THE FORGOTTEN ONE // A FILM REVIEW OF "MY DARLING VIVIAN"
(Editors note: This review was previously published on August 16th, 2020 as part of the 2020 Bentonville Film Festival coverage. It is being reprinted here for the VOD release)
When you think of Johnny Cash, you're almost guaranteed to also think of June Carter Cash. They were a joined pair through most of his career, and the press throughout his life loved to craft them as a larger than life love story. It sold papers and made headlines. Yet she wasn't the first wife of Johnny Cash, nor was she the mother of Cash's famous daughter Rosanne. Even in the 2005 film Walk the Line, June is portrayed as the saintly woman who rescued Johnny. The often forgotten woman from Cash's life is his first wife, who in that same film is portrayed as a shrew trying to ruin Cash. However, that is far from the truth. The truth is that Johnny Cash's first wife, and mother to Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy and Tara, had a story all her own. A story that history has largely tried to erase. MY DARLING VIVIAN looks to change that and put Vivian Liberto's story out there. And what a story it is. After all, this is the woman who was the true inspiration for the song, "I Walk The Line."
Vivian's four daughters do a lot of talking here, excited to tell their mothers story. Their love story is something out of a Hollywood film. They met at a roller rink, and either Johnny deliberately bumped into Vivian or it was an accident, depending on who you ask. Johnny headed off to Germany (he was on active duty at the time) and they fell hopelessly in love. They wrote hundreds of letters to each other, with many of Johnny's letters starting or ending with "My Darling Vivian." Once home in 1954 they married and quickly had their first child Rosanne. Another child soon followed and it was around this time that Johnny's career began. The daughters talk much of their fathers absence from their lives, due to touring and performing. So much so that when the couple finally separated, it wasn't at all a change, since he was barely there to begin with.
Vivian, being the incredibly strong woman she was, was with the children most days of the year. The recollection of screaming matches when Johnny finally was home still seems fresh in the daughters minds. Eventually June came into Johnny's life (and uncomfortably was in their home at parties before their affair began). Drugs also enter the picture, causing even more chaos when he is home. As daughter Rosanne recalls, the children knew something was wrong. "He wasn't him," she recalls thinking. Eventually, he gets busted at the border with amphetamines. Vivian goes to the courthouse to support him and she ends up being photographed, something that didn't happen often. Her Sicilian features read as African-American and a backlash begins in white America as many begin to think Johnny is married to a Black woman. He even has to make a statement saying that she is indeed Sicilian just so he can tour the south again. All the while, Vivian sits in the background, mostly alone, knowing that this life can't go on. Vivian's decision to "shock Johnny" into coming home by serving him divorce papers sadly backfires. He calls her bluff and signs them. That's only half of her story.
Vivian Liberto's story has needed to be told for decades, so it's a true pleasure to see MY DARLING VIVIAN finally do just that. Director Matt Riddlehoover crafts a beautiful memoir for her, with a plethora of old clips and pictures, words from the Cash daughters themselves and even the words of Johnny himself through decades old love letters. There's nothing to take away from June Carter Cash's legacy, or even Johnny & June's legacy, by telling Vivian's. It only enriches this beautiful families history, one that may have ended with a divorce but lead to a lifelong friendship between Vivian and Johnny. Truly loving someone means telling their story long after their gone, remembering them for the good and the bad. Vivian Liberto deserves to be remembered forever. The woman behind "I Walk the Line" is a legend herself, and this is her story.
GRADE: A
DIRECTED BY Matt Riddlehoover FEATURING Vivian Liberto, Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Kathy Cash Tittle, Cindy Cash, Tara Cash Schwoebel. NOW PLAYING ON VOD EVERYWHERE. FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://mydarlingvivian.com/