MetaChat - Jonny Cash, biopics, lip-synching, and all that--

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05 December 2005

Jonny Cash, biopics, lip-synching, and all that-- So, after seeing Walk the Line this weekend, Johnny Cash has taken over my brain (to be honest, this happens a couple of times a year). The movie really put the hooks in me, despite a bunch of things that I knew were at least a little inaccurate. →[More:]
So I'm curious about what other people think of the biopic genre-- is it acceptable that that they pretty much have to simplify and condense? And what are we to make of the practice of having actors whose primary strengths aren't musical re-record the work of whichever legendary musical figure they're portraying?

And, on top of all that, what's your favorite Cash tune?

post by: cobra! at: 15:03 | 34 comments

I'm in the process of writing a review of that very film. I wish Phoenix hadn't tried to sing. His voice was wrong, and it was the only thing wrong with an otherwise perfect performance.

I think that unless you do a microscope-type biopic where you're dealing with a very short period of time (like Capote, for instance), you have to deal with the PowerPoint nature of a longer-term biopic. They have to condense, create composite characters, and mess with the chronology to make the point they're trying to make.

"Orange Blossom Special" is my favorite Cash song.

posted by goatdog 05 December | 15:08

I thought the two leads were really great, Phoenix kept getting more and more believeable to me. But the movie itself was rather dull and not very interesting. I'm pretty sure there was no lip-synch though, they made a big deal about that.

I have a bunch of favorite Cash songs, currently I favor: Cocaine Blues, San Quentin (San Quentin I hate ever inch of you), I've been everywhere, Get Rhythm and that bunch he did with Dylan where they are totally out of their faces and keep forgetting the lyrics.

Most I am let down by Biopics becase you DO usually go in knowing that they are not going to be able to really show whatever it is that makes the person Biopic worthy.

On preview:

I wish Phoenix hadn't tried to sing.

I thought I would feel that way too, but I didn't I guess because I sorta mentally auto-tuned his voice to be more like Cash and I appreciated the effort, you can put way more of your body and face into it when you are actually singing.

posted by Divine_Wino 05 December | 15:13

I thought the two leads were really great, Phoenix kept getting more and more believeable to me. But the movie itself was rather dull and not very interesting.

Big ol' ditto.

I have to disagree about the singing. I actually thought Phoenix did a great job singing. I mean, it could have been really, really bad, and it wasn't. After we saw the movie, my brother went right out and bought both the soundtrack and a couple of JC CDs. We did a blind comparison, and people had a hard time differentiating the real and the fake at times.

Reese Witherspoon, on the other hand, sounded nothing like June Carter.

posted by mudpuppie 05 December | 15:19

I'm really torn on Phoenix (and Witherspoon) singing-- they didn't sound bad, but neither one ever really sounded like Cash or Carter. But like the Wino says, I don't know if the intensity either of them showed onstage would have been possible if they hadn't been singing, and that intensity was really what sold the movie for me. I dunno. Can't decide.

Oh, and favorite Cash tune: Ring of Fire, because I love all of the levels the song is working on and how much Cash is putting into it (both the original and the ass-kicking live version on Live at San Quentin). In fact, one of my beefs with the movie was that the writing of it got reduced to June mumbling about burning.

posted by cobra! 05 December | 15:20

I thought Reese was actually a good singer, whether she sounded like June or not, but Phoenix was not all that good. As soon as they played a real JC song over the end credits, I realized how off Phoenix was. His voice was deep, and that was about it.

posted by goatdog 05 December | 15:23

I know this is probably unpopular but his last CD is one of my favorites (after Live at San Quentin).

His version of Hurt, Danny Boy so good.

Personal Jesus a little wrong.

posted by Lola_G 05 December | 15:25

I have no doubt that Phoenix can do a competent portrayal of Johnny Cash as an actor, but I was shocked to hear he was also going to tackle the vocals. Gary Busey managed to vocally hit Buddy Holly back in 1978, but I can't think of another example. Johnny's voice is so iconic that even a passive fan will notice a pale imitation. I'll finally see the movie this week and I hope I'm pleasently surprised.

