I Walk the Line

Peck is supposed to have said, "A good movie was left on the cutting room floor". I suspect Frankenheimer got what he needed to make his movie, not what the star actor believed best. The story got to me when first shown on broadcast television. I was around eight. Dad was a long-haul flight engineer, who I later learned traveled with a younger stewardess. He abandoned his wife and six children for better part of a year. We lived under threat of repeat. Mom endured pain such as Estelle Parsons so beautifully portrayed in her understated performance. The myth is living Peck's charactor, not other way around. His resistance to being challenged, the regressive defiance is identical to what I witnessed at home. The maintenance alcoholism and excuse-making connected with it goes back many generations. My parents came from a rural culture in ways like that shown here. Alcohol abuse warps man's instincts and compel him to bury his secrets, real and imagined, in further abuse. The line walked is that between fantasy and reality. When an alky drinks, his imagination can take reality to strange places. I found the underlying story revealed itself haltingly, hauntingly. I understand now why this movie affected me as a boy, as I was witnessing the story and was soon to enter the vicious circle myself. I felt better after watching again; not so alone. 3 1/2 stars.Around time I first viewed this film, I squeezed my nine year old fingers through space between locked sliding oak doors separating our living room and den, pressed the button to unlock, and thinking nothing of it, slid open and walked in on my 15 yr old sister sitting on Dad's lap and they mid kiss. She maneuvered him with booze and music of his youth in order to seduce. Her power motive was unknown to me at time. Dad's compliance incomprehensible. This sort of behavior has been going on for thousands of years. Film is hardly first artistic attempt to portray effects of alcohol on vulnerable psyches and role played by families and society in its often insidious corruption of values. I am not a prohabitionist. The trauma and ensuing fallout (years of dehumanization and starvation) contributed to my adolescent abuse of alcohol and drugs. I was the boy who runs away at beginning of film. I understand now that motives of my father and sister were distorted by fears they had no idea existed. It was no doubt traumatic for them, shaken from ancient, archetypal sleepwalk as they were. One brother was deputized as the others looked away - self-images were threatened. These things have a life of their own. Our dear mother could not see, having loved us all equally. Grandad had passed away, which didn't help.It is worth pointing out symbolism behind Peck's sheriff denoting expanded territory on map, when deputy and taxman are present. It is when boundaries break down that these character flaws parade. Notice consumption of distilled spirits by sheriff during work time - enough to cloud judgment and allow unconscious fantasy to live. The road chase represents lengths an alky will go before compulsion brings him to his bottom.

With classics like "Roman Holiday," "To Kill a Mockingbird," and "Gentleman's Agreement" under his belt, it's hard to believe the weakest link in this movie is its leading man. Gregory Peck seems stiff as a board throughout most of this film, as if Peck the person refused to let Peck the actor take command of the role. I believe one of his contemporaries--William Holden or especially Robert Mitchum--would have turned in a much better performance. Admittedly, this could be my own bias. Peck certainly plays against type in this movie, so maybe I'm the one who had a hard time suspending disbelief and accepting him as a sheriff who allows his lust for a tawdry moonshiner's daughter to bring about his utter destruction.Tuesday Weld plays Alma McCain to perfection, wickedly seductive while simultaneously innocent as a lamb -- in the words of singer/songwriter Chris Rea, 'the most fatal of charms.' Young Charles Durning gives more than a hint of future greatness as scheming deputy Hunnicut, who sets up the dominoes to bring down the sheriff only to have them fall against him. Perhaps the best performance in the movie is delivered by Estelle Parsons, who 'stands by her man' despite the utter grief and heartbreak he's burdened her with. Finally, Johnny Cash's gritty, bare-boned music is the glue that holds everything together.Although an interesting character study with mostly fine performances, "I Walk the Line" deals with themes (child prostitution, incest) I don't find entertaining and is a downer of a movie from beginning to end. I wouldn't care to watch it again.2 1/2 stars.

I was mesmerized throughout. Pathos to the max. This is a man's movie. For men. About men. Perhaps today's young men may not get it but Adult men do. Cash's song's throughout are perfect. And I'm not a Cash fan. This movie is about another time and another place but it is timeless. Peck's character is every man trapped by his circumstances and life decisions who dreams about another life. A life imbued with the passion he once worshipped and had long forgotten ... then out of nowhere the greatest passion he had ever known washes over him like a tsunami. Ms Weld perfectly embodies the female goddess men obsess about. The poor sheriff loses all rationality and perspective. He loses everything. A tale as old as time itself, told a thousand times by ten thousand bards.

Found this movie late one night and though I would take a chance on an oldie. Well it does turn out that they don't make movies like this anymore. Great human drama dealing with age old issues of sin and lust. Gregory Peck sure isn't Andy Griffith in this one. Estelle Parson gives a truly understated performance as the jilted wife doing her best to hang on and give her husband space and chance to forgive yet shows the pain it causes her. Tuesday Weld is very pretty and you can see why Peck falls for her. Did not end up liking the characters after the ending. Oh and Charles During his character when he eats that sandwich ugh! Throw in the Johnny Cash soundtrack and you have a very interesting movie to watch. Very vintage. Watching the old timers sitting on their porches looking out at the world in a catatonic way had a slight deliverance quality to it too.

The trivia information at the end of the movie was spot-on! It IS Peck's worst movie! Perhaps one should consider the best way to sit through this movie is if you're stoned. People, just cuz you get to watch it for free doesn't make it a 5-star movie!

smashing film.acting is brilliant.shock ending.must see especially if you love Gregory peck

terrible film, he was always to much of a gentleman to be put in this role

Se trata de una película rara, tal vez, según algunos críticos, el mejor trabajo de Gregory Peck, en la que las cosas son más complejas de lo que parecen. Es, también según algunos críticos, la mejor película, con mucho, de John Frankenheimer. Por mi parte he de decir que cuando la vi por primera vez, hace muchos años, en televisión, me dejó un regusto amargo, por el tema y el desenlace, pero también me encandiló y me hizo ponerla en mi pequeño pedestal personal de grandes películas, de esas que permanecen siempre en la memoria porque te han comunicado algo y te han hecho sentir. La he vuelto a ver ahora, en este DVD, y las sensaciones han sido las mismas. Parece que por ella no ha pasado el tiempo.En cuanto a esta edición en DVD, no hay mucho qué decir: está correctamente editada y la calidad de imagen y sonido es la adecuada. Un producto que se puede recomendar sin lugar a dudas.

Gregory Peck really does an amazing job portraying a tortured soul consumed by passion. Tuesday Weld is Dazzling and delivers an amazing performance. A great film about desperation. The rest of the cast hits a perfect note. An understated movie. The soundtrack is also fantastic, especially the title track.

Una obra maestra con el gran Gregory Peck en su ocaso como actor. La edición, buena imagen y sonido en su sitio. Altamente recomendable.