I knew this film was a "tell all" about the relationship between Johnny Cash and his only manager, Saul. Headlines suggest it revealed behind the scenes details like Cash's proposal to June on stage in London, Ontario. Salacious details about Johnny Cash's remarkable career are as good as this film gets............ Two aspects did not sit well with me. Jonathon Holiff's discovery of his absent father leaves out more than it tells. We learn where Saul was when Jonathon was born (on tour) but what was Saul's relationship with his mother? (who is only mentioned in passing, never interviewed on screen). His brother? Did he provide financial support for his family? (At one point we learn that Saul earned $300,000 per year and preferred to fly 1st class, which suggests he was more self absorbed than protective of his family). Towards the end of the film, Jonathon suggests that Saul's difficult relationship with Johnny was because Johnny was antisemitic. Excuse me? The director throws this speculation out based on the fact that Johnny cast Saul as a Jew in his self-made film in Israel. That's pretty thin gruel, and Holiff never interviews the Cash family. Time to wrap up. Saul was not the "Supermensch" Shep Gordon, & Jonathon is definitely not Mike Myers.

I loved this film! It spoke to me on many levels, because it has so many shades and layers. On the surface, it is a fascinating biopic of Johnny Cash that offers genuine insight into the dark side of an icon (in a way the filtered, Hollywood blockbuster barely attempted to do).That is just the first layer, however. The turbulent, codependent relationship between Johnny and his manager (and driving force) Saul Holiff is totally absorbing and central to the story; and the underlying dysfunction between these two men highlights a heartbreaking parallel portrait of Saul's strained and abusive relationships with his sons, especially Jonathan, the film's director. As tortured as he was by Johnny's indulgent and self-destructive behavior, and as much as he showered his client with time and attention, so did Saul torture and neglect his own family. By appearances a level-headed businessman with a charmed life and family; on the inside, Saul was controlling, abusive, alcoholic and self-destructive in his own right.The film drew me in immediately with an unexpected bang: a dramatic reenactment of Saul's calculated and unexplained suicide. No, he did not leave a note, which led the director on an unintended journey to rediscover his estranged father. He found answers in a long-forgotten storage locker that housed a treasure trove of original Johnny Cash memorabilia, newspaper clippings, photos, gold albums, and written correspondence and never-heard audio recordings between Johnny and Saul. Interweaving reenactments with a wealth of found materials, archival footage and the original audio recordings, Jonathan allows the story to unfold through his own voice and the actual words of Johnny and Saul. I was particularly impressed with his attention to detail and unique production style choices, from his artistic use of stills and found materials, to shooting with actual film in trueness to the era.True, the story is wrought with tragic undertones, but crafting this film was clearly a cathartic experience for the director, who through its making was able to come to terms with his father's complicated life and death, and ultimately break the cycle of dysfunction. This alone makes the film incredibly poignant and, ultimately, even uplifting.

Being an avid film and Cash fan I eagerly anticipated watching this film.I'm not sure what the intent of this film was. It seems that the only point was to exploit the tragic life of Jonny cash to make a few bucks. It lacked any relevant material and brought nothing new to light regarding Cash and seemed to me to be a cry for help from a whining spawn of a workaholic. The filmmaker is too far removed from the story to bring anything of value to the table. The only redeeming thing about this movie is that it put me to sleep about 45 minutes into it. I tried watching it again the next night with the same result. This shouldn't be marketed as entertainment it should be sold as a sedative. Unless you have a severe sleep disorder I wouldn't waste time or money on this DVD.Sheldon Greenglass

Jonathan Holiff has courage. He has created a story about his own sense of isolation and loneliness and disregard by his father and unlike so many men who have had the same submerged life of regret, Jonathan Holiff has worked through his - through soul searching, agonizing recollections, the death of a father that was so distant, and through research that unearthed years of recorded tapes made by his father that explain many of the problems Jonathan never understood.Jonathan Holiff's father, Saul Holiff, was Johnny Cash's personal manager from 1960 to 1973. This film is 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. But what the film delivers in a sophisticated approach to a documentary (mixing many clips of historic clips and conversations on tapes with live actors standing in for the featured characters of this tale) is another look at just who Johnny Cash really was - from a mediocre country singer to a drug addict and alcoholic to a wreck of a human being who failed to show up for concerts, to his gradual comeback via his unique recordings from prisons and then to his fall again as he became a radical fundamentalist born again Christian, through two marriages and a divorce, his fame with June Carter Cash and his eventual death from complications of diabetes in 2003. Tat is not the Cash the public knows and the fact that he sustained the glow of fame is in large part due to the tireless efforts of Saul Holiff, himself an alcoholic and tormented man.But at what costs? This film allows us to connect most closely with Jonathan Holiff as he comes to grips with the man who as his father was carrying on the tradition of emotional frigidity with his son. The young Holiff knows just how far to push the buttons and when to back off, and the end result is a very powerful film on so very many levels. Grady Harp