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I Walk the Line

I Walk the Line

Drama · 1970

Henry Tawes, a middle-aged sheriff in a rural Tennessee town, is usually the first man to criticize others for their bad behavior. Miserable in his marriage, Henry falls in love with teenage seductress Alma, who is the daughter of local criminal and moonshiner Carl McCain. Henry's moral character comes further into question when he is tempted to conceal Carl's crimes in order to prolong his relationship with Alma.

Movie details

I Walk the Line

“Sheriff Tawes walks the line between duty and desire, between law and violence, between honor and shame”

1970 Drama 1h 37m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.5 / 10

2.4K votes

TMDB

5.9 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Henry Tawes, a middle-aged sheriff in a rural Tennessee town, is usually the first man to criticize others for their bad behavior. Miserable in his marriage, Henry falls in love with teenage seductress Alma, who is the daughter of local criminal and moonshiner Carl McCain. Henry's moral character comes further into question when he is tempted to conceal Carl's crimes in order to prolong his relationship with Alma.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over I Walk the Line?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

John Frankenheimer

Written by

Alvin Sargent

Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck

Sheriff Henry Tawes

Tuesday Weld

Tuesday Weld

Alma McCain

Estelle Parsons

Estelle Parsons

Ellen Haney

Ralph Meeker

Ralph Meeker

Carl McCain

Charles Durning

Charles Durning

Wylie Hunnicutt

J

Jeff Dalton

Clay McCain

F

Freddie McCloud

Buddy McCain

Court is in session

Put I Walk the Line on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.