're just it wasn't ever going to be good enough. And it's funny because it made it really hard for me to think of him as the bad guy when he started to wander. And I don't like that feeling. I don't like not thinking of the guy that's looking at other women. I don't like not thinking of that guy as the bad guy. But seeing how she treated him at home is what made that difficult treated him at home is what made that difficult?
Speaker 2:Well, and not only at home, like he called her right when he got off stage, and she just didn't even care. Yeah. She had kids running around and one of them got hurt, but she sounded like he was a burden even talking to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know it. Just it really kind of sucks because I don't know I had a hard time feeling bad for her in at any point because, no matter what he accomplished, she didn't seem supportive, she didn't seem happy, and I hate to say that it that it came off as ungrateful, because I highly doubt that somebody would be ungrateful about the life that he was able to give her and half of everything when she left. It's kind of hard to not be grateful for that. But yeah, I don't know, I just I guess I don't. Really I don't feel like she put enough into the relationship in order to make him feel like he was supported. That is essential when he's pursuing his dream.
Speaker 2:Well, and to her credit, she was at home with the children and taking care of them, but I mean she didn't have to work. They could probably hire some assistants, and it looked like there was often family around to help her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was that At one?
Speaker 2:point. Yeah, it was his sister.
Speaker 1:Yeah, his sister was there. That's the whole thing is not to her credit. They had a support system and she wasn't alone. I would be a lot more sympathetic, I think, if it felt like that she was there alone without any sort of help and he was just out on tour all the time. But it sounded like he was on tour for a couple of weeks at a time and then he was home for a while, and then he was on tour for a couple more weeks at a time and then he'd be at home for a while. And yeah, maybe being home for a while is only a few days, but I mean, he's doing the best that he can.
Speaker 2:He has to go on tour in order to make the money to provide the lifestyle that she wanted right and like and he was doing it yeah, he was kicking ass and taking names at it he even volunteered to like he's like you know. I think I'm gonna call whoever it was and see if I can push the dates back and then she started talking about the letters, yeah, and then got mad at him for talking about the tour.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was. That was a little unfair, like I'm going to bait you into this conversation and then I'm going to, then I'm going to chew your ass for for talking about it Like yeah, and it's not like he was, you know, searching through those letters and reading those letters.
Speaker 2:He's like dude, don't even, don't even pay attention to them, don't open them, those letters.
Speaker 1:He's like dude, don't even, don't even pay attention to him, don't open them, just don't even, don't even bother right, which I I really love later on, the change in in the checking the, the fan mail, how he starts looking for the ones from various prisons and jails and things like that and and reading that stuff. That stuff's cool.
Speaker 1:I that it was really it was a neat, neat change after, after a bright and sunshiny part of the movie. But yeah, so you got this reality that it doesn't sell anymore. You know, and and told him you know, if you're dying in that gutter and you could sing one song, what would it be? Is it going to be that or is it going to be something else? And then that's when he sings in Folsom blues and lands the label, gets on the tour and and starts making all of that money. And his wife still isn't happy. Before that she just wanted him to sell some appliances. You know, like, come on now. I don't feel bad for her. I feel kind of bad for Johnny Cash, but then I also want to call him a son of a bitch.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Well, because he goes on tour and then he meets June Carter, like the June Carter, the one that he's been listening to since he was, you know. God only knows how young this, this woman, was made to be his main squeeze.
Speaker 2:Made to be his main squeeze.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I mean the kid. The kid obsessed over listening to that girl sing on the radio his whole life, and then he finally meets her, and then he starts performing with her. Like they clearly have a connection, you know, like from the very first time they talk. And how convenient is it that she is at that time going through a divorce like, or just or just coming out of a divorce?
Speaker 2:But he gets. He gets a little stalkery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he does, it gets that's, that's cringy. Leaves a little bit of a, a little bit of a you know nasty coconutty type aftertaste in your mouth.
Speaker 2:You missed original.
Speaker 1:Why do they have to add the coconut? I prefer the original.
Speaker 2:Now, that's a TV show you got after me.
