The untold story of 'bad-boy' Johnny Cash, his talented but troubled manager, Saul Holiff, and a son searching for his father in the shadow of a legend.
After the suicide of Johnny Cash's former manager, Saul Holiff, his estranged son, Jonathan Holiff, returns home. There, Jonathan learns from his mother that his father's personal records exist in storage. As Jonathan searches through them, he discovers much about his father's life of deferred dreams in London, Ontario until he became the manager of Johnny Cash. From there, Jonathan learns of his father's hectic life managing the erratic country star with his personal demons and moods and how the material success came with a profound cost of its own for Saul. In doing so, Jonathan gets a new perspective of a father who had his problems that he never fully conquered himself.—Kenneth Chisholm ([email protected])
"My Father and The Man In Black" is the only inside look at 'bad boy' Johnny Cash - as seen through the eyes of his longtime manager, Saul Holiff - the man who put Johnny together with June. Following his father's suicide, director Jonathan Holiff discovers hundreds of letters and audio diaries, including recorded phone calls with Johnny Cash during his pill-fueled 1960s, triumphs at Folsom and San Quentin, marriage to June Carter, and his conversion in the early 1970s to born-again Christian. These artifacts tell the story about how manager and singer collaborated to create a superstar, while each struggled with personal demons.—[email protected]
The Man in Black was, of course, Johnny Cash. Saul Holiff was his long-time manager, a dedicated, remote, often cruel man who committed suicide and left his son with a lot of unanswered questions.
Jonathan Holiffs documentary is an investigation of his fathers life and that of the celebrity who dominated it for years. The Canadian-born Saul was a self-made man, an ambitious promoter with a love of music that brought him together with one of the great figures of 20th-century pop culture.
Both Cash and his manager were strong men with serious weaknesses; we learn of their triumphs and failures, their mutual resentment and envy, their troubled relationships with their families. The film is respectful but never hagiographicit shows the good and the bad, the public and the painfully private.
What sets the story off is Jonathans discovery of his fathers diaries and audio recordings. These are revelatory, for the filmmaker and for us: a behind-the-scenes look at the business of music, the pitfalls of success and the tensions of a friendship that would eventually dissolve.
Mixing found footage, creative re-enactments and poignant voice-over narration, the documentary tells a riveting story with creative means. Its an act of catharsis for its maker, and a fine piece of journalism to boot.
[Vancouver International Film Festival]
