Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison

October. 18,2008      
Rating:
6.9
Trailer Synopsis Cast

Cash's concert at Folsom State Prison in California in January 1968 touched a raw nerve in the American psyche and made him a national hero at a troubled time in American history. Using the stark images of rock photographer Jim Marshall, graphic techniques, archive footage and interviews with Merle Haggard, Cash's daughter Rosanne, band members Marshall Grant and WS 'Fluke' Holland, alongside former inmates of the prison, the film documents this explosive concert, the live album that followed and a transformative moment in the lives of Cash, the inmates of Folsom Prison and the American nation in the troubled year of 1968.

Johnny Cash as  Self
June Carter Cash as  Self
Merle Haggard as  Self
John Carter Cash as  Self
Rosanne Cash as  Self

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Reviews

Rijndri
2008/10/18

Load of rubbish!!

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CommentsXp
2008/10/19

Best movie ever!

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Jonah Abbott
2008/10/20

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

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Cheryl
2008/10/21

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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davefoc-1
2008/10/22

I agreed with all the negative reviews above, but I didn't care. I liked this documentary. It had lots of Johnny Cash music so I was probably going to like it no matter what. But there was more. I thought they did a nice job with using pictures taken from the concerts to tell the story. Sure video would have been nice, but if there wasn't video what they did was at least entertaining.I agree that some of the animation wasn't always appropriate to the story they were telling, but again, I didn't care. I enjoyed it.And they told several interesting stories in the course of the documentary. The story of Glen Sherley was very interesting to me and I looked him up and found out a bit more about him. I also enjoyed the comments from Cash's friends and family.Overall, if you can get past the imperfections that people pointed out above, you're going to enjoy this documentary.

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jc-osms
2008/10/23

The problem with this documentary on Johnny Cash's famous concert at Folsom Prison of course is that there is no video footage of the event itself. Yes, there are audio tapes of rehearsals, stills photography and naturally the record itself but when the producer has to resort to fleshing out the story of the concert with a featurette on Glen Sherley, the convict whose song Cash played at the concert and to whom Cash attempted to give encouragement on his release, as well as a potted history of the man himself, you feel that there's too much padding here.Worse, it resorts to using animated sequences to illustrate some of the songs, an approach completely at odds with the seriousness of the subject matter. As far as the interviewees are concerned, these fall into two categories, the admiring but critical (Merle Haggard in particular) and the fawning and largely uncritical (almost everyone else, including his band and family), which only gets worse when they extend their comments to eulogise Cash's wife, June.Some intelligent use is made of historical, typically no bullshit voice-overs by the man himself and there's no question the music and his performance are great, but I think on the whole, this documentary doesn't serve its subject over-well and would instead recommend the "San Quentin" documentary, a snippet of which is enticingly included here, to admirers.

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Ron in LA
2008/10/24

This is a documentary that uses Johnny Cash's 1968 Folsom Prison performance as the pivot point for telling his life story, with interesting subplots about two of the inmates present at the concert, notably country music artist Glen Sherley who was essentially discovered by Cash as part of the concert event. There was no actual video of the concert, so we get interviews with Cash's and Sherley's kids, as well as with back-up musicians, etc., with still photographs, archival footage, and some interesting animation sequences.I caught an afternoon showing at the Newport Beach Film Festival, and it is hard to imagine that this film will generate a lot of excitement in any theatrical release. It will work well on television, and if you get a chance to see it you will be rewarded with a balanced and engaging account of a complex and interesting man.

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V
2008/10/25

I'm not a raging Johnny Cash fan, but I like his stuff, and I particularly like his Live @ Folsom album. I was really looking forward to a "behind the scenes" look into the making of this album, and going into it I assumed there would be a bunch of archival video from the actual event.Instead, the film makers delivered a biography of Cash with particular emphasis on his advocacy for prison reform, and how this concert played into that theme of his life. Unfortunately, even this theme wasn't very focused, and it wasn't apparent what point they were trying to get across until well into the film.It wasn't *bad,* per se, it just wasn't as good as i'd hoped. Perhaps a case of misplaced expectations.Even more unfortunate is that there were people in the audience who've never heard the album before, and though the album itself is superb, this film doesn't leave that impression with someone not familiar with Cash's work. I think die-hard Cash fans will appreciate this most, while it doesn't really have a whole lot to offer for the common viewer.

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