Cash faves: "Man In Black", "Cocaine Blues", and I'm a softy for his two novelty hits "One Piece at a Time" and "Boy Named Sue". And his take on Loudon Waiwright's "Man Who Could Not Cry" is great.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 05 December | 15:27

And I don't agree about the connection between intensity and actually singing. In Ray (a mostly forgettable movie), I think Jamie Foxx was so great partly because he didn't have to concentrate on imitating someone else's singing voice.

posted by goatdog 05 December | 15:29

Haven't seen the flick yet (I may have to wait for the DVD just because of schedule issues), but I'm a lifelong JC fan. "Ring Of Fire" is my favorite.

posted by BoringPostcards 05 December | 15:30

The country station around here -- my hometown became a lot more country since I was a kid -- plays "Ring of Fire" once a day, certainly, in between Gretchen and Toby, and seriously about every time I happen to be tuned in, or driving or walking past a radio. It's not a bad song, but the man wrote more than one song!

posted by dhartung 05 December | 15:49

How much of the singing was lipsynched from and how much of it was performed by Phoenix?

I was under the impression that pretty much everything performed on stage was lip-synched and only a few bits in the beginning (like when the character was practicing or the first scene where cash sung before the record producer)

In those scenes, the voice was terrible, cracking, etc.

I thought the movie was boring as hell. I don't like country, so the music wasn't that great, and it was obviously a sort of cartoon overview of his life.

posted by delmoi 05 December | 15:53

There's something truly embarrasing about the recent crop of biopics about...celebrities. Watching Ray, I had the same feelings I'd get standing in a checkout line reading one of those pulp biographies. (You know, the kind that tell the story of the Brad and Jen breakup, or the like.) It's just another way for a publicist to make a buck.

But I think biopics are generally terrible. This is the one genre of movie that I avoid. Most biopics are plodding imitations of Citizen Kane. I do not think simplification and generalization are necessary in biography, as you suggest cobra. It's just that these are inevitably the narrative tactics that Hollywood biopics use.

I haven't seen Cash yet, but my wife tells me they left out "Sunday Morning Coming Down" which seems to me to be an unpardonable flaw. Is there any reason why I should set aside my hatred for the biopic and see this movie?

posted by eatitlive 05 December | 16:20

Oh, oh oh, and what's the big deal about movie stars singing? It's common knowledge that most Top 40 pop singers receive so much digital processing as to render their vocals inhumanly perfect. Also knowing Hollywood's love for digital effects, why should we assume that we're ever actually hearing Phoenix's voice on the movie soundtrack?

posted by eatitlive 05 December | 16:22

"Sunday Morning Coming Down"

Oh yeah, that's a great, great song.

posted by Divine_Wino 05 December | 16:28

Biopics ruined my expectations about how life goes. I mean, I know I'm special dammit, now where is my quick ride to celebrity and montage of all the doors opening up for me?

This one was okay, I though. Except I kept wondering if Cash had a harelip or if it was Phoenix.

posted by dame 05 December | 16:34

Is there any reason why I should set aside my hatred for the biopic and see this movie?

Well, it's cool to see an approximation of Cash live, even if it's fake. And for me, hearing a lot of boom-chicka drum and stand-up bass blasting out of theater speakers was worth the ticket price. But I'm a sucker for that stuff.

posted by cobra! 05 December | 16:38

Phoenix has a hareliperoo, even more noticable in Gladiator which is why I meanly called him Emperor Harelip for a while.

I am such a dick sometimes.

posted by Divine_Wino 05 December | 16:49

I really liked Walk the Line. I guess part of it is that I didn't go into it expecting a dead ringer for Johnny Cash or June Carter. I don't know...I like biographies, too. And while they're more thorough and perhaps more accurate than biopics, there's still a lot left out, and still room for authorial interpretation. Same goes for documentaries. I guess I just keep my expectations realistic and the disbelief suspended.

Some really good biopics: Bird, Coal Miner's Daughter, Raging Bull, Patton, American Splendor.

