Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a 2007 American comedy film, written and produced by Judd Apatow (director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up) and Jake Kasdan, directed by Jake Kasdan and starring John C. Reilly.

The Dewey Cox persona borrows from several prolific figures in rock history: Bob Dylan, The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, Glen Campbell, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Donovan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, but mainly Johnny Cash. The plot echoes the storyline of 2005's Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line; Walk Hard is also a parody of the biopic genre as a whole.

The film was released in the United States and Canada by Columbia Pictures on December 21, 2007.

Plot

Fictional musician Dewey Cox begins his quest for stardom from humble beginnings in Springberry, Alabama in 1946. While playing with his brother Nate in a sequence of needlessly careless and dangerous acts, talking about the things he plans to do in his long life, Dewey accidentally cuts his brother in half at the waist with a machete. This leads Dewey's father to frequently repeat the phrase "The wrong kid died." It is this traumatic event that motivates Dewey to rise to stardom and "be double great for the both of us" as Nate made him promise. The trauma also causes Dewey to lose his sense of smell. After his brother's death is announced by a physician making a housecall, Dewey's mother sends him to the local store to buy a candle. There, he meets a blues guitarist (David "Honeyboy" Edwards), who lets Dewey play his guitar. Dewey is a natural.

After a successful, yet oddly controversial, talent show performance, then fourteen-year-old Dewey (now played by John C. Reilly) decides to leave Springberry with his newly-christened twelve-year-old girlfriend Edith (Kristen Wiig). They soon marry and have a baby. Edith begins to criticize Dewey and insist that his dream of being a musician will never happen. Dewey preaches to his wife that life is never easy; it's a long hard walk, but he will walk hard. While working at an all-African American nightclub, Dewey gets a break when he replaces singer Bobby Shad (Craig Robinson) at the last minute, much to the delight of the Hasidic Jewish executives at the show.

Dewey then is brought to the studio where he is interrupted while recording a rendition of "That's Amore". The recording executive (John Michael Higgins) berates Dewey as talentless. Backed into a corner, Dewey makes the first recording of "Walk Hard", the song inspired by the speech Dewey gave to Edith. The song is an immediate success and launches Dewey's career.

Within 35 minutes, the song becomes a hit, and Dewey begins to get caught up in the fame of rock and roll. When Dewey stumbles upon a room of groupies smoking with Drummer Sam (Tim Meadows), Sam introduces Dewey to marijuana. Sam tells Dewey to leave because he "don't want no part of this shit" (a running gag throughout the movie), but Dewey eventually tries it and continues to do so every time he finds Sam with a new drug. His attitude and drug problems cause him to become unfaithful to Edith. Dewey's father then returns to inform Dewey that Dewey's mother has died. Pa manages to make Dewey feel responsible for her death, contributing to an already high level of inner turmoil. Dewey is then introduced to cocaine, which leads to a change in his music to a louder, "punk" type. With the addition of backup singer Darlene Madison, (Jenna Fischer) Dewey produces several more hit records. However, they become attracted to each other, and Dewey weds Darlene while still married to Edith, which leads to both women leaving him. Dewey eventually is busted after purchasing drugs from an undercover cop, serves time in jail, and spends time in rehab before Darlene returns.

They then move to Berkeley, California, in 1966 at the beginning of the '60s counterculture movement. Dewey's begins to make protest songs for midgets, and his singing style is compared by a reporter to that of Bob Dylan, which Dewey angrily denies.

During a visit with his band to India, Dewey and Darlene take LSD with The Beatles, which causes Dewey to lose touch with reality yet again and have a Yellow Submarine-esque hallucination. Dewey becomes obsessed with every aspect of the recording process and is consumed with creating his masterpiece entitled, "Black Sheep". The song includes orchestral instrumentation and bizarre effects. The band doesn't appreciate his insane style of music and his continuous abuse of the others in the group. As a result the band breaks up. Darlene is also unable to deal with Dewey's insanity and drug problems and leaves him. Dewey goes through another stay in jail and rehab, in which he is visited by Nate's ghost (now played by Jonah Hill; explaining that that's how he would look now had he not been killed). Nate angrily criticizes Dewey telling him to "get his shit together" and start writing songs again.

Dewey is next seen jogging into the 1970s, and is now hosting a CBS variety television show. Dewey has song-block and is having a lot of trouble trying to write a masterpiece for his brother. (In the director's cut Dewey remarries again, to Cheryl Tiegs, during this time.) Nate appears again and tells Dewey that he needs to tell Pa that he loves him. Dewey does this. Although Dewey's father appreciates his courage to say it, he decides the only way to settle this is to fight to the death with machetes. However, Pa accidentally cuts himself in half. Just before he dies, the senior Cox forgives Dewey, and tells him to be a better father than he was. His death causes Dewey to have an emotional breakdown and he destroys almost everything in his home.

Dewey begins to focus on spending time with his numerous children. Darlene returns once again, this time in 1992 as Dewey begins his senior years. At one of their children's birthday party, Dewey talks to Darlene about what he's done since they last met. After finally regaining what is most important to him, Dewey regains his sense of smell.

In 2007, Dewey becomes popular with younger listeners through rapper Lil' Nutzzak's sampling of "Walk Hard". Dewey is upset about this at first, but pays it little mind when he is informed that he is to receive the lifetime achievement award. Dewey is reluctant to play a song at first, fearing the temptations he once succumbed to, but his wife and children put their full support behind him. Dewey reunites with his band, and he is finally able to fulfill his dream of creating one great masterpiece that sums up his entire life with his final song, "Beautiful Ride".

He dies three minutes after the performance.

