Mr. Prairie Soul

Neil Young: Heart of Gold

A musical documentary directed by Jonathan
Demme.

Using an objective medium to get at the heart of what makes the
great Neil Young so great — even in his missteps along the way — is
tricky business. Just ask Jimmy McDonough, who wrote Shakey, a
fascinating and thorough, but also necessarily elliptical biography
of the man. Ask Jim Jarmusch, whose fine 1997 film Year of the
Horse was part-concert-documentary, part-investigation into Young’s
band Crazy Horse (with a wary, tight-lipped Young dodging the
camera).

With his ravishingly fine concert film Neil Young: Heart of
Gold, Jonathan Demme gets closer, by staying skillfully, almost
poetically, out of the way of the singer and his songs. Then again,
that’s partly because Young is in an unusually earnest,
self-reflective mood these days. Young’s amazing and deep album
Prairie Wind is a very different portrait of Mr. Soul than we’re
used to, after the passing of his father and the mortal reminder of
his brain surgery for an aneurysm. On the album, and in the
premiere concert and film, Young nods to friends, loved ones, and
places important to him, including his prairie-cloaked hometown of
Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Last August, Young gave the world premiere of his new work in
Nashville’s legendary Ryman Theater, home of the Grand Ole Opry.
Just as Demme brought the right blend of filmic style and
documentary humility to the Talking Heads flick Stop Making Sense,
here he gets deep into the feeling of this concert — more an event
than a gig. Demme refuses to play the contemporary game of
switching nervously between excessive cameras, swooping crane
shots, or other trickery, and his easy-does-it approach respects
the design of the concert, with backdrops and neo-C&W costumes,
as well as to the very atmosphere inside the Ryman. As Young plays
“This Old Guitar,” he points out that he is playing the guitar once
owned by Hank Williams, who last played in this theater in
1951.

There are brief interviews and some pre-concert setup, including
Young offering a concert prayer: “We’re gonna get out there and let
the muse have us, give it a shot.” The muse is in the house, as
Young and his expandable band — including Emmylou Harris and his
wife Pegi — cover songs from Prairie Wind, and a few golden old
ones. It doesn’t take many listens to love his new tunes, and even
his big old hits “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man” sound great here,
with a new meaning hovering over a line like “… searching for a
heart of gold, and I’m getting old.”

The film ends with a powerfully atmospheric coda, as Young plays
on an empty stage in an empty theater as the credits roll. The last
shot we see is the empty house and the overlaid words: “for daddy.”
For any Young fan, casual or rabid, this is must-see stuff.