Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music

From Walk the Line, we know that the late Johnny Cash took a lot of drugs, then quit taking a lot of drugs. This must-see 1969 documentary by filmmaker Robert Elfstrom, a cinematographer who shot Brian De Palma's early feature Hi, Mom! (and went on to make the fascinating 1970 time capsule The Nashville Sound), has much of the inconvenient stuff that didn't fit the biopic's Behind the Music narrative—mostly Cash's social conscience, Native American activism and religious conviction. If that sounds like a pill, the movie is anything but: an assemblage of concert clips showing the Man in Black in his nervy fighting prime, fortified with cinema-verité footage backstage, on the road, at home (tending to a wounded crow) and in the studio (recording "One Too Many Mornings" with a gum-chewing Bob Dylan, then cackling at the playback). Watch for two rollicking versions of "Jackson," the ebullient June Carter Cash expertly working a prison audience, glimpses of the Carter Family and much priceless B-roll footage of Nixon-era Middle Tennessee, where gas is a whopping 35 cents a gallon. The film airs nationally on the fine P.O.V. documentary series; a special advance showing will be held 8 p.m. Aug. 2 at Family Wash (2038 Greenwood Ave.). The show airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday on NPT-Channel 8.
Sat., Aug. 2, 8 p.m.; Tue., Aug. 5, 9 p.m., 2008