Review: ‘Johnny Cash: The Redemption Of An American Icon’
Johnny Cash during his rebellious years | Photo Courtesy of Johnny Cash: The Redemption Of An American Icon
The film opens with Johnny Cash talking about how he had been redeemed. It was 1967 and in his own words he shared that “had walked to the end of the line,” and went into a cave to die.
Narrated by Marty Stuart, his son-in-law, the film takes viewers back in time to understand the present. Going back to Johnny Cash’s childhood home in southeast Arkansas, it was a home filled with love and hardship, and it was these early years that defined him. The family lived in a cotton field and picked cotton by day, but music filled the home at night. It was his mother who instilled faith and Godliness into the family through playing hymns on the piano, while encouraging her children to read the Bible.
On a Saturday morning in 1944, tragedy hit the family and that tragedy led Johnny Cash’s father and the doctor that aided in the crises to give their lives to Jesus. It was that tragedy where something was ignited in him and that something was his calling. That calling was something he knew was in him from a young age: singing.
Finding love, he married his first wife Vivian and four children swiftly came. Sam Phillips, a record producer in Memphis gave Cash a chance, and from there his career was nonstop. The film unpacks why the public loved him early on. It was because he would write the way people talked, he wrote relatable lyrics that people could feel. A commentator in the film called his lyrics “poetry.”
Music artists Jimmie Allen, Tim McGraw, Elvie Shane, Sheryl Crow, Alice Cooper, and Wynonna Judd commented on what Cash meant to them from their youths and as musicians.
Cash at the height of his success, greeting crowds | Photo Courtesy of Johnny Cash: The Redemption Of An American Icon
With new levels come new devils, and with Cash’s fame came recklessness and addiction to pills and alcohol, which led to pain. His addiction wrecked his first marriage, affected his career, ruined other relationships, and led to health bouts and depression as his spiritual life was absolutely dead. And, at his absolute worst, at the end of his line, in a cave on his property in Chattanooga, Tennessee that he walked into to die, Cash found resolution and he found God.
The fumbling moment
The film details this turnaround moment where God spoke to Cash. Sharing snippets of this testimony, Cash shared what he heard from God: “You do not control my destiny, I am not through with you.” Because his flashlight had gone out, Cash fumbled around in the dark for a couple of hours trying to find his way out of the cave.
The cave where Cash had an encounter moment with God | Photo Courtesy of Johnny Cash: The Redemption Of An American Icon
It’s in these moments of absolute surrender that God has us right where he wants us. That in our own fumbling for a few hours, of teetering between: ‘I’m ready to die God’ and God saying no, that release can come. It’s a moment where we can choose to partner with God and surrender to His will for us to keep going, to keep living, that ultimately, he will bring a way out of the pain and brokenness. Think Jacob in his “fumbling moment” the night he wrestled with God and walked with a limp the rest of his life in Genesis 32. Think Elijah when he escapes the wrath of Ahab and Jezebel in 1 Kings 19 and runs into a cave. He had his “fumbling moment.” God will meet us, men, women, and children in our caves, in our fumbling moments in life. And just like Jacob, when we stand up and have been touched and redeemed we walk with limps. Jacob’s limp symbolizes that we aren’t the same when we wrestle with God, when we fumble in our caves. Limping is noticeable, everyone sees people limping, and everyone sees when we’ve given our lives to Christ, done an about face and been made right with God.
That couple of hours of fumbling in the dark to find his way out of the cave was for Cash, it was a moment for him and God to be alone, for God to deal with his son, it was a moment for Cash to wake up, it was a turning point for Cash to be made right with God so he could be made right with his calling and with those he had let down. Sometimes only a parent can straighten out their kid and God straightened out Cash and Cash chose to let God do it. This is the turning point in the film as viewers see and understand the change in Cash’s life. He was one way before that cave, and another way when he came out, and the thing that made the difference was the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit experience that happened inside.
A new life
It was June Carter and his family and friends that nursed him physically (in a detox from drugs and alcohol), mentally, and emotionally back to health. In time, Cash gave his life back to Christ by going up to the alter at church and receiving salvation. The film documents his love for Christ and his friendship with Billy Graham.
It captures Cash during the last ten years of his life feeling his career was dead, but record producer Rick Rubin saw that it wasn’t dead, but very much alive. Towards the end of his life in preaching the name of Jesus, of continuing to make music, and in losing his wife June Carter to heart complications, Cash ran his race and stayed the course. He has inspired many artists around the world, touched millions, and propelled many to come to Christ themselves.
A moving film, I choked on some tears watching. Johnny Cash: The Redemption Of An American Icon presents a flawed man that God got a hold of, a man that God was gracious to, and a man that God used to change the world.
The film was produced by Greg Laurie and follows in the footsteps of the book of the same title of the film, also written by Laurie. If you want to understand more about Bible heroes that failed, but failed forward, read this post by Laurie.
Photo Courtesy of Johnny Cash: The Redemption Of An American Icon
How to watch the film
The film will premiere at cinemas around the US December 5th, 6th, and 7th 2022. Go to this website and type in your city and state to find showtimes.