Making music, making fun of themselves and making as much political hay
as possible, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young set out to alleviate the
public allergy to Iraq War films with "CSNY Deja Vu," a doc that seems
quite likely to effect a cure. Helmer Bernard Shakey -- a.k.a. Neil
Young -- has constructed a chronicle of his old band's "Freedom of
Speech" tour of summer '06 and come up with an aud-friendly, activist
musical that seems sure to raise both political ire and major bucks.
Thanks to his proclivities for grunge, his political instincts and a
timeless fashion sense, Young has never been locked into any particular
era or demographic. Similarly, his drollery makes him ageless: From the
first shot of an open highway, obscured by the band bus's window frame,
to the citations from critics assailing the band for its left-leaning
decreptitude, nothing is taken too seriously.
Except the war. Which is front and center.
The entire movie is a provocation; for one thing, it's not strictly a
concert film, which was how it appeared to be advertised, at least at
Sundance. There is plenty of music -- the band, whose intonation has
always been a crapshoot in live performance, sounds fairly angelic. But
digressions abound: history lessons, Iraq war veterans and the
contributions of reporter Mike Cerre (who, unfortunately for the film,
sounds a bit too much like sports announcer Jim Lampley), keep the war
issue in the audience's face.
And aud's can rebel, as seen during a CSNY stop in Atlanta, where a
small uprising breaks out over an anti-Bush song ("Let's impeach the
president for lying ... ," the band sings). Some concertgoers react with
boos, walkouts, a storm of vitriol and vulgarity. They flip off the
camera. "How dare they!" is the reaction by some less-than-articulate
Atlantans. Given that this was the "Freedom of Speech" tour -- and was
at least partly promoting Young's "Living With War" CD --one wonders
what such concertgoers expected when they decided to attend. (Of course,
Young would likely say that people who don't know or care what their
government is doing probably can't be expected to know what a rock
concert is going to be about.)
Throughout the film, a sense of, yes, deja vu abounds: CSNY provided
much of the soundtrack for the antiwar movement of the Vietnam era, and
four decades later, they're doing it again. As Stephen Colbert asks
Young during a "Colbert Report" appearance, why doesn't he let someone
else have this war? "I tried," he says, the very unsubtle point of the
film being that this war's generation should grab the baton of
resistance and start running with it.
The music, coincidentally, is a mix of CSNY standards and the newer
Young material, with the occasional startling guitar solo from Stephen
Stills and cohesive playing by the quartet. They certainly know the
material. And so do we.
Production values, especially Mike Elwell's shooting, are tops.
More than one option (Person) Cloie Wyatt Taylor
(Person) Neil Young
(Person) Bernard Shakey
Camera (color), Mike Elwell; editor, Mark Faulkner; music, Young; sound
(Dolby), Tom Fleischman. With Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, David Crosby,
Josh Hisle, Mike Cerre. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Premieres),
Jan. 25, 2008. Running time: 96 MIN.
