This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Better Late Then Never

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

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.

I'd expected a black-and-white concert film here (though admittedly this doc dates to 2008), but found more than that.This film takes us back to the Sixties when Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, and their band performed in the sprawling dining hall of Folsom Prison. It was Johnny's attempt at a comeback and he could not have had a more appreciative crowd in this place where, as a former inmate put it, "everything is limited and restricted...You're not a human being decent enough to be talked to in a decent manner." Cash wasn't an ex-con himself but he was empathic to the prisoner's plight and a surprising number of his songs tried to provide the jailed man's perspective. (He draws applause when singing the controversial line "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die...") The film takes an intriguing detour into the checkered life of Glen Sherley, a career criminal who aspired to songwriting. Cash sang one of his songs at the Folsom concert and got Sherley an early release -- only to get scared by some of the violent things the ex-con started saying. (Cash sent Sherley packing and Sherley killed himself years later.) The movie says some thoughtful things about imprisonment, rehabilitation, and the futility of trying to save someone who doesn't want to be saved. And the music is superb -- particularly when Cash and June Carter perform together. If it has one flaw, it's that there's too much talk here and not enough of Cash's unique artistry.Still,this film is well worth seeing and remembering.

I like the music of Johnny Cash, but I can't help but feel that since his death, there's been something of a tendency to over-lionise him. The story of his album recorded at Folsom prison, told in this documentary, is a case in point. Cash had started playing in prisons - he clearly sympathised with those behind bars - on one occasion he recorded his show - and that's really the whole story. It nay have been a great performance, but it's still hard to see what the narrative is really supposed to be, and this documentary doesn't help by being loaded up with talking heads who assert that (but don't illustrate how) Cash was a great but troubled man. The story of a prisoner he tried to help is a better (though more tragic) story, but feels like a side-track in the overall film. Best thing is to sit back and enjoy the music; but don't expect too much insight.

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.