Film Review of the Moment: MOUNTAINTOP by Neil Young & Crazy Horse

MOUNTAINTOP - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

The Film Review of the Moment on MOUNTAINTOP by Neil Young & Crazy Horse by Scotsman, commenting on "How Neil Young's Eccentric Online Home Was Born | Fortune":

I've been to the Mountaintop and I have come back down again (apologies, to those who would have been quite happy for me to stay there indefinitely). And here are my traditional "long-winded", "pompous" comments.

This film might as well have been purpose-made for me. This sort of thing is right up my street. Rarely have I enjoyed a Neil Young project so much in recent years, which is a bold statement in a period that has included gems such as Earth. I'm not *always* a fan of studio documentaries, but sometimes, they are an essential part of the story. Mountaintop has its own story to tell.

This is one of those great documentaries where Neil just sets up the cameras and captures everything, and so, of course, everyone forgets they are being filmed and just acts naturally; or as naturally as you can expect in an environment that seems best described as "disorganised chaos", occasionally threatening to careen into "hostile".

Of course, our director Bernard Shakey (who looks both younger and significantly slimmer following his recent move towards an environmentally-friendly vegetarian diet) is still well aware he is being filmed, and as with Muddy Track, you do get the sense from time-to-time that the old rascal might just be encouraging a little bit of drama for filming purposes.

Regardless, there's an avalanche of natural drama occurring without any provocation from Neil. There's the cringe-worthy moment Neil puts his ear against a monitor speaker just as an ear-piercing squeal decides to emit from it, with the (hilariously) on-edge studio crew becoming increasingly frantic in trying to keep the chaotic studio under control. Or the moment an apoplectic John Hanlon (Neil's head engineer) orders the cameras removed from the studio so his x-rated ranting isn't included in the film (of course, it is). Then there's the beautiful moment where the camera continues picking up sound as it is removed from the studio, and someone see the bright side of the situation: "it's mayhem in there...but the moon's out and the mountain looks beautiful". I found it to be both moving and funny.

Now, the studio they are recording in looks very pleasant to me, but the emphasis throughout from Neil and Hanlon is that they are working in something much like a First World War trench. And just like the finished album, Mountaintop is full of this sense of sometimes-uneasy contrast between beauty and ugliness, chaos and control, focused attitude and light-hearted humour. Tender piano melodies paired with squealing speakers and gratuitous use of the F-bomb. It's just a really typical Neil Young project, full of character, and as such it feels completely timeless: squint a little, and it could have been shot 30 years ago.

At the heart of this film is the relationship between Neil and Hanlon. Crazy Horse are, as always, a little bit in the shadows: which of course is where they are most at home. As for Neil's relationship with Hanlon, it comes across as not entirely unlike that of Laurel and Hardy. Hanlon gets his fair share of Neil's wrath (rather mild, by rock star standards) in this film, but it's telling that when Hanlon asserts himself Neil quickly changes tact. You can easily imagine how the personalities of producer David Briggs and Neil balanced each other out in previous years. In this instance, It's all just a bit of studio banter among brothers, the long-established rituals of making a Crazy Horse album.

There are so many memorable bits, but I loved the section where Neil is prancing around the control room listening to Olden Days and suddenly breaks out into a Cheshire Cat grin: enjoying the music and tambourine overdubs, no doubt, but I suspect also impressed at his ability to (just about) hit a sequence of high notes that probably would have been out of his range at age 18, let alone 73. I loved all the creative touches, the tap dancing on Eternity, the glass harmonica, Ralph's typically dead-pan humour, Neil's little comments (e.g "it doesn't have to be good, it just has to be great") followed again by that familiar Cheshire Cat grin. And "One of the worst f*!#in' monitor systems known to man", delivered in the voice of a man who has seen his fair share of substandard audio equipment, I thought was hilarious.

The bottom line is it is infinitely more entertaining to watch Neil actively battling to make a great record in a dysfunctional studio in the middle of nowhere with a rough-around-the-edges Crazy Horse than it is when he steps into some technically-perfect Hollywood studio and tries to buy his way to artistic greatness with hired orchestras or celebrity producers. Sometimes, in recent years, I get the sense he's not really applying himself in the studio, particularly as a songwriter: full of great ideas but ultimately settling for the low hanging fruit. But I did not get this impression on most of Colorado. It's an album (and especially a film) that has both soul and substance, and that's what we are all here for.

Mountaintop has now disappeared back into the Archives, but I think it deserves a more permanent spot somewhere: either on NYA, or preferably as a Blu-Ray release. Actually, scratch that: I think it's best suited to being passed around as a 3rd generation bootleg, old-school-style. We'll see what happens, but in the meantime I am pleased Neil made this film. It might not be the best Crazy Horse album ever, but it's certainly one with a lot of special moments, and Mountaintop has a lot of additional special moments, too. I found it to be artistically moving, revealing, and genuinely very funny.

And, as a bonus, it's confirmed that my decision not to become a sound engineer was in fact a very lucky escape.

Scotsman.

Thank you Scotsman. Your comments are invaluable and we never find them to be "long-winded" or "pompous". Freedom of speech, just one's opinion is always welcome here at TW.

We did have the pleasure of viewing MOUNTAINTOP in an actual theater on opening night. The film really does offer a pretty unfiltered view on the creative process. Certainly about as close as an outsider will ever get so we're all lucky for that. And it is nice to see the unsung heroes get their moment in the spotlight. Although John Hanlon may not have found the finished edit quite to his liking, it does demonstrate the dedication necessary on the smallest details to achieve success in the studio.

"I want it up as loud as it can go!" - Neil
Neil Young & Crazy Horse in the Studio
(Frame via film Mountaintop)

More on the film MOUNTAINTOP by Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

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