Speaker 1:It is a TV show, but yeah, well, actually while they're on tour, when she's like, when they're starting to figure out that a little bit of electricity that they have between them, you know, Johnny makes a push. That was actually a really great scene because she gave him a copy of Khalil Gibran's the Prophet. That's a really good book. I had no idea that that would have been something on June Carter's radar at all, but yeah anyway. But he tries to kiss June and June shows why he is attracted to her.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Because this is something that any little boy who grew up with a strong mom knows is that you have to look for strong women. You can't have women that you can walk over, and she sure put a stop to it Twice Boom. Here is your boundary and you're not going past it.
Speaker 2:Well, and she didn't do it in a rude way. She's like I'm going through some stuff. This is inappropriate Right.
Speaker 1:And then when he tried it again, she's like what did I just tell you? Like she almost got on his case like a five-year-old so. But yeah, I mean she, she really enforced her boundaries and she wasn't going to back down from him. And that, I think, is why Johnny Cash was so attracted to June Carter, was because she was a strong woman that wasn't going to be walked on.
Speaker 2:And then he went and watched boys blow things up, and then he went because he got shot down.
Speaker 1:He went and did the angsty teenager thing and started blowing shit up.
Speaker 2:And that's when trouble started.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is because Elvis showed up along with, you know, the rest of the, the rest of the crew, and they've got dexedrine, which is an amphetamine. It's a prescription pill and I don't know it's possible that you know a few of them had that prescription, but I'm damn certain that they weren't prescribed to take two, three, four, five pills at a time, you know so. Uh, so I mean they were getting high is what they were doing and drinking, taking dexedrine, and drinking, and blowing, blowing things up.
Speaker 1:And blowing things up Like horrible combination of shit here.
Speaker 2:Can I just say that I love that whole little thing with. Does your wife know you like to blow things up? And he's like why do you think I married her?
Speaker 1:Right. But yeah, when he gets into that pill-popping thing, then I mean, pretty well, that starts a decline and it's very, very slow. It's very insidious in this movie, but it amplifies and you can actually see the levels of amplification as he spirals into oblivion as he spirals into into oblivion.
Speaker 2:Well, in a majority of the time that he well at least in the movie that he starts popping those pills is when he's having issues with june right.
Speaker 1:Well, and and that's how it starts. It starts when, when he's, you know, frustrated and and having big emotions, you know. But then that's when the, when the addiction takes hold, and then he just starts taking it all the time, and then he has to take it to feel normal, you know, after they take a big long break and everything, they get back on tour and he falls deeper into addiction where he just he needs to have those pills regularly, several times a day, you know, just to function as, as a normal person would, would. And by doing that he alienates a lot of people, of course, first off his wife, because he's nothing but tired when he's home, you know, absolutely exhausted. His kids look like they're afraid of him, uh, because he doesn't look human. I don't.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know if they're so much afraid of him or if it's. They thought that he was like sick or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because he didn't look well.
Speaker 2:No, god no.
Speaker 1:He was pushing away even the people, you know, the people in the tour and things like that, because that was the tour that he was doing, like it was him backing the tour. He was providing the venues and the publications and all of that stuff. He was taking care of all the front work and he was doing it quote unquote as a favor for June so that she had work.
Speaker 2:And because he missed her.
Speaker 1:And so he, I mean he started this whole tour. And then they, his addiction gets deeper and it gets so bad that he almost makes his heart explode by taking so many pills. And I don't I don't remember where that was. Was that Texarkana, or was that Grand Ole Opry? I don't remember which.
Speaker 2:Texarkana was the bomb and the kisses.
Speaker 1:Oh right.
Speaker 2:I don't remember where that. Oh, it might have been because he, because he was light. Yeah, when he kicked the light and he kicked the drum set and all of that.
Speaker 1:And then he, and then he collapsed because he damn near made his heart explode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was at the Opry.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so, yeah, he wasn't allowed back there after that. That was his first opportunity there, collapsing on stage in the middle of a performance. They closed the curtains, and I mean his band, even the tennessee three come to him and say dude, here is a plane ticket, go the fuck home yeah, they said it was canceled and he said according to who?
