Five Minutes to Live (1961)

Fred Dorella (Vic Tayback) robs a bank. As leverage, Fred’s associate, Johnny Cabot (Johnny Cash), holds the bank manager’s (Donald Woods) wife (Cay Forester) hostage in her home.

Five Minutes to Live was one of two feature film roles for Johnny Cash. Cash not only contends with professional actors, his talent outdoes them. His imposing presence is entrancingly ominous and terrifying. He uses pauses, unblinking stares and stillness to exacerbate this effect. Additionally, Cash performs with his guitar, singing the film’s theme tune. Also in the cast is seven-year-old Ron Howard, in one of his first movies. Contrasting the cultural climate it was produced in, Five Minutes to Live is unusually, outrageously violent, cruel, macabre and seedy.

When dissecting Easy Rider (1969), Quentin Tarantino opined it was the first time “a movie and the counterculture hooked up with each other.” However, Five Minutes to Live upends this notion, encapsulating the untamed spirit and raw texture of the rockabilly subculture. Especially peculiar for a film of its time, its soundtrack includes rock ‘n’ roll songs. Indeed, this would not be noticeable again until Easy Rider. In many ways, Five Minutes to Live foreshadows the independent film movement, establishing all its homemade benchmarks. Its minimalist yet tense story’s impact can still be observed, in hostage movies like 3 From Hell (2019) and No Sudden Move (2021).