"Philadelphia" and The Cities of Brotherly & Sisterly Love

"Sometimes I think that I know What love's all about And when I see the light I know I'll be all right. Philadelphia."Neil Young Performing "Philadelphia"  1994 Academy Awards Ceremony

Neil Young's song "Philadelphia" -- from the 1993 Jonathan Demme film "Philadelphia" --  received an Academy Award nomination  and Young performed the song during the Oscar ceremony in 1994.

Both Bruce Springsteen and Young were nominated for Best Song in a film for Jonathan Demme's "Philadelphia". Bruce's nominated song was the film opening "Streets of Philadelphia" and Neil's was the closing title track "Philadelphia".

 

Neil Young Performing "Philadelphia" @ 1994 Academy Awards Ceremony

(Background vocals by Pegi Young and Astrid Young)

 

The 1993 Jonathan Demme film "Philadelphia" plot involves a gay lawyer with AIDS who files a lawsuit against his law firm for wrongful termination. The AIDS-stricken lawyer, played by actor Tom Hanks, is unable to find an attorney willing to take his case, until a homophobic lawyer, played by Denzel Washington, takes his case. 

 

The events in the film are similar to the events in the lives of attorneys Geoffrey Bowers and Clarence Cain. Bowers was an attorney who, in 1987, sued the law firm Baker McKenzie for wrongful dismissal in one of the first AIDS discrimination cases. Cain was an attorney for Hyatt Legal Services who was fired after his employer found out he had AIDS. He sued Hyatt in 1990, and won just before his death.^[8]

During the 1980's AIDS crisis, there was widespread misinformation, stereotypes, hostility and discrimination. 

Mary Steenburgen in "Philadelphia"

 

Mary Steenburgen, who plays the law firm’s  defense lawyer,  sat down with director Demme at the end of the day of the first day of filming and said, ‘I’m a wreck, I don’t know if I can play this part.’ And he said, ‘Mary, it’s not about AIDS. It’s about everybody in this country is entitled to justice—they’re entitled to their representation.’ And from then on, I was fine.” [Smithