Walk The Line Analysis

The movie I chose to do my report over was, Walk the Line. This film is about the life of the late, musical legend Johnny Cash. In the beginning of Walk the Line, they introduce the traumatic event that shapes the rest of Johnny’s life. John and his brother Jack planned to go fishing one day, before they could go his brother had to finish splitting wood. Johnny was getting impatient and Jack told him to go ahead and would catch up with him as soon as he was finished. While Johnny was fishing, Jack had a fatal accident with the wood splitter. Johnny’s father blamed him for the death of Jack, because he was not there to help him. He had a very rough childhood, because of the broken relationship he and his father have.

John eventually joins

the service. Shortly after he marries his girlfriend Vivian. During the beginning of their marriage Johnny starts heavily focusing on his music career, which leads constant arguing with his wife. She starts feeling very neglected. He struggles to make it big, until he auditions for a man named Sam. He and his band start the audition signing gospel, which Sam did not like. So they performed some music Johnny wrote in the service, and it was a huge hit with the producer. He then joins Sam’s record label, and begins to tour. During all of this he and Vivian are still struggling in their marriage. On tour he meets June Cash, almost immediately you can recognize their connection.
This movie demonstrates several abnormal behaviors. Johnny really struggles throughout his life with substance abuse, substance dependence, and withdraw. The film also demonstrates abnormal family relationships. His relationship with his father after his brother’s death is anything opposite of close. His dad treats him differently than his other children, he emotionally abused Johnny as a child and into adulthood, he lacked empathy for him, and he constantly disrespected his son.
The first example I found that illustrates abnormal behavior, is about 48 minutes into the movie. Johnny and June are in June’s hotel room, John tries to kiss her. June prevents anything from happening, because she just went through a terrible divorce and told him, he has a beautiful family. Immediately after she says “no” John goes outside and starts drinking and doing drugs with his friends. They also put a bomb in a tree branch, which blows a large limb off the tree. In the movie this was when his drug addiction really begins.
The second example of abnormal behavior, is about 53 minutes into the film. One night Cash finished performing and went into his dressing room, and takes pills which he has hidden in a paper towel dispenser. He gets a knock on the door and it is the young women who was in the front row at his concert, they smile at one another and begin kissing. Also around this time in the film Johnny starts having sexual relations with multiple women, while intoxicated.
The third example of abnormal behavior, takes place around 1:01 into the movie.

Johnny is performing and calls June out to sing a song with him, that she had previously recorded with her ex-husband, Times a Wasting. June was already apprehensive about singing the song, she felt it was not appropriate, but they continued anyways. While performing she sees the women from the store that told her getting a divorce was an abomination, she starts looking uncomfortable and Johnny kisses her on the check. She then runs off the stage into the dressing room, followed by Cash. She looked her door, but he bust in anyways, she tells him, “to leave.” He then goes into his room and sits on the couch, beside the fishing pole, you can tell he is very frustrated, because he felt the kiss was innocent. He then begins to destroy his dressing room throwing everything he gets his hands on. He then reaches into his pocket and takes his narcotics.

The fourth example of abnormal behavior takes place 1:27 minutes into the movie. Johnny just got arrested for buying pills over the border. When he got released and went home, Vivian tells John that his parents stopped by. He asked what his father said about the arrest. His dad said, “Now he won’t have to try so hard to convince people that he went to jail.” I felt like this was an abnormal behavior because Johnny’s dad seemed unconcerned about his son during the a rough time in his

life.