Johnny Cash: The Anthology (2000 Video) User Reviews

A nice, if somewhat vague, overview of a legend

[jagfx · 6/10 · 30 September 2002]

Johnny Cash by all accounts is a legendary musician with a tremendous impact, not only on country music world, but on the rock music world as well. Johnny Cash is one of the few musicians who retains a remarkable sense of grace, dignity and respect this far into his musical career (especially with his most recent American recordings), yet, who also has a tremendous impact on his contemporaries such as Beck, Wilco and Will Oldham.

"Johnny Cash: The Anthology" presents two different overviews of his career, the first a 15 song guide from the past to the present and the other a biographical overview of his career. Along for the ride is commentary by the likes of Merle Haggard, Rodney Crowell, Billy Bob Thorton and Kris Kristofferson and while this may all sound good it is a disappointing viewing in the end.

The editing in both presentations is sloppy and poorly cut, particularly in the biographical portion of this video. It starts so abruptly I initially thought my DVD player had skipped a portion of the documentary. While the documentary was interesting it jumped around fairly quickly in Cash's career and pretty well skipped the 70s and 80s entirely. Though, the same sound bites from the aforementioned people appear in both presentations, it is good they didn't gloss over the bad parts of Cash's career particularly his addiction to pep pills in the 60s, but to sit through their glowing praise of Cash during the video presentation is a trial. The only reason it's worth sitting through their anecdotes are to see the tremendous footage of Cash classics. It's a real treat to see his performances from the 60s, as a lean and raw young man.

If you have the patience to sit through this, go for it, otherwise wait for a more comprehensive, better edited documentary to come along.

6/10

the music is the message here

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 7 June 2013]

I have to agree with the first review on this site -- I did wonder how well the people interviewed on "Johnny Cash: The Anthology" knew him, if at all, but they were certainly right on about the quality of his talent and his music.

There is a supplement on the disc which is a biography of sorts, but the main part is a series of sound bytes and Cash singing in performance at different times of his life. Didn't matter when or where, he was tremendous. Tremendously musical, deep feeling, a beautiful voice, and very charismatic - it's no wonder Sam Phillips, the man who discovered Elvis, discovered him as well. Phillips had an ear for the unusual, and Cash was certainly special.

There are also duets with June Carter Cash, another fabulous talent.

The Man in Black makes this disc worth seeing, but don't expect much from the interviews except when the people are talking about his music. And really, who cares about anything else? His music tells us as much bout him as anything else.

Just a "Cash-in"

[dean-mcinerney · 3/10 · 6 June 2022]

2 documentaries on one disc that just seem to be two alternative edit's, one being about the songs, one being about the man... both often using the same material. It consists of a few of Cash's friends, peers and relatives gushing endlessly but little of Johnny speaking, or much meaningful revelation. All in all a sloppily researched "Cash-In".

I would have been kinder in this review except for a shocking error by the filmmaker, using a Cash rendition of Leonard Cohens' "Bird On A Wire", to illustrate Johnny Cash's gifts as a "Poet". It's one of those rare mistakes that is truly inexcusable. You would either have zero idea of music history, or really don't give a damn about the task. Either way, both artists were insulted in the process.

There's a much better documentary out there currently.... "The Gift - The Journey of Johnny Cash".