Speaker 1:yeah, because he's the boss, right? Yeah, well, there's no show if there's no band, right, you know? And they told him to get his ass home and to take care of himself. He doesn't have much of a choice. But June took his pills, so he didn't have any pills, and he's, of course, going to figure out a way to do it. Well, you've got a man that's got more money than the Pope at this point, so his resources are through the roof. He just goes to Mexico and buys a bunch. I mean he had when he, when he got busted at the border. He had over 600 pills of dexedrine and over 400 downers of some kind. I don't even remember what they were, but the guy had over a thousand pills and he got busted at the border. How, how fast do you think somebody would go through that?
Speaker 2:he was going through that stuff like it was nothing well, yeah, because when he, when he first took it like you saw them pour not like say hey, here's, they poured them in the hand and took all of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they weren't handing him pills like you hand somebody you know a medication. They were sharing pills like they were fucking Skittles.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I mean it just good, god their taste in a different kind of rainbow.
Speaker 1:Right. So he comes back with all of this stuff, gets busted. Then you think, okay, so he just had an opportunity to quit. And he just had an opportunity that that everybody around him is telling him you need to get help, you need to clean up, you need to, you need to figure your shit out, man. And he doesn't do it. Instead, he goes to Mexico, gets more illegal drugs, brings them back, gets busted on his way back in. And here's another opportunity for him to learn right.
Speaker 2:He needs someone to push him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he doesn't learn and instead the spiral continues. He loses his family. He and his wife get into a, get into a physical altercation. I mean luckily, luckily he didn't seriously physically injure Viv scared the shit out of her and his kids. So I mean luckily nobody was was seriously hurt or anything. But but yeah, I mean he, he got into a physical fight with his wife over a picture.
Speaker 2:But it was a picture of June.
Speaker 1:It was a picture of June, which, yeah, but still, he got into a physical fight with her over a picture and she started that fight over a fucking picture.
Speaker 2:To be fair, if you start hanging pictures of other women in this house, we're going to have some problems.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't have. I don't have any other pictures of other women to hang in the house, but either way, like I mean seriously, the whole thing with it is that she could have taken that picture and she could have been like, instead of smashing it on the counter, which she knew was going to elevate the situation, Did she honestly think that she was going to smash a picture of june carter and that johnny cash was just going to be like oh, I guess I'm wrong, like that's not how that works they start smashing shit.
Speaker 2:People are going to get pissed they were both at fault him him more so, but he was also under the influence of things and stuff just got escalated, yeah Things just got escalated and so in one afternoon he loses his family.
Speaker 1:Then he walks. He walks from Memphis to I don't even know where June Carter lived, but it wasn't the same town Walked to her house to try to talk her into, into going out on tour again and all this other stuff. And she again you know rock star boundary setter Boom, Nope, I'm not going Like you get yourself better and you get well and we'll talk about going on tour again. So he wanders off and face plants in some dirt in the middle of a rainstorm, wakes up and finds himself a new house.
Speaker 2:Well, and like when he was talking to her, he's like well, I'm on a love walk and she's like great Love yourself.
Speaker 1:Right, I didn't even go anywhere close to landing where it needed to Like that. That hit every part of the target around Johnny Cash and nowhere where it needed to hit.
Speaker 2:He was too high for it to hit any kind of reasonable.
Speaker 1:Any kind of nerve.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So again, he was just high as shit out wandering the woods, found a new house, bought it, not terribly far from from June, you know that's probably good for him. But after he gets this house he, you know, makes a phone call to June and he convinces her that he's trying to get better. He's not, you know. You see that he's just hiding it better, especially when, when they have Thanksgiving dinner, his family shows up and June and her family show up. So he's got his parents there and June and her parents are there.
Speaker 2:And her kids.
