Johnny Cash: Hurt
by Mark Romanek
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Johnny CashDirector: Mark Romanek
Brand: UNI DIST CORP (MUSIC)
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
DVD Release Date: 2003-11-18
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Lost Highway
Movie Reviews of Johnny Cash: Hurt
Movie Review: When The Man In Black Preaches, You Listen
Summary: 5 Stars
Back in 1970, my father piled my mother and us kids all into a Lincoln Continental that hadn't had a payment made on it for six months, and headed from Owensboro, Kentucky to Hendersonville, Tennessee, completely to meet his idol, Johnny Cash (He tended to do things like that). The fact that Mr. Cash would probably sic his dog and/or the police on us if we showed up on his property never crossed Dad's mind, and we got to Hendersonville, stopped for gas and ten cent soda pop, and asked the attendant if he knew where Johnny Cash lived. The guy looked at Dad as though he had eight arms and a trumpet growing out of his ear and drawled, "Wahyll, everyone knows that's June and Johnny's place right down the road, Mister. Y'all from somewhere else?" Um, yes, in many more ways than he could understand...We pulled up at the Cash Compound at about ten p.m., rolled over their security chains, and my father proceeded to lay on the horn (I swear) until Johnny and June came out, wrapping their bathrobes around themselves, looking quite confused. Dad stuck out his hand and said, "Mr. Cash, I'm Jr. Poynter, and I'm your biggest fan." Well. Johnny and June took a peek into the car, where my mother and siblings were trying to crawl under the seats, but I stuck my hand out, and Johnny, then his wife, shook it. Johnny smiled at me, and asked me how I was; I remember saying, "Life with my father is interesting, Mr. Cash," and Johnny laughing. Then June said, "You should all come in for some tea and to stretch your legs." O. My. God. Well, even Dad had some common sense, and he begged off (maybe he was afraid the repo guys were right behind us, and wouldn't that be embarrassing as hell?), and we said our goodbyes, turned around, and went back to Owensboro, doing our homework by moonlight because we kids had to be in school a few hours later. Fast forward ten, twenty, more years - Johnny Cash not only became my favorite singer, but I never forgot with what good-old-boy-ain't-that-nice-they-drove-all-that-way-to-meet-us? sincere reaction both John and June exhibited, when they should have been scared to death and summoning up restraining orders. I learned that they had a rep for being like that, and being grateful for what they had been given, and I rewarded their goodness to their fans by being a loyal, album-buying fan. I continue to replace worn out copies of albums, cds and dvds, and that's how the newest copy of this film has just come our way via Amazon...and it is an amazing, astonishing film. Johnny takes the Nine Inch Nails song and makes it his own over what is more a short musical documentary than a music video. From the first words, "I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel," you know you're watching someone who knows that this might be their final statement. He's going to tell you what he's seen, what he's went through, what it was all for, and what matters in the end. While Johnny's voice plays over the images, we see quickly cut and spliced years go by, go forward, backward - we see the small house he was born in, we see the wealth and 'empire of dirt', as the song states, he worked an entire life to put together. His well known religious beliefs are represented; we see June with Baby John Carter Cash, and we see the couple walking into the gates to begin (what I believe is) Mr. Cash's historic San Quentin concert. The image of a young, tall and suited Johnny Cash striding through the sharecropper land behind his childhood home is poetic - it seems as though he is truly stepping out of the past, pretty much dead end hardworking eighteen hours a day life that only a very few got out of alive. I also love that June is in the video as much as she is; anybody who is a real Cash fan knows that theirs was a real love story, and when June died, fans everywhere nodded knowingly and said, "John is going home right behind her," and The Man In Black was tough, but he made it less than six months without his Lady. I really would suggest this film to anyone studying Johnny and June, real country music, and when the word 'legend' should appropriately be mentioned when discussing a singer/songwriter/preacher man. Johnny makes "Hurt" a part of that legend - he actually is on the net in some chats as being the inspiration behind the writing of the original song (As far as I could research, this is incorrect). No matter, it's his, now, and this video should forever be known as one of the most powerful and astonishing projects ever put down into film. Finally, some reviewers have said it's sad. Yes, it's sad. When you see a lithe, young Johnny swing into a boxcar with his guitar, heading toward who knows what, and then it shows an older (this was filmed very, very shortly before his death)and worn, weary and worldly man sitting at the piano, picking out the last few chords to the song, it's a heartbreaker to know, yes, the ride ends for all of us. But if we do it right, there's a hell of a video left behind, and there's the true belief that "If I could start again, a million miles away, I would keep myself, I would find a way." While I always thought the Inch version was suggesting that the self had been lost, and if Trent Reznor could just go back, he'd find a way to do it different this time, Johnny's version puts it in no uncertain terms - he knew, all along, what was important, and he never let completely go. The Preacher kept what was important to him, and he's left this behind as proof.
Summary of Johnny Cash: Hurt
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