R, 106 min.
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Neil Young, Ralph
Molina, Billy Talbot, Frank ‘Poncho’ Sampedro
I was informed yesterday that
“Year of the Horse”, Jim Jarmusch’s documentary on Neil Young & Crazy
Horse, has the distinction of holding the number one spot on Roger Ebert’s list
of the Worst Movies of 1997. That was saying quite a lot. Let’s look at some of
the other movies that were released in 1997—“Beverly Hills Ninja”, “Booty
Call”, “Jungle 2 Jungle”, “B.A.P.S.”, “Turbo: A Power Rangers Adventure”,
“Anaconda”, “8 Heads in a Duffle Bag”, “Father’s Day”, “Trial & Error”,
“Speed 2: Cruise Control” (which Ebert liked), “Batman & Robin”, “George of
the Jungle”, “Nothing to Lose”, “Spawn”, “Steel”, “Leave It To Beaver”, “Texas
Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation”, “Rocket Man”, “Starship Troopers”,
“Mortal Kombat: Annihilation”, “Alien: Resurrection”, “Flubber”, “Home Alone
3”, and “Mr. Magoo”. Not only is every one of those movies a better candidate for
“worst” of that particular year, but also “Year of the Horse” is actually a
very good representation of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse.
The movie takes a kind of
garage band approach to the music documentary. It has the concert footage and
the behind the scenes footage that are traditional for such projects. It even
has the talking head segments traditional in the documentary format, but
Jarmusch chooses to film on Super 8, 16 mm, and Hi-8. These film formats give
the movie a grainy, thrown together look that kind of matches the music
produced by this band. The interviews are interesting, the rehearsal squabbling
even more so, but it is the music that is front and center, as it should be.
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