Speaker 1:And and her kids are there, and her kids and her kids are there, and so it's like, well, that's great. His dad comes in and immediately starts jumping his shit about things. A tractor he's telling his mom about how much of the property is his, and talking about the property, his mom says I'm proud of you. The first thing his dad said is what's going on with that tractor over there? Oh, I was trying to pull a stump with it and it got stuck in the mud. That's how you treat your nice things, is, you know, to leave them in the mud. It's like, seriously, man, just like back off for a second.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's Johnny's tractor.
Speaker 1:It's not his. Why does he care, right? Oh, because he'd have killed to have one. His dad really pisses me off. So much of the time that you see him.
Speaker 2:I told you he's a throat punch kind of guy.
Speaker 1:Yes, but the nice thing about that, that whole thing with Thanksgiving is that is where he thing with thanksgiving is, that is where he didn't do it in a healthy way.
Speaker 2:but johnny finally confronts his dad about a trauma that he's been living with for his whole life well, and when you hold, when you hold something in for that long like it's gonna come exploding out, especially if you have no kind of awareness, it just it will explode and you should never just sit there and hold that stuff in.
Speaker 1:And that's what happens. Yeah, and it came exploding out on his dad. His dad wasn't very nice when he was talking about it, you know when, when he came back with his retort basically telling, telling his own son that he's nothing.
Speaker 2:Well, johnny Cash was nothing he was. His dad was a whole hell of a lot less than nothing.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's the whole thing. Like you're telling a guy that has gone literally from nothing, a poor farm kid in Arkansas, to making a huge music career overnight, you know like nothing.
Speaker 2:He did that as a last resort because he was going to lose his freaking house.
Speaker 1:Right, that whole confrontation though that ended that holiday. Johnny gets up and goes out and starts starts riding the shit out of that tractor. I mean, he's about to break the damn thing.
Speaker 2:He was burning some stuff up, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he's yelling at the tractor and all kinds of crazy shit. He is high as an asshole and his parents leave.
Speaker 2:His dad just shook his head.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just shook his head at his kid, didn't, didn't stop to think that.
Speaker 2:He caused that.
Speaker 1:Maybe somebody should go talk to him, you know, or something like that. Like I mean, I think that even a poor dad like I don't mean poor dad as in like a dad with no money- right.
Speaker 1:A dad who's not a very good dad, even a dad, even a poor dad, would be like you know, maybe, maybe I should go talk to him because, because they would feel like it's their responsibility. But this guy, he's, I think. I think he was running from it. I think he was running from the fact that that was a direct result of the way that he treated his son when he was younger Awful, awful, awful stuff. But then the Carters leave, they get ready to leave, um, and then they don't leave because they tell, they tell June, you need to go, you need to go do something about your friend, and she does. He rides, rides the, uh, the transmission all the way down into the back into the river and and she jumps into the water and pulls him out and gets him up on the shore.
Speaker 1:And that's when the heartbreaking stuff happens. And that's when. That's when he says you should have left me. That was, that was where he, where he hit it, that was the rock bottom, not rock bottom enough for him to get clean. But that's why the Carter's stuck around. Uh, you find out that it's not just June, that it's her whole family. But, yeah, they, they stuck around to help help him get clean and stay clean.
Speaker 1:Um his drug dealer showed up and met with a met with a fucking, with a double barrel shotgun held by Ezra Carter and telling him to get the hell out of here.
Speaker 2:Hey, Maybell had one too, dang it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she was right there backing him up with a shotgun.
Speaker 2:you know like, yeah, that's awesome and can I just say like the Carters were his found family.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they only knew him as a guy that was kind of a troublemaker, but they stayed with him.
Speaker 1:His own family, who knew all of his history, just left that saw that somebody needed help and that he wasn't getting it from the place where where most people would get their help, and so they stayed to offer it and it helped like go figure Right who to thunk.
Speaker 1:So, so yeah, they help him in getting clean, they they chase his drug dealer off and and they they let him go through the withdrawals and all of that stuff and before long, you know, June's waking him, waking him up in his bed and with a, with a bowl full of raspberries, all he feels is gratitude.