Cast

• John C. Reilly as Dewford Randolph "Dewey" Cox
• Jenna Fischer as Darlene Madison Cox (singer Angela Correa provided her voice during the movie's musical numbers)
• Raymond J. Barry as Pa Cox
• Margo Martindale as Ma Cox
• Kristen Wiig as Edith
• Conner Rayburn as Dewey Cox Age 7
• David "Honeyboy" Edwards as The Old Blues Singer
• Paul Bates as Nightclub Manager
• Tim Meadows as Sam McPherson
• Chris Parnell as Theo
• Matt Besser as Dave
• David Krumholtz as Schwartzberg
• Craig Robinson as Bobby Shad
• Harold Ramis as L'Chaim
• Martin Starr as Schmendrick
• John Michael Higgins as the recording engineer for "Walk Hard"
• Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly
• John Ennis as The Big Bopper
• Moppit Mayfield (Curtis Mayfield's Twin) as Curtis Mayfield
• Jack White as Elvis Presley
• Angela Little as Beth Anne
• Skyler Gisondo as Dewford "Dewdrop", "Dewey" Cox, Jr.
• Simon Helberg as Dreidel L'Chaim
• Adam Herschman as Jerry Garcia
• Eddie Vedder as himself
• The Temptations (Otis Williams, Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks, Joe Herndon, Bruce Williamson) as themselves
• Jackson Browne as himself
• Jewel as herself
• Ghostface Killah as himself
• Lurie Poston as a Cox kid
• Juicy J of Three 6 Mafia as Huggi Older Age
• Lyle Lovett as himself
• Fabolous as himself
• Bow Wow as himself
• Snoop Dogg as himself
• Jonah Hill as Adult Nate's ghost
• Paul Rudd as John Lennon
• Jack Black as Paul McCartney
• Justin Long as George Harrison
• Jason Schwartzman as Ringo Starr
• Gerry Bednob as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (uncredited)
• Andy Milonakis as Pa Cox Age 11 (uncredited)

Unrated version additional actors:

• Patrick Duffy as himself
• Morgan Fairchild as herself
• Cheryl Ladd as herself
• Cheryl Tiegs as herself
• Wayans Bros. as themselves

Soundtrack

Singer-songwriters Dan Bern and Mike Viola (of the Candy Butchers) wrote most of the film's songs, including There's a Change a Happenin', Mulatto, A Life Without You (Is No Life At All), Beautiful Ride and Hole in My Pants. Charlie Wadhams wrote the song Let's Duet. Marshall Crenshaw wrote the title song, and Van Dyke Parks penned the Brian Wilson-esque 1960s-styled psychedelic jam Black Sheep (the recording session seems to be a specific parody of Wilson's SMiLE album sessions, on which Van Dyke Park worked). Antonio Ortiz wrote Take My Hand. A number of critics noted the unusually high quality of many of the individual songs on the soundtrack; how well they reflected the styles and times they were attempting to spoof and how well they stood on their own as quality compositions. The soundtrack was nominated for both a Grammy and Golden Globe Award and was nominated and won the Sierra Award for Best Song in a Motion Picture from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society.

Production and development

Jake Kasdan brought the idea to his friend and fellow director Judd Apatow. They then began writing the film together. The tongue-in-cheek references in this fake biopic were drawn from various sources. Apatow and Kasdan noted that they watched various types of biopics for inspiration including those of Jimi Hendrix and Marilyn Monroe. Despite the humorous approach, the film was crafted in the serious tone of films earmarked for an Oscar, adding to the irony.

John C. Reilly, who actually sings and plays guitar, was chosen to play the title role. "We took the clichés of movie biopics and just had fun with them," Reilly said. The "deliberate miscasting" of celebrity cameos, such as The Beatles, was intended to enhance the comedy. The movie's poster is a reference to the "young lion" photos of Jim Morrison.

DVD release

The film was released on DVD & Blu-ray Disc on April 8, 2008. In the opening weekend, 263,001 DVD units were sold, generating revenue of $5,110,109. As of August 2009, DVD sales have gathered revenue of $15,395,476.

Promotional appearances

Along with a backing band, Reilly made seven musical appearances as Dewey Cox in the weeks prior to the film's release date.

• December 5, 2007 - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, OH)
• December 6, 2007 - The Cubby Bear (Chicago, IL)
• December 7, 2007 - Stubb's BBQ (Austin, TX)
• December 8, 2007 - Mercy Lounge (Nashville, TN)
• December 10, 2007 - Great American Music Hall (San Francisco, CA)
• December 13, 2007 - Guitar Center on Sunset Blvd. (Los Angeles, CA)
• December 19, 2007 - Knitting Factory (New York, NY)
• December 19, 2007 - Performed in the character of Dewey Cox on Good Morning America.

Several fake commercials were aired including one with John Mayer, hinting Dewey might be his father.

Reception

The film was praised by notable critics, including Roger Ebert, who gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, and it garnered 75% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, certifying it "fresh". The movie did not find an audience however, and there were only $18 million in domestic receipts, below the film's budget.

John C. Reilly received a Golden Globe nomination for his role, as well as for singing the title song.

References

1. Hiatt, Brian (2007-08-09), "The Next 'Spinal Tap'?". Rolling Stone. (1032):20
2. Apatow, Kasdan and Reilly Walk Hard. Retrieved December 11, 2007.
3. Breznican, Anthony (2007-09-11), "'Walk Hard' riffs on greatest rockers", USA Today, volume and issue unknown:01d
4. Breznican, Anthony (11/23/2007), "'Walk Hard' takes a run at musical legends", USA Today, volume and issue unknown:3e
5. Faraci, Devin (2007-11-29) "THE DEVIN'S ADVOCATE: THE JUDD APATOW BACKLASH" CHUD.com Retrieved 2007-12-13
6. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2007/WHARD-DVD.php
7. [1]

External links