Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

In Springberry, Alabama, 1946, young Dewey Cox accidentally cuts his brother Nate in half with a machete. The trauma causes Dewey to lose his sense of smell. Dewey meets a blues guitarist who discovers Dewey's life experience instilled in him a natural affinity for playing blues music.

In 1953, Dewey performs at a school talent show and drives the crowd wild with his song "Take My Hand," and his father kicks him out of the house, calling it the "Devil's music". A 14-year-old Dewey leaves Springberry with his 12-year-old girlfriend Edith; they soon marry and have a baby. Working at an all-African American nightclub, Dewey replaces singer Bobby Shad onstage and impresses Hasidic Jew record executive L'Chaim. While recording a rockabilly rendition of "That's Amore", Dewey is berated by an executive. A desperate Dewey performs "Walk Hard," a song inspired by a speech he gave Edith, which restores the executive's belief in Judaism and rockets Dewey to superstardom.

The song becomes a hit within 35 minutes of its recording, and Dewey becomes caught up in the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. He soon performs his first concert as the following act to Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper. Dewey is introduced to marijuana by his drummer Sam and becomes unfaithful to Edith. Dewey's father informs him that his mother has died while dancing to Dewey's song and blames Dewey's music for her death. Distraught, Dewey finds Sam using cocaine and partakes, resulting in a cocaine-fueled punk rock performance. Choir-girl Darlene Madison enters Dewey's life, and he produces several sexually suggestive hit records amid their courtship. He weds Darlene while still married to Edith, which leads to both women leaving him, after which Dewey purchases drugs from an undercover cop. After he serves time in prison and in rehab, Darlene returns.

They move to Berkeley, California in 1966 during the counterculture movement. Dewey's new singing style is compared to that of Bob Dylan, which Dewey angrily denies despite his new music being extremely similar to Dylan's. On a band visit to India, Dewey takes LSD with the Beatles, leading to a "Yellow Submarine"-esque hallucination. Dewey becomes consumed with creating his masterpiece "Black Sheep" (a homage to Brian Wilson's Smile). The band resents his insane musical style and abusive behavior and breaks up; Darlene, also unable to deal with Dewey, leaves him for Glen Campbell. During another stint in rehab, Dewey is visited by the ghost of Nate, who ridicules his self-pity and tells him to start writing songs again.

In the 1970s, Dewey now hosts a CBS variety television show but is unable to compose a masterpiece for his brother (in the director's cut, Dewey remarries again, this time to Cheryl Tiegs). Nate reappears and urges Dewey to reconcile with their father. Dewey and his father wind up dueling with machetes; despite having trained years for this moment, Dewey's father cuts himself in half, forgives Dewey for Nate's death, tells him to be a better father, and dies. Dewey breaks down and destroys almost everything in his home.

Dewey is approached by one of his illegitimate children and decides to reconnect with his many offspring. In 1992, a divorced Darlene returns to him. Finally realizing what is most important to him, Dewey regains his sense of smell and remarries Darlene.

In 2007, L'Chaim's son Dreidel informs Dewey of his popularity with young listeners through rapper Lil' Nutzzak's sampling of "Walk Hard." Dewey learns he is to receive a lifetime achievement award. They want him to sing a song at the ceremony, but Dewey is reluctant, fearing his old temptations. However, with his family's support, he reunites with his band and is finally able to create one great masterpiece, summing up his entire life with his final song, "Beautiful Ride."

A title card reveals that Dewey died three minutes after this final performance, which then also reads (as a still of his fatal heart attack is shown) "Dewford Randolph Cox, 1936–2007."

Following the end credits is a short black-and-white clip of "the actual Dewey Cox, April 16, 2002" (still played by Reilly).

• John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox
• Kristen Wiig as Edith Cox
• Raymond J. Barry as Pa Cox
• Margo Martindale as Ma Cox
• Jenna Fischer as Darlene Madison Cox
  • Angela Correa as Darlene's singing voice
• Tim Meadows as Sam McPherson, drummer and drug dealer
• Chris Parnell as Theo
• Matt Besser as Dave
• Chip Hormess as Nate Cox, Dewey's brother
  • Jonah Hill as older Nate (uncredited)
• David "Honeyboy" Edwards as the Old Blues Singer
• David Krumholtz as Schwartzberg
• Craig Robinson as Bobby Shad
• Harold Ramis as L'Chaim
• Simon Helberg as Dreidel L'Chaim
• Philip Rosenthal as Mazeltov
• Martin Starr as Schmendrick
• John Michael Higgins as "Walk Hard" recording engineer
• Ed Helms as Stage manager
• Jane Lynch as Gail, the news reporter
• Angela Little Mackenzie as Beth Anne
• Skyler Gisondo as Dewford "Dewdrop/Dewey" Cox, Jr.
• Lurie Poston as a Cox kid
• Jack McBrayer as DJ
• Nat Faxon as Awards show stage manager
• Rance Howard as Preacher
• Odette Yustman as Reefer girl
• Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly
• John Ennis as The Big Bopper
• Jack White as Elvis Presley
• Adam Herschman as Jerry Garcia
• The Temptations (Otis Williams, Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks, Joe Herndon, Bruce Williamson) as themselves
• Eddie Vedder as himself
• Jackson Browne as himself
• Jewel as herself
• Ghostface Killah as himself
• Lyle Lovett as himself
• Gerry Bednob as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
• Cheryl Tiegs (in the director's cut unrated version) as herself

Jake Kasdan brought the idea to his friend and fellow director Judd Apatow. They then began writing the film together.[4] 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.[5] Despite the humorous approach, the film was crafted in the serious tone of films earmarked for an Oscar, adding to the irony.[6]

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.[4] The "deliberate miscasting" of celebrity cameos, such as Elvis Presley and the Beatles, was intended to enhance the comedy.[7] The film's poster is a reference to the "young lion" photos of Jim Morrison.[8]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 74% based on 134, classifying it as "certified fresh". The site's consensus states: "A parody that pokes fun at rock stars and reductive biopics alike, this comedy sings in large part because of stellar performances and clever original music."[9] On Metacritic the film has a score of 63 out of 100 based on reviews from 22 critics.[10]

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and wrote: "Instead of sending everything over the top at high energy, like Top Secret! or Airplane!, they allow Reilly to more or less actually play the character, so that, against all expectations, some scenes actually approach real sentiment."[11]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine wrote: "The tricky thing about parody movies is that the jokes get old fast and they're hit-and-miss. Walk Hard, a spoof of every musical biopic from Ray to Walk the Line, is guilty on both counts. How lucky that when the jokes do hit, they kick major ass."[12]

The film was not commercially successful, taking $18 million at the US box office which was less than the film's $35 million budget.[2]

John C. Reilly received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance in a Musical or Comedy and a nomination for Best Original Song.[13]

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 8, 2008.[14] In the opening weekend, 263,001 DVD units were sold, generating revenue of $5,110,109. As of May 2010, DVD sales have gathered revenue of $15,664,735.[15]

Along with a backing band "The Hardwalkers", Reilly made seven musical appearances as Dewey Cox in the weeks prior to the film's release date.[16]

• 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 11, 2007 – The Blacksheep (Colorado Springs, CO)
• 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.[17]

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

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 and Benji Hughes wrote the song "Let's Duet"[3].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 Parks worked).[4] 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 parody, 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. John C. Reilly sang on all the tracks and played guitar on most of them.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

• Official website
• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story at IMDb
• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story at Box Office Mojo
• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story at Rotten Tomatoes