[Thanks, Lee, for talking about this movie on your blog!]The movie is about Johnny Cash, the troubled country star, who did everything right (but felt he didn't do enough to live up to his father).
You know, atheism is a child's bid for freedom from imposed values and generalized guilt. If any of you have had catholic/hindu schooling, you'll know how much guilt a child can absorb from religion - about right and wrong, good and evil, and have no barriers to taking it all on their little shoulders (no doubt all religions impose the same).
Johnny Cash rebelled against the guilt heaped upon him as a child (eg., his father said, "god took the wrong one" when his brother died!:o), but unsuccessfully - he needed drugs to get through his day, until addiction ruined his career. Luckily for him, there was June Carter who cared enough to save him from himself. He beat his addiction and went on to become a compassionate performer working in prisons and for charities. It's a lovely romance in real life as well.
A lot of that guilt/regret is something he couldn't shake off, but not of his doing - I know what he felt - it's like a photographic emotional memory that you re-feel the emotions unchanged by time, even of distant events. Like you're hooked to the world, history and every living feeling.
[Alt: A deep review]
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[Now, I've always loved the last song Johnny sang written by my favourite industrial band, Nine Inch Nails. Johnny and June asked Trent Reznor if they could record it on acoustic and it's terrific! Better than the original imo because of a lifetime of regret and apology in Johnny's voice. Both died soon after. Here's the vid of Hurt by Johnny Cash:
I hurt myself today ...
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become?
my sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
2 comments:
Your welcome Yoda...I saw the movie by mistake actually...Just started flipping thru some channels...started watching...Then couldnt stop...Very nice movie...Sad in so many ways...But awesome also in many ways.
Their performances in the movie is among the best I have seen recently.
:)
Lee
Yeah, Lee. If Life is about learning, I guess being an addict teaches you a great deal.:)
It brought up so many thoughts:
If an aloof and critical father can leave a child so scarred, how much worse the damage to streetkids in India who have to face humiliation from strangers? Glue-sniffing and alcohol may be consequences of their treatment.
Maybe movies like this can teach us about addicts, and how much more poison has gone into the making of one.
... and that success isn't the end; it's the beginning for deeper changes in the individual.
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