Directed by: Jim Jarmusch.
Featuring: Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
In
1995-96, Jim Jarmusch and Neil Young collaborated on two films together. The
first was Jarmusch’s Dead Man – one of his best films, and features a haunting,
guitar driven score by Young. The second was Year of the Horse, a documentary
about Young and his long time band Crazy Horse – which is perhaps the worst
film Jarmusch has ever directed. Jarmusch had never made a documentary before,
and it shows in his interviewing skills – as he gets almost nothing of any
value from Young, the other members of the band or anyone else he interviews.
He even keeps not one, not two, but three different instances of the guitar
player basically saying that no outsider can possibly come in and document what
30 years together is really like. By the third time he says it, it feels like a
confession on Jarmusch’s part – he really doesn’t capture what being together
that long is like.
The
movie is made up mostly of concert footage shot in 1996 – along with new
interviews – shot, it appears, in someone’s dingy laundry room for reasons I do
not understand as well as footage from previous tours in 1986 and 1976. The old
footage, presented without context, really doesn’t add anything to the movie –
except to show you how much Young and everyone else has aged over the 20 years
the footage spans. The one exception could be a scene where Young is angry
because the other members screwed up the arrangement on stage that night (we do
not see footage of that, of course) – which hints at the more complex
relationship Young and this band actually has, that Jarmusch was unable to
capture. There is a reason that Young continues to come back and record and
tour with Crazy Horse -it seems like it
recharges their batteries. They have a sound that is described throughout the
movie as “raw” and their concerts basically look like jam sessions. Yet there
is also a reason why Young often records his best music with others and not
Crazy Horse – and why he has at times started recording with Crazy Horse, and
then re-recorded everything with other musicians. The members of Crazy Horse
admit there are a lot better musicians out there then they are – and Young
knows it as well. You’ll hear a lot of songs in Year of the Horse – and none of
them are among the best of Young’s long career. Young can go on all he likes
about his while everyone else’s jacket says “Neil Young and Crazy Horse”, while
his just says Crazy Horse – but they really are Neil Young and Crazy Horse. The
other band members are not on Young’s level – and they all know it. Any
bitterness, resentment or anger there may be is left off-screen, which is
disappointing.
Basically,
the interviews are shallow and superficial. They offer no real insight into
what makes this band work as well as they do, or what has kept them together.
Either Jarmusch lacked the skills to get the band to be introspective, or else
they didn’t want to go there and Jarmusch didn’t push. You aren’t really going
to learn much from them.
But
this is, more than anything, a concert documentary – so who cares about the
interviews as long as the music is great, right? That would be true, except the
music in Year of the Horse isn’t all that good. I’m a Neil Young fan – and I
loved Jonathan Demme’s Heart of Gold – another Young concert doc from a few
years ago. Yet in Year of the Horse, the songs go on forever. Basically the
band sings the first verse and the chorus of each song, and then the whole
thing quickly devolves into minute after minute of what would charitably
described as a “jam session” – that is mainly wordless, with guitar that
provide more feedback than anything else. It doesn’t help that Jarmusch decided
to shoot on Super 8 (and “Proudly”, the opening credits inform us) – which I
suppose was an attempt to make the film look as “raw” as the band – but
basically has the effect of making everything look dingy, grimy and dirty – and
also hurts the sound quality. I don’t think shooting on any type of film would
have saved some of the songs – that drone on and on and on for what seems like
forever (I think a few hit 10 minutes) – but it couldn’t possibly have hurt.
Some
directors are naturals when they move over the documentary films from a long
career in features. Martin Scorsese has been able to make several great docs –
and two great concert films as well. Spike Lee has been able to cross that line
as well. As Year of the Horse is still the only documentary and concert film on
Jarmusch’s resume, the evidence so far suggests he is not one of those
directors. Apparently he’s working on a documentary about The Stooges.
Hopefully he learned some lessons from Year of the Horse, and that film will be
better than this one. But if I learn nothing else from that other than that
Iggy Popp’s jacket just said The Stooges, and everyone else’s jacket says Iggy
Popp & the Stooges, I’ll be disappointed.
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