I Walk the Line (1970)

This film is set somewhere in the South, though the film never indicates exactly where. I assume it's Tennessee or Arkansas as it's very hilly and the accents of most of the people would indicate that. The local sheriff begins an affair with the daughter of a moonshiner and this all leads to terrible consequences.I just read through the reviews on IMDb and I seem to be in the minority here, as I wasn't particularly happy with this film--some of it due to the odd casting of Gregory Peck. The reason I chose to see it was the presence of Peck. Heck, the man could read from a phone book on film and I'd watch it!! I've seen him in some campy films later in his career such as THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL and THE OMEN simply because even with these silly roles, he still managed to transcend it all. However, despite my love of his films, this one disappointed me very much. Instead of the strong and decent persona he played in such films as 12 O'CLOCK HIGH, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD,THE BIG COUNTRY and other films, here he manages to be a rather unlikable and difficult to understand character. I think the blandness of the guy he played was the biggest deficit in the film and for once he was miscast. I really think that Ralph Meeker (who played the moonshiner in the film) would have been better in the role, as he had a long career out of playing morally ambivalent characters--plus he was a heck of an actor in his own right (despite not being a household name). Charles Durning, a supporting actor in the movie, also could have carried off this role very well.Perhaps one of the best performances in the film was that of Estelle Parsons. For once, she had a part that seemed very suited to her. Her roles in films such as BONNY AND CLYDE and DON'T DRINK THE WATER (among others) didn't do a lot to allow her to do much character acting (though she did get the Oscar for BONNY because apparently they liked to see her shriek). Here, however, she is amazingly believable as a sad and lamentable wife who's losing her husband to a young nymph.Overall, despite bad casting, this isn't a bad film--but it also isn't a very good film. Its pluses are gritty realism and some of the Johnny Cash music (particularly the title song). Minuses are Peck and the vagueness of his character and the unbelievability of the affair between him and Tuesday Weld--two actors that don't exactly seem at place in the hills of the South. Simply put, the script wasn't exactly first-rate.

The subject of small town boredom and emotional unrest; Gregory Peck portrays the sheriff in a small rural Tennessee town. He has a mid-life crisis(before it was fashionable to call it that).Estelle Parsons is the long-suffering wife, and Tuesday Weld the femme fatal. There is also a part with Charles Durning, as a racist small- minded police officer, who feels his job is to run everyone out of town who is not a "good church-going man". Some of the dialog and themes explored in this movie are interesting, and if one has ever traveled to this part of the country, there are still small towns a bit similar to this, even though they may now have a Wal-Mart 100 miles away.Gregory Peck's performance is excellent, though his involvement with a penniless moonshiner's daughter is a bit hard to swallow. You will enjoy the cinematography, and a depiction of American life which does still exist. This film is not as extreme as "Deliverance" but if you drive along Route 26 through North Carolina and Tennessee mountains, you will still see people living without heat, with plastic on their windows to keep out the cold.

It may have seemed at the time a novel idea to pair Gregory Peck slightly past his prime, with Tuesday Weld on the brink of womanhood. The assumption being that there would be an intriguing chemistry between these polar characters, who both in life and on screen symbolize solid upright morals versus the wild spirit of youth.The film could only have worked had this assumption be proved true. Unfortunately this totally backfired entirely due to Gregory Peck whose tendency towards wooden acting has never been more evident. He is simply hopeless in the role. Director John Frankenheimer amongst his many misses in the latter part of his patchy career has been known to elicit some truly memorable performances from his actors. He is at a total loss with Peck, who makes what should have been a conflicted interested character, a hollow, vacuous entity. Tuesday Weld, never more beautiful, is as always, terrific. Whereas she gives herself completely in each scene, Peck is less than half hearted about the whole thing. No matter how convincing a performance, it needs the interaction of the other players to be fully realized. You cannot go it alone. Weld does her best, but Peck is an unwilling or incapable partner. He simply should have turned down this one. In an interview Weld mentions that in what was supposed to be an erotic love scene, Peck insisted on keeping his shoes on in bed; need one say more? There are what seem to be pointless and endless shots of the rural south to the songs of Johnny Cash, which serve as "fillers" for the directionless narrative. There's good support from Estelle Parsons and Ralph Meeker, but the boring (and probably bored) Peck deflates everything, leaving a film of missed opportunities.

Peck does a nice job playing a middle age crazy sheriff who meets and goes over the edge for a rawboned hillbilly girl. He has a decent, loving wife at home but his discontent with his life leads to his making one stupid mistake after another in not only his private life but his professional as well. Well played out film with top notch performances by the entire cast and a sound track by Johnny Cash which intertwines nicely with the picture.