Especially American Splendor...that's a fine movie.

posted by kortez 05 December | 16:54

Phoenix claims it's not a harelip, but a birthmark. The fact that it's to the left of the cleft in the upper lip lends some credence to that theory (I think; I'm not an expert on harelips).

posted by goatdog 05 December | 17:08

I was just confused as to whether it was part of the character, I mean. And for some reason that kept bugging me. Is it wrong that I think they should have camoflauged it if Cash didn't have one? In any fictional role, sure, leave it. But the ambiguity bugged me.

posted by dame 05 December | 17:45

Shelby Lynne plays Johnny Cash's (censored) mom. The movie got a thumb's up from me just for that. And then there's the boom-chicka-boom, a great turn by whoever did Jerry Lee, Memphis in the '50s and some dynamite '60s lamps all over, in addition to the fine performance of Reese. Phoenix was quite good, but no one could completely do Johnny Cash, I don't think.

posted by raysmj 05 December | 17:53

Gary Busey managed to vocally hit Buddy Holly back in 1978, but I can't think of another example

Sissy Spacek sang the hell out of Loretta Lynn's songs in Coal Miner's Daughter. She is phenomenal in that film.

Dame--have you tried starting with the "trying on oufits to bouncy music" montage? That might get things rolling. Or I could come visit and we could do the "wacky female bonding" montage. Montage begets montage, and soon those doors will open.

posted by jrossi4r 05 December | 18:55

Dude, the "trying on oufits to bouncy music" montage is my house almost every time I'm going somewhere I care about. Maybe you should come visit.

posted by dame 05 December | 19:09

OK, but only if you promise we can laugh and throw our heads back in slow motion.

posted by jrossi4r 05 December | 19:11

I swear.

posted by dame 05 December | 19:15

"Sunday Morning Coming Down"

Isn't that a Kris Kristoferson song?

Cocaine Blues

Isn't that a Hoyt Axton song?

I agree Cash did both of them well, though.

I throw my vote in the ring for "Boy Named Sue."

posted by dios 05 December | 19:49

Yeah, "Sunday Morning Coming Down" is a Kristofferson song that was written for Cash. In fact, Kristofferson flew a helicopter onto Cash's front yard just to get the some attention for the song. How do you leave something like that out of a movie?

posted by eatitlive 05 December | 19:54

Cool. I'm in. I'll bring my viking helmet.

Aren't most songs Kristofferson songs? The ones that aren't Carol King songs, that is.

posted by jrossi4r 05 December | 19:56

In fact, Kristofferson flew a helicopter onto Cash's front yard just to get the some attention for the song.

And to get some attention for Kris Kristofferson. He'd been sweeping floors in Nashville studios, in addition to working as a helicopter pilot, at the time. This would be more fit for "The Kris Kristofferson Story," for it's more central to his life story. Johnny was already a star by then. Moreover, he had already been married to June for at least a year. And that's pretty much when the film's narrative drive more or less comes to a half--when Johnny marries June or, more precisely, asks her to marry him. Then you flash foward to the then-near future, and the movie's over.

posted by raysmj 05 December | 20:34

The notion of the life story is just what I dislike in biopics. Most people's lives are not like movie plots. Give me untrimmed biography, with incongruous helicopter appearances. If I had the rights to put that on screen, there's no way they'd cut that scene.

I'll have to pass on the Kris Kristofferson story, too. It's gonna be called "Help Me Make it Through The Night" and it'll start in Vietnam, breeze through the janitor/drunk years, and end on the triumphant note of Blade: Trinity. No thanks.

posted by eatitlive 05 December | 21:07

Would you show Johnny on "The Muppet Show" and in Columbo movies and whatnot too? I didn't see even close to enough of the goofy and totally square side of Johnny, personally.

I would say that Ray Charles' life was no movie plot. Let's just forget that he went on to booze it up for decades afterward, via gin in his coffee, and ruin his liver and die from that. But the Johnny and June story was clearly a story.

posted by raysmj 05 December | 21:23

Well, I love the Muppets and Columbo. But "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman," a Johnny and June favorite, was pretty corny.

posted by raysmj 05 December | 21:25

He was on Sesame Street too.

posted by brujita 06 December | 02:34

Dios
When I think of favorite songs I don't ever mean just songs written by the singer, but the singers version. Country music, like blues and folk is all about the collaborative songbook. Which I'm sure you know.

posted by Divine_Wino 06 December | 09:42

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