Speaker 1:He just wants her to stay there, because she, because she, was there for him when nobody else was. The trouble with it is that when he woke up sober and he woke up clean and all of those withdrawal symptoms were gone, then he had no choice but to face his trauma. He had to remember the things that he and his dad said to each other. He had to remember all of that stuff and he had to come to terms with it and he fell into despair, which unfortunately, is very easy for recovering addicts to do when they're trying to come back from it. They they hit a wall of despair where it just feels like nothing is going to work for them. It's really hard to stay on a path of recovery when that happens. Now, this is so long ago that recovery isn't even a concept at that time. It's just, you know, get your shit together instead of, instead of getting high, you know it's that whole.
Speaker 2:rub some dirt in it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bootstraps bullshit, you know, but he does as he's facing it and working through it. You know they've got a camera on him in this movie. I don't know how it went in that bedroom for real, but in this movie he talked himself through it. And then, when he, when he came to that melancholy conclusion, june was there to tell him that that's not the case, you're not nothing. You're not nothing. I don't know.
Speaker 2:She told him like three or four times you're not nothing well, and I like how, when he was sitting there going through it and saying I've done bad things, she didn't like sugarcoat it.
Speaker 1:She wasn't like oh no, you're okay she said yes, you did well, and he told her I treated you like shit and she didn't. Well, that's okay. You know, that's one of the biggest things that I hate when people are finally starting to try to, you know, fix those things in themselves. When, when people tell them don't worry, the horrible things that you did to me didn't affect me. Right Because that gives them bullshit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that gives them less of an incentive. They're like, well, if it wasn't that bad, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, Well, and not only that, but it also feels like they're just discarding the, the effort that you're making to to make things right. I'm here to tell you that I'm sorry for the bad things that I've done. Oh, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:It can also belittle the relationship, like oh, you don't mean enough to me for it to have affected me.
Speaker 1:Right. So I like, I like how they depicted how she handled it, where she she just simply accepted it and that's awesome. That's really good modeling there.
Speaker 2:And like with Vivian, when he would try to make things better, she would sit there and be like, well, you did this to me and you did this to me, and June would just be like, yeah, you did some bad stuff, but you're not a bad person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I don't know. And then, after all of that, you know, then it seems like he really does get better and what we would call today is a path of recovery. He starts to focus on helping others at that point. And so he starts reading his fan mail from prisoners uh, lots of them from fulsome and some of them from other other prisons and jails around the country, and things like that um and and then he gets this idea to go and to go and play for them, to play a private show at a, at a maximum security penitentiary.
Speaker 2:His publicists don't like that I like how he just cut them off and be like you could talk to me. I'm right here.
Speaker 1:Right, they were talking over him and he wasn't like. I mean, he was the one standing in the room, you know, and and yeah, they, they just they were having a whole conversation about him. Like he wasn't there. They, they made a good point, though, like not them, but but uh, johnny cash did when they, they told him, you know, hey, your fans are christians it's good christian folks and they don't want to hear that you are going and singing to a bunch of murderers and rapists trying to make them feel better.
Speaker 1:He, he straightens up and stands up and walks towards the table and he says then they ain't real christians. Then and it's like, okay, that that is cool. Like it dressed in all black was was pretty cool, but then when once he came off that railing and and and dropped those words they ain't real christians then that was the ultimate cool right there.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's what June was fighting with through the whole movie, like that rude throat punch lady in the freaking store. Right, I'm surprised your parents even still talk to you. I'm like talking about how divorce is an abomination. That lady was an abomination. Just get out of here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's especially at that time you could see. You could see how it was starting. Abomination, just get out of here. Yeah, that's especially at that time you could see. You could see how it was starting to change. Because she walked into that store and that first couple that she met knew just as well that she was divorced, but they were still perfectly happy to meet June Carter because she's June Carter and a super friendly, super friendly lady, and they were really happy. And then the next lady doesn't really have much nice to say to her.
Speaker 2:Well, and unless you're, unless you're around that relationship, you have no idea what's going on. It's none of your business.
