My Father and the Man in Black

Saw this on a flight to Vancouver. You never hear of the back stories of the people supporting these celebrities and the crap they put the people around them through. I understand his not maybe wanting to draw his brother, mother and other family members into his documentary, it was about him and his fathers relationship. Exposing other family members may have been more hurtful. I don't think I could put myself out there as Jonathon has, but finding out that his dad was been tormented inside by the choices he was making may temper his feelings toward his father. I knew Johnny Cash had some demons/drug issues, but I think he can count him self lucky that he had a friend/manager such as Saul, to pick up the pieces.

I saw the documentary when it was shown in London, Ontario. This is a very captivating documentary which gives great insight into the man behind Johnny Cash. I came away with a new appreciation of what it takes to be a manager in the entertainment business. This is a film which shows the struggles and the sacrifice and the hard work. So much went into the making of this film and the result is great detail and very professional work. From the opening scene to the very end this film will hold your interest. I believe it is a very important piece of entertainment history. I highly recommend this documentary. You will not go away disappointed.

Just saw the premiere of this movie at the NXNE Music/Film festival in Toronto last night. This is a very personal tale for the producer, trying to recreate the life and experiences of his late father, the manager of Johnny Cash. I think many of us who grew up in Canada during the 50's and 60's had fathers who were reclusive and uncommunicative. At the time it is easy to criticize and make judgement calls. In the case of Jonathan Holiff, he is stunned to realize that his father has left a storage locker of material summarizing his management career with Johnny Cash. When he listens to the numerous tape recordings that his father has made as a running dialogue, he begins to realize the accomplishments that his father made along with the nightmare reality of managing a supremely talented but incredibly self destructive artist such as Johnny Cash. The movie is made in quite an original way, with actual video footage, photographs and real recordings. I think the important point in the movie is when Cash crosses the line and really insults Saul Holiff. He immediately resigns. This is the important lesson we learn from our fathers. Some things are not negotiable in life, like your honour.

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

I was excited to see this film since I'm a huge Cash fan, I discovered his music when I was 15 and haven't stopped listening since. But the film really let me down man.The reviews said how it was great and a must see and whatever and i found the film to be completely self serving.Dude, its like if you made a film about Katy Perry's manager.Who cares? and where are johnnys kids to have a say in this film? I've got my own family troubles too, doesn't mean you make a film about it and expect it to be gold. the narration is robotic, the film is flat. only thing that saves the film is the visual effects which are interesting at first but then appear to be the directors crutch to hide the lack of content on our man in black.