May 3, 2008
We all know that the cleverest biopics don't blatantly whitewash their subjects. They offer us a patina of honesty, showing only the sins that their subjects or their families or promoters want us to see. We see only the faults that are already well-known, and which are carefully excused for us on film-- there is always some childhood trauma or deprivation that drove them to drug addiction or alcohol or violence. But when they finally confronted their demons, all of these stars were able to translate their sufferings into great art, for which we, as generous patrons of worthy art, pat ourselves on the back.
Johnny Cash said about his father: "I don't ever remember a really cross, unkind word from my father. He was a good, strong man who provided for his family. That was his sole purpose in life when I was growing up." Now, someone is going to tell me that he was merely being polite, and the movie decided to tell everyone the real truth (as opposed to the fake truth). You can believe that, especially if you believe that the movie would rather tell the truth than let a good, juicy exaggeration help move the story along dramatically. More importantly, you could believe that the Cash people would miss an opportunity to offer the public a very attractive explanation for all those years of substance abuse and violent rages. But then, you might notice that the movie moved the tragic death of Johnny's brother, Jack, from the high school wood shop to an isolated shed so it could appear that Johnny should have been there helping him when the accident happened instead of off at the olde fishing hole, just to be more dramatic. (In real life, Cash was indeed fishing, but he was not supposed to be helping his brother at the time. His daughter claims that Cash's father always blamed him in some way for his brother's death. I'm guessing that the writers took liberties with a passing reference Cash might have voiced about a general feeling of guilt about his brother's accident.)
How accurate was the film's portrait of Cash's first wife, Vivian Liberto? Well, keep in mind that the producer of this film is Johnny Cash's son by June Carter, the woman he left Vivian for. One of the children of the first marriage, Kathy, stormed out of the screening for the family. We all want to feel good about Cash hooking up with Carter, so it would be unseemly to dramatize too authentically the hurt suffered by his first wife.