There is a lot to recommend this film - Young's best music in a very long time, the twin passionate motivators of his father's passing from dementia and his own brush with an aneurism, the brilliant musicianship of all the support players, and perhaps most importantly, Emmylou Harris. (hopefully there will be some additional material on the dvd)I can't think of any better pairing in music than these two, and it has always been that way. More so than with CSN, CH, whatever garbanzo group he cobblers together, the moment he and Harris collaborate, whatever the song, it takes on a majesty that is unsurpassed in my ears. In all honesty, in this film, Harris is riveting. It is as much her film, in a supporting role, as it is Young's, and that is without attempting to grandstand. It is the pairing that does it.
The first half of the film is devoted to PRAIRIE WIND, its recording and presentation on stage. Demme delivers as impressive a tableaux for Neil as he did for Talking Heads. You'd forget altogether the coked stumble bum of THE LAST WALTZ, or even the crazed Dylan uber-fan from the Zimmerman tribute. Demme gets up close with Neil and lets his sardonnic humour shine through. To Young's credit, he knows the camera is there and slyly mocks it, and the whole genre of concert footage. At the opening he explains he never asks for any particular musicians and just goes with the flow of who is assembled. Then all of the supporting players tell how he has explicitly asked for them. It is just a perfect example of an extraordinarily dry wit who, as he explains in the background of the story about Louis Avila, "I'm just lucky, I guess."
The second half of the film reminds you just how powerful his country-folk-rock material is, be it the incredible take on "Four Strong Winds" (any Canadian kid worth his salt knows this better than O Canada), the aforementioned "Old Man," the acknowledgement to Nicollete Larsen with "Lotta Love," or the show stopping tour de force song to his dog with Emmylou matching him rif for rif and harmonizing like her life depended on it. The instensity of these two locked in on this song especially, but in nearly every song she's featured in, takes this concert to a place almost no other Neil Young concert I have ever seen reaches. There is a point in STOP MAKING SENSE where you wonder can the band can be any more incendiary than it is. You'll hit that same point with Young's canine ode. In fairness, everyone in the band is on fire by that point, it's just that Harris and Young take this terrific tune to the temple of the gods and offer it up to Music itself. The audience in the movie theatre stood and applauded.
The film ends with a solo, empty theatre version of "The Old Laughing Lady." And that profoundly reminds you why Young put both this concert and this record together. This early metaphor of death haunts the screen as Young packs up and walks off the stage, his boots knocking on the Nashville floor, his face clearly brooding, tryin to remember what Daddy said...