Coastside Film Society presents an evening with Director Bob Elfstrom and Johnny Cash

Feature: Johnny Cash's Gospel Road

Every few years, director Bob Elfstrom comes to film night to screen and discuss the making of one of his great films. Bob's a director and cinematographer known for his stunning documentary work.  As usual he gave us a list of his films to pick from.  We jumped at the chance to show one of his oldest films -- in part because we are huge fans of the film's star --  in part, because the back story of the making of the film is so delicious.

The star in question is county music legend Johnny Cash.  Bob first worked with Cash when he directed a critically acclaimed, but fairly standard, documentary about Cash’s music. That experience lead to the job as the director and star of Cash’s much more unusual musical biopic we will be screening on Friday.

As Cash got older he became a much more religious man. Eventually he decided he wanted to do a musical based on Jesus's life. Cash wrote a script with his friend Larry Murray. Then he cajoled other country music legends (including Kris Kristofferson, Joe South, John Denver and Christopher Wren) to help him write songs for his musical documentary. That done, he called upon his old friend, Bob Elfstrom, to come to the Middle East with him to direct the shooting of his film.

Shot with a tiny budget of Cash's own money, mostly on location in Israel, the film threw many of the conventions about biblical films out the window. For example, Cash, wearing his usual all-black outfit, gave himself the role of narrator, singing almost all of the dialog. The only major character given a speaking role in this film is Cash’s wife June Carter Cash, who plays the role of Mary Magdalene, which may have been a statement about her life as a religious but divorced woman. What’s more, the day before shooting began, Cash decided to cast the blond director Elfstrom as the star of the film, as Jesus Christ himself.  This came as quite a surprise to Elfstrom.

Some critics love this film, some are befuddled by it. There is no doubt that the film changed the rules for what was permissible when making a  a religious biopic. Prior to this point, epics about Jesus's life tended to be somber and serious affairs - some might say stuffy.  This film, featuring a black clad Johnny singing county tinged tunes over Bob Elfstrom's stunning cinematography broke the old mold to smithereens. Of course all these unusual decisions upset some folks. But they also won a great many converts. For example, the Bible Films Blog gushes effusively about Elfstrom’s cinematography, which it found introduced a simplistic beauty that made the film.

Masterpiece or mismash?  Come see for yourself!. Elfstrom will introduce the film and will regale us after the screening with stories about the time he starred as Jesus and got to work with Johnny Cash and his friends.  

More info at: www.HMBFilm.org