INDEPTH: TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL
Neil Young: Greendale
CBC News Online | September 5, 2003
Up for consideration today: A movie by a musician who dabbles in filmmaking. The movie is Greendale and the musician is Canada’s own Neil Young.
When most people hear the words “movie” and “musician” in the same sentence, their first reaction is usually “Oh great, just what we need: another Under the Cherry Moon.” While Greendale isn’t in the same league as that Prince-directed 1986 flop, it does require a lot of patience. This isn’t a movie that’s destined to find a mass audience.
That doesn’t even appear to be the point. Young gave up looking for mainstream approval long ago; he seems content to go on preaching the same 1960s anti-business, pro-environment truisms he always has. In other words, the audience this picture will find is likely to be Neil Young diehards who'll smoke dope and watch it at three o’clock on Saturday mornings.
What we have here, you see, is a very long music video. The good news is that Young picked his current album to make into a movie (we can all be thankful he didn’t choose to do the same with Trans or Landing on Water.) If you like Greendale the album (and it is a very good album), you won’t mind the movie of the same name. However, about a third of the journalists who went to Friday’s press screening didn’t have the stamina to sit through the whole thing.
On the surface, it tells the story of a farming family in an idyllic coastal town in California. Beneath. It is a full frontal assault on the White House. One of the main targets is Tom Ridge, the cabinet secretary in charge of homeland security for the Bush administration.
And that’s where the questions begin. Isn’t it a little odd that Neil Young would attack George W. Bush? Isn’t this the same Neil Young who said charitable things about Ronald Reagan in the early Eighties? Isn’t this the same Neil Young who adopted Bush’s good-versus-evil rhetoric for Let’s Roll, his musical tribute to 9/11 hero Todd Beamer? But when it comes to a chameleon like our Young, such questions are pointless. You just go with it.
And if you’re in the mood, it’s not a bad ride. Young, accompanied by old pals Crazy Horse, is such a potent musical force, he can even make lyrics like “a little love and affection can make the world a better place” sound convincing. Where he’s not so great is the technical aspects of filmmaking. The colours in this movie are so faded, so washed out, it looks out of focus some of the time. Young is credited as the director of photography, so maybe we should blame him.
Or maybe we should blame the director, Bernard Shakey. Bernard Shakey? Has anybody ever heard of him before? Wasn’t “Shakey” Young’s nickname at one point? Could they in fact be the same person? And hey, why make a really long music video in the first place? Don’t ask. It’s Neil Young, man.
Dan Brown will be attending the Toronto International Film Festival for its entirety, from Sept. 4 to 13. Throughout the 9-day festival he will bring you reports on the latest Canadian films. Read his dispatches and follow his comments by clicking on the links.
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Dan Brown is the site's senior arts editor/reporter. Before joining us he was a lineup editor and senior writer for Newsworld International. Dan helped to launch the National Post's Arts & Life section, where he was a columnist and reporter. A former editorial writer, copy editor and journalism instructor, Dan has degrees from three universities.
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