Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (Bestor Cram, 2008): U.S.

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy. Viewed at the Victoria St. Theatre, Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison documents a moment in time (1968) when Cash was staging a comeback after a lag in his career. Cash had both a fascination with and deep compassion for prison inmates; he long held an interest in performing for them, and later became active in prison reform.

In what seems to be a contemporary style for documentary filmmaking, i.e. The Kid Stays in the Picture (N. Burstein/B. Morgen, 2002), this film is basically a montage of 2-Dimensional photographs with short interview clips interspersed with voice-overs of Cash himself. While some may hastily argue that this technique is neither “fresh” nor “creative,” I’d like to point out that film footage was not allowed in the prison at that time, while  still photography and audio recording was. The forthcoming album recorded live (Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison) made it to #1 on Country Charts and is subsequently considered one of the greatest albums of all time;  it did effectively revitalize Cash’s career.

The film concurrently follows the life of two former inmates Millard Dedmon and Glen Sherley who were at Folsom and attended Cash’s live recording. Cash indeed had an influence in Sherley’s life, even recording a song that he penned called Greystone Chapel (1968). There are moments in the film that lag, perhaps highlighting the lives of Dedmon and Sherley a bit too much as I caught my eyes closing a couple of times. Dedmon went straight after his parole and Sherley made several attempts to go straight, yet in the end the pull was too strong and he ended up killing himself.

This is not a bio on Johnny Cash, but rather an interesting detour in Cash’s career…or so the filmmakers thought. It is interesting material for any Johnny Cash fan (which I am), or musical historian.

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Published:
02.02.09 / 7pm
Category:
Documentary, Films, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2009