Speaker 1:Right, like when you look on on the relationships in this movie, you start to see some reality, uh, with a lot of different things. First off, how old was he when he got out of the air force and got married to viv?
Speaker 1:he had to have been young like when him and vivian got married, they were both young. They both got married before their brains were done developing, so of course, by the time they were in their mid twenties they were going to be completely different people. They didn't belong together anymore because neither of them was with the person that they married, because neither of them were the person they were when they got married.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have no idea what that's like but I mean it would be the same thing with June and her first husband and likely probably a part of her second one. But no matter what it was with the second one, it ultimately had to do with the fact that the universe and the cosmos had destined June Carter to marry Johnny Cash. So most of the rest of the movie is pretty much him playing at Folsom, and that was a heck of a show.
Speaker 2:With the yellow water and you know don't sing songs that remind them that they're in prison.
Speaker 1:You think they might've forgot. Yeah, that's, that's great, you know they. They played it fulsome and then they went on to their next show. That's when Johnny was finally able to convince June to marry him and that's the end of the movie. Because this is an older movie. I really honestly, I couldn't tell you what I, what I had taken from the movie from back when I first saw it. I don't know that I actually did now, watching it now with the kind of knowledge that I have now. I do have an active ingredient, but I will let you go first. What did you have an active ingredient in this movie? What was it?
Speaker 2:well, I mean there's a whole found family thing, but I think the big one for me is you can do all kinds of horrible things, but you're a person. People make mistakes. That doesn't mean you can't change, that doesn't mean you can't grow. What matters is that you have someone at least a person there for you, helping you fight, getting you where you need to be, because it's hard to change alone.
Speaker 1:Right. Something that I had kind of taken from it this time was that you know you kind of have to, you kind of have to keep in mind your ambitions. Your ambitions can become a problem, especially if you're not well mentally. Spending a lot of your time on your dreams can come at the cost of your loved ones if you're not mindful and careful. I think the reason why that kind of stuck with me this time is because that that kind of seems to be a thing for me.
Speaker 1:Now I spend a lot of time on my podcast and a lot of the time I really worry about it. That like, is my podcast taking up too much of my time with Jen and is that going to jeopardize my family? I don't know if you've noticed or not, but like there are times that it's like I try to, I try to curb what I do with the podcast stuff, to try to do things that are that are a little bit you know more for you and I. Uh, even though we do the podcast stuff together, it's not. It's still not you and I stuff it's. You know it's almost like a second job Some of the time.
Speaker 1:This movie kind of reminds me that you know you have to be careful to balance those things, and a lot of it is because of Johnny Cash and Viv, the way that he was unable to balance his dream with his family. His dream was his reality. His family was the reality that he had to wake up to and he wanted to escape from. I don't have the same feeling about my reality, which really helps.
Speaker 2:Yes, I try and be a nice girlfriend.
Speaker 1:I don't know, that's just. That's kind of what I took from the movie.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said with with it when we were watching it, you know the the relationship that you put your time and effort and energy into is the relationship that grows.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I think their problem was that there wasn't a lot of healthy conversation. It was well, you want this, well, you don't do this, and you know, if I want time with you, I just say homie, you me. Some time, let's go right, I love you.
Speaker 1:I love you too well, that's, uh, I think we're just gonna go ahead and cut it there, uh, because I mean I think we've been recording for a little over an hour now. Yes, I'm gonna have to. I'm gonna have to cut plenty of this stuff out sucks to be you, I guess yeah, spending time in the editing room.
Speaker 1:Now, if you have a movie that's been medicine for you and you'd like to be on the show, you can email me at contact at movie-rxcom, or you can leave a voicemail or text me at 402-519-5790. If anxiety keeps you from coming on the show, you can write me a couple of paragraphs, you can send it in a couple of text messages and I can read them on air for you. Remember, this movie is not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease and we'll see you at the next appointment. Thank you, we are all the same. So I know, yeah, yeah, yeah, we all need the same stuff, we all need the same stuff. We all need, need, need Someone at home. So I know, yeah, I know the only thing I know. So I know. So the only you.