I am not a Johnny Cash fan or a country music fan for that matter so it was a surprise to me that I was so easily swayed to go see it when there are so many other cinematic escpaes I would have opted to see on a Sunday afternoon (e.g. Prime). The cast helped draw me to a movie that one could assume was just another rag to riches story -- the poor, mistreated boy from the back country whose life was full of tragedy and misfortune but prevailed despite all odds. . . I was not in the mood for cliche and was shocked to find a movie so gripping, hypnotic and inspiring that it was perhaps the best movie I have seen in years.

that reads very well, Mer624.
the "man in black" was an ispiration to lots of peeps.
i haven't seen it.
thanks for shareing!

Kid grows up in semi-poverty, never learning the valuable lesson of discipline. Kid's brother dies in saw mill accident, while kid is off fishing, when he was supposed to be helping his brother. Accident haunts kid and justifiably so. Father liked dead brother better than kid, so we're supposed to feel bad for the little brat. Fast forward a few years and kid is now a young man, who teaches himself how to play guitar and sing badly. Proposes to wife over the phone, although he has no idea what a commitment means. Starts band that sounds like crap and only plays 3 songs, but gets record deal, nonetheless. Drinks way too much because he's unhappy about his success and beautiful family he's destroying. Becomes famous and can now afford to be drunk full time. Has sex with random groupies and lusts after a female singer, despite the wife and 2 kids waiting for him at home. Graduates from booze to pills and gets busted. Wife leaves him and takes kids (FINALLY!) so he buys a cool house on a lake to think things over and pop more pills and lust after the same female singer. Performs for murders at Folsom prison, which turns into the most successful album of all time.

End.

Moral of the story is that if you behave like a giant asshole when you're young and hurt as many people as you can along the way, good things will come of it.

Never learning the valuable lesson of discipline?
Johnny's Dad seemed like the militant type to me

Yes because Hollywood would never embellish. Also why is that necessarily bad?

Yes Hollywood does embellish, and Cash's Dad seemed to be borderline abusive and that is bad.

The operative word being "seemed." Ray Cash wasn't the only one who was made out to be an asshole...

"Johnny's father, Ray Cash, appears in the film as cold and verbally abusive. Kathy Cash says that's unfair to her grandfather.

"He wasn't the sweetest person in the world back then, but …. Dad did have his problems with him. Some of it was true, some wasn't. It was blown up to high proportions."

Again, John Carter Cash doesn't necessarily disagree.

"The fact of the matter: If there was angst between my grandfather and my father, it was unstated. My father never showed anything but tolerance, love, patience. … I never saw him talk back to (his father.) That's the reality.

"But to shed light on who my dad was, some of the struggles between my father and my grandfather were dramatized. And I do think it was necessary for the movie."

John Carter Cash concedes overall that there are omissions and dramatizations, but that they were necessary to tell the love story. "Nobody can ever see totally eye to eye. I respect the film for what it is, and I love it for what it is. There are great holes. And there are solid fans who'll say, what about this and what about that? Look for one thing: Look for their love. Look where their love lasted. That's the message."

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051110/ENTERTAINMENT04/511100396/1005/ENTERTAINMENT04

I really enjoyed this film, despite that I saw it alone, I really don't like Johnny Cash music, and I really don't like biography movies.
That's a pretty good endorsement - a lot like the one given above. The comments about it's authenticity re: emotions between Cash and his father interest me because it is on this line that the movie hinges.

Well Cru, since I convinced you to see 'Eraserhead', I guess I have to skulk over the multiplex this weekend for a little of the Man in Black.

Good Luck
Granted, it's no Dark Star, but you may be humming Cash tunes to yourself afterward. I was.

Well, I normally hum 'Ring Of Fire' to myself the morning after eating the Volcanic chicken wings at my local bar.