Johnny Cash's America
Musicians don't come more
iconic and complicated than the late Man in Black. As good friend Kris
Kristofferson once pointed out, he was "a walking contradiction - partly
truth and partly fiction."
Johnny Cash was a righteous
man and a flawed sinner, a patriot and a rebel, a loving family man who was
often not there for his family, an addict and sober as a judge, a jailbird
who never really did any serious time, far right wing at the same time as he
was far left, a country icon who became an alternative rock figurehead.
He was also a man who lived
much of his life in front of the camera. His life has also been fodder
to quite a few movies - from the respected bio-pic Walk the Line in
2005 to literally dozens of documentaries (many of them made for television)
filmed before and after his death in 2003.
Johnny Cash's America
is better than most. One huge reason is that his family was
intimately involved. His sister Joanne and children Rosanne, Cindy and
John Carter Cash are all interviewed extensively.
This adds a sense of
immediacy, but it also occasionally makes things feel a little staged and
overly reverent - particularly in an early section where several family
members visit Cash's grave with a camera crew and "spontaneously" break into
a righteous verse of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" - the signature song of
Cash's early heroes (and later in-laws) The Carter Family Singers.
(Luckily, daughter Rosanne Cash - who is an extraordinary singer/songwriter
in her own right and offers probably the most thoughtful insights of the
family members - did not take part in this little stunt.)
The Cash family's
involvement also assures that we get to see some rare and fascinating
archival footage and gives the filmmakers free reign of the singer's
legendary musical catalogue.
Johnny Cash's America
shares a similar name with his later American Recordings comeback
disks - as well as the exact same name as a mostly forgotten 70s album.
It also borrows basic format of the 2000 career-spanning box set Love,
God, Murder in which the narrative is broken up into specific themes
like land, freedom, protest, justice, family, truth, faith, patriotism and redemption.
Johnny Cash's America
follows the Man in Black's hard
path by doing a series of interviews with friends, family, bandmates, fans
and also using some old sound bites from the late singer himself.
Some of the interviewees
seem a little bit offbeat (Snoop Dogg? Ozzy Osbourne?), but their
inclusion is just further proof of the broad musical tastes of Cash as a man
and the huge, widespread influence he has had way outside the traditional
Nashville music scene. Johnny Cash was never beholden to genres in
music. There was just music, so it only makes sense that a documentary
on the man would share that sensibility.
There were also a few
seemingly obvious people who were not interviewed - particularly good friend
Willie Nelson, actor Joaquin Phoenix (who played Cash in Walk the Line),
rock fans like Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young or Trent Reznor, country
protégées like Marty Stuart and Cash's former son-in-law Rodney Crowell.
There is also a fascinating clip with Johnny and Stevie Wonder jamming
together on Cash's old TV series which practically screamed out for a quick
quote from Wonder - a testimonial which sadly never came.
At this point, I don't
think that there is much of anyone who is completely uninformed of Cash's
music and life story. However, Johnny Cash's America walks the
well-worn road with simple elegance, passion and beauty - just like artist
that inspired the film undoubtedly would have done.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2008 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: October 18, 2008.
