Walk the line

Without God

WALK THE LINE Director James Mangold Cert. 12A

Always much bigger in America than in this country, this is the story of the life of singer Johnny Cash up to the time of his marriage to June Carter. Cash was a morally wayward star who towards the end of his life, emerged as a fairly clear, though imperfect Christian.

Cash was very influenced by his older brother Jack, who had a clear testimony for Christ, but sadly died in an accident at the age of 14. Cash’s father somehow put the blame on Johnny, ‘the wrong son died’ and this deeply affected Cash. Under his father’s condemnation Cash determined to make something of his life. As part of the early rock and roll scene, appearing on tours with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, soon his life took a dive into drugs and later divorce from his first wife. Eventually he began to climb out of the pit. But the pain of these years, along with childhood poverty, gave Cash an immense sympathy for those in trouble — especially those in prison. All this is documented in the film but in a way which sidelines or even at times mocks Cash’s faith.

Steve Turner’s recent excellent biography of Cash, The Man Called Cash (Bloomsbury Publishing), says that, when the film was first mooted in 1998, Cash ‘wanted a film that wasn’t just sex and drugs and rock-‘n-roll but his journey as a man and his love with June and the fact that God was at the core of his story.’ In marginalising his Christianity it would seem to me that this film does precisely what Cash did not want.