By Beauty Damned

It Hurts So Good

I watched "Walk the Line" last night for the first time. I've been wanting to see it since long before it came out in theatres and I finally got around to it yesterday. Now I understand why Reese Witherspoon won the Oscar. She was phenomenal in that movie. I was seriously impressed. The music made it all so surreal and for an incredibly sad story, it had such a great and true ending. It seemed to avoid being gratuitous while still giving a raw portrayal of the life of Johnny Cash. I really liked that. So many big budget movies just suck. That one totally didn't. There are no words for Joachin Phoenix, but I'll try...extraordinary.

I love movies about true music legends and I love movies that feature music as a central theme. One of my favorites was "Great Balls of Fire" starring Dennis Quaid where he portrayed Jerry Lee Lewis, and Wynona Rider played his child bride. That movie was amazing and, consequently, had a big influence on me, as I felt like I identified with it as a 13 year old girl dating a 23 year old rock musician. I also loved "What's Love Got to Do With It?," about Tina and Ike Turner, "La Bamba," about Richie Valens, "The Doors," "Salina," "Lady Sings the Blues," about Billie Holiday, and even though it seems strange, it actually does tie in: "The Wall," which portrays or at the least obviously resembles Syd Barrett languishing in his LSD haze.

What I've noticed about these movies is that they are always really damn sad and make you want to hang yourself. But at the same time, the music somehow offsets that sadness and illuminates everything. There is tragedy, self-destruction and sometimes redemption like in "Walk the Line." But the music is what swallows you up. The music is what made these peoples' lives interesting despite all of their degeneracy, weakness or naiveté, because they left us with a great gift.

I can't wait until the Janis Joplin biopic comes out. That's going to be a good one.