If you were in Nashville last night you could’ve caught Neil Young’s directorial debut, 1974′s Journey Through the Past at the Belcourt Theatre. The film combines concert performances, and candid footage of Young during his early recording career with Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and during his first solo outings. Young mixes the music movies together with loose narratives and cinematic non sequiturs that result in a kind of 16mm diary of a madman. Here’s a bit from Janet Maslin’s original The New York Times review…
As far as feedback on Journey goes, Young may wind up being sorry he asked. The film starts off as a loose subjective juxtaposition on Neil Young in real life and on stage; by cross-cutting between his rough personal perceptions and footage of his performances, Young manages to create a sense of how he transforms scattered input into finished product. But after half an hour, he begins to shy away from anything so personal, and the film has progressively less to do with him from that point on. By the end, Young is barely in it at all, having been replaced by a lot of useless-looking objects. There’s a Mercedes limo, odd bits of statuary, a truck that talks back to its owner. There are mysterious black-robed horsemen who materialize on a beach somewhere, in what Young calls “sort of a Lawrence of Arabia parody.” There’s a man who does card tricks (listed in the closing credits as “the grey-faced dude”), and a dazed-looking guy who starts off in cap and gown and collects bruises all through the film. Wearing an official Woodstock T-shirt and what looks like Young’s own plaid flannel overshirt, the graduate finally opens a fake Bible, takes out a cross-shaped syringe and shoots up by the sea.
If you missed the flick check out the Belcourt link above for upcoming Neil Young film screenings. And don’t fret about last night, cuz you know I gotchya…
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