Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Rust Never Sleeps (1979)

Truly Dreadful Film

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Rust Never Sleeps (1979) *** (out of 4) Neil Young and Crazy Horse take the stage at the Cow Palace for this show that took place on October 22nd, 1978. Many Young fans consider this tour to be one of his best and we get many classic tunes including: Sugar Mountain, After the Gold Rush, My My Hey Hey (both versions), The Needle and the Damage Done, Cinnamon Girl, Like a Hurricane and Welfare Mothers. It seems this tour was highly thought of but at the same time this film seems to draw some heat. This was my first time viewing it and my first time seeing any Young performance from this era and I must admit that I really liked it. I agree with some of the negative press that the filming was quite poor as much of the concert doesn't go to film very well as it's dark, grainy and at times the camera doesn't seem to know what it wants to focus on. There's a stage act going on but none of this is captured very well. Having said that, the music is certainly the most important thing here and the performances are terrific. Young does some solo numbers, which are excellent as are the stuff with Crazy Horse. Some of the highlights including a rocking version of Like a Hurricane and a very somber The Needle and the Damage Done. Even some of the lesser known tunes come off extremely well. Young's vocals are very good and the guitar playing is tops as usual. The film kicks off with some Hendrix and Beatles so that's never a bad thing.

Yes we do need to see Jawa's setting up the stage its funny. They even have an over-sized tuning fork to help Neil tune up. Also funny is the scientist explaining that if you put on the glasses provided you can see flakes of rust falling off Neil's guitar during the solos. I think the stage announcements and the fact that their isn't a real audience, just recorded noises from Woodstock add to the surreal/fake quality of the film, its Neils little dig at the huge corporate sponsored rock events that were starting to spring up at the time. Obviously the songs are great too, Hey Hey My My namechecking Johnny Rotten at a time when most of his contemporaries where acting like confused old men at the emergence of punk (By the by Young discovered New wavers Devo and Jonathon Richman).

Another reviewer complained about the opening with the Jawas. On one hand, I see how it slows the beginning of the film. BUTAs a fan of live music, I have to say that the best concert videos are those that capture, as well as possible, the essence of the live show. If part of going to the show was the theatrics, then why not include it in the film? Too much of today's pre-packaged pop may be choreographed, but has no sense of theater. I'm not saying that Jawa roadies are the height of performance art, but it's something. Overall - I'll echo everyone else: great slice of Neil's career. I always pause whatever I'm doing when I hear Sugar Mountain, and I'm still not sure why.

I saw this film when it was first released in a small but packed theatre. After the film ended, the entire audiance rose up and applauded the film, as if giving Neil a standing ovation. This is the only time I ever saw an entire audience applauding a film. For anyone who wants to see Neil Young in his prime, this is it. It is the best concert film I have ever seen, bar none. Keep your eyes on the Road Eyes. One of them is Neil Young's wife (you can see her dancing back stage). As Rolling Stone once said, "This guy's the best."