MOVIES

On Shakey Ground

A Neil Young-directed doc misses the big message.


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Published: Jul 23, 2008

"Here we go again," that title seems to say, as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, inarguably one of the bands that became the primary voices of the Vietnam War protest movement, head out on the road in protest of another senseless conflict. The irony is that most of the audiences who attended CSNY's 2006 "Freedom of Speech" tour were intending to relive their past, only to be confronted with a wealth of topical new material from Young's then-recent Living With War album.

In Déjà Vu, Young, under his usual Bernard Shakey pseudonym, documents that tour and the reactions to its unabashed anti-war message. Despite his place in the billing, when that Y gets appended to the group it's definitely Neil's show, what David Crosby refers to in the film as a "benevolent dictatorship."

For the most part, crowds sing along. Trouble strikes when the tour heads south, however, with the film's highlight coming as attendees storm out from an Atlanta performance as Young leads a sing-along of "Let's impeach the president for lying ... "

The reaction is striking but hardly shocking; Young seems to be gearing the film toward that moment, and he at the very least expects if not outright hopes for such a visceral backlash. Unfortunately, the walkout vindicates Young in what is a didactic and largely forgettable set of material. While it's easy to feel superior to the bird-flipping Southerners stomping away spouting "love it or leave it" sentiments, it's harder to blame frustrated ticket buyers (those seats were far from cheap) who came for the hits but ended up with inferior, rushed new tunes.

Déjà Vu is up front about the foursome's advanced age (an average 62), including condescending reviews mocking their grandfatherly appearances along with embarrassing footage of Steve Stills taking a fall over the footlights. But what's left unspoken is the way that the songwriting for their semi-regular reunions has eroded more precipitously than their fragile harmonies. A song like the clumsy "Let's Impeach the President" has all the righteous indignation of "Ohio" with none of the poetry.

Reporter Mike Cerre, who has been embedded with Marine units in Iraq and Afghanistan, got the same access to the CSNY tour, though his reporting throughout the film remains resolutely on the outside. While that may serve an ironic parallel to the actual embed program, Cerre offers no insights and the backstage relationship of these often at-odds partners remains offscreen.

What is there is an anti-war statement as blunt and artless as a bumper sticker. The intention of the tour, it's asserted, is to "make the audience feel," but this document merely hammers its point home with numbing redundancy.

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

CSNY: Déjà Vu |Directed by Neil Young | A Roadside Attractions release