PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) - Death threats, loud catcalls and
walkouts didn't stop rock legends Crosby Stills Nash & Young from
completing their fiercely anti-Bush reunion tour in 2006.
Two years later, the band has reunited again to unveil its Sundance Film
Festival closing-night film, "CSNY Deja Vu," a documentary that isn't so
much a concert movie as a balanced examination of America's fiercely
divided opinions about the Iraq War.
"We went to war for one reason, then the reason changed every six
months," said the project's main catalyst, Neil Young, an approachable
guy despite his habit of locking eyes with you and not blinking when he
speaks. "America never had a pre-eminent war in history before this, so
we had something to say. But if anyone has anything else to say, the
more the merrier."
"Deja Vu" takes a 360-degree look from inside the eye of a storm the
band set out to create on their Freedom of Speech tour. It profiles
civilians and soldiers both for and against the war between performances
of popular '60s protest songs and newer, less universally accepted ones,
like "Let's Impeach the President" from Young's 2006 album "Living With
War."
And don't get Young started on the war.
"Some people support the troops by saying they're being abused, put in a
situation with no armor, where they can't win, where there's not enough
of them so they're used over and over again," he said. "They say the
American way of life is threatened, and we're at war for our lives. But
if that's true we should've had a draft. These guys didn't believe that
enough to put their own careers on the line. It would be political
suicide for this administration."
BOTH SIDES NOW
But there are plenty of well-articulated, contrary opinions in the film,
and lots of self-criticism. There's footage of fans leaving en masse
with middle fingers raised during "President" -- though Nash noted that
it came three hours into a 3 1/2-hour show -- and gripes about $350 top
ticket prices.
The film even includes a review saying the huddled sixtysomethings look
like they're comparing prescriptions onstage. "I didn't get putting that
in for a while because I'm not a masochist, but I came around," Stephen
Stills said with a laugh. "We're all pretty proud of Neil for including
it," David Crosby added. "But don't tell him I said that."
As the band sat in a swank Park City Delta Sky Lounge suite, they had an
easy camaraderie that showed their mutual affection -- and a love of
giving one another a hard time. When Crosby put his bare feet up on the
table, Stills quickly waved his hand in front of his nose.
But while all members support the film's inclusion of differing points
of view, like the pro-war sentiments some people express onscreen -- "We
don't want to stand on a mountain and tell everyone how to do things
because we don't know more than everyone else," Crosby said -- they
chose not to include the death threats and bomb-sniffing dogs they faced
at each stop on the tour.
"I've never gone into a hotel where everyone else went into the room
before to look behind the curtains. But we did it," Young said. "We're
not going to live like this forever. You don't want to fan that (by
putting it on film) or say, 'Look at poor us, we have death threats.' "
The band members are famously contentious. "We watch out for each other
like brothers, and we fight like brothers," said Young, who has drifted
in and out of the band for decades.
"We're a damn Jerry Springer show!" said Stills, drawing much laughter.
"Yeah, it's the Jerry Springer Tour!" Crosby added.
But virtually none of that is onscreen, and on further reflection, the
band said this tour might have elicited the least interpersonal tension
of their career.
"We were basically scared s---less, so we were hanging together
closely," Young said. "It wasn't comfortable out there, just because of
the subject matter. Positive or negative, we crossed a line."
Young said he doesn't really care what audience the $500,000-plus
digital-video feature reaches -- "We're not making it to score
commercially," he said -- yet the band feels strongly about securing a
theatrical release to help stir debate several months before the
presidential election.
"Deja Vu" is directed by Bernard Shakey, a shadowy figure who has never
been seen in the same place at the same time as Young. His work includes
the quirky 1982 comedy-drama "Neil Young: Human Highway" and dates back
to the trippy 1974 film "Journey Through the Past," which has never been
released on home video. "It'll come out again, and now it'll live up to
its name," said Young, Shakey's unofficial spokesman.
The film could lead to a concert album, another promotional tour or even
an original album, said Nash, depending on its reception. They're
hitting the road soon in different combinations: Crosby Stills & Nash in
July, Crosby and Nash in the fall. Graham Nash is completing his box set
and helping Stills on a box set. CSNY is prepping an album of demos of
their songs dating back to the '60s.
Young insists that his "Archives" project, delayed more than a
half-dozen times, will be released this year on Blu-ray Disc and DVD
(but not CD) "now that technology has caught up to how we want to
present it."
But right now their focus is getting "Deja Vu" seen to stir debate.
"I truly believe there are good people on both sides. You can't look at
John McCain and say he's not a good man," Young said of one of Crosby's
friends. "He's not dirty, he has experience, and he believes he's doing
the right thing. How is that different from Barack Obama?
"This movie is not about our opinion, just people willing to stand up
and express what they believe" he said.
Or, as Stills put it, "The Constitution doesn't say you have to support
the liberal blowhards, just freedom of speech."
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
