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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Another great Neil Young film from Jonathan Demme., 12 Oct 2006
Just got back from seeing this film at the Cameo in Edinburgh (the only place it seems to be playing in Scotland) and I enjoyed it immensely. But then both Neil Young and Jonathan Demme have a good pedigree when it comes to concert movies. Neil Young has always had film-making aspirations and under the guise of Bernard Shakey directed a great concert film "Rust Never Sleeps". Jonathan Demme, most people will be aware, directed what many people regard as the greatest concert film ever "Stop Making Sense". He has also worked with Young before, filming a four sound stage performances from "Sleeps with Angels" which was released as "The Complex Sessions". Young also provided the title song for his film "Philadelphia", a great song that got a bit overshadowed by Springsteens the streets of Philadelphia.
This feature see's Neil Young returning to Nashville were he first recorded in the earlier 70's to debut live his recently recorded album Prairie Wind at the Grand Old Opry. The album harks back to acoustic albums like "Harvest", "Comes A Time", and more recently "Harvest Moon" and "Silver and Gold". The recording of this album was interrupted by a dangerous operation for a potentially fatal brain anyurism and this brush with mortality obviously left Young in a reflective mood, as he is very frank both the little interviews that precede the concert and between songs during the gig.
Prairie Wind is featured almost in entirity, as far as I could tell only "He was the King" is omited. It's an extremely assured performance, both rehearsed and sponteaneous, and the musicians backing him (stalwarts from throughout his career) are top notch. "Only A Dream" my favourite song from the album is performed beautifully, and Demme certainly has a knack for capturing performance, laying bare Youngs vulnerabilty and yearning. Prairie Wind is also great, and is one of the only part of the film where we get to see Neil play any lead (the other being his banjo soloing on Old King), and the horn parts are amazing, this song seems to join together Harvest style Neil with Bluenotes style Neil. Even songs that I wasn't overly keen on initially, found myself warming to on film like the piano hymn "When God Made Me", and was great to hear Emmylou Harris featured so prominently. The blend of their voices is extremely haunting and always makes the hairs on the nape of my neck stand up.
The second portion of the film has the great man revisiting moment from his career. Highlights include a version of "One of these Days" with another great horn part and Harris on backing vocals, "Heart of Gold", and an amazing version of "Four Strong Winds". The film closes with Neil playing a personal best "Old Laughing Lady" to the empty Auditorium.
I'll probably write a slightly longer review when this is released on region 2 but untill then this will have to suffice.
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(16)
£7.97
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(1)
(16)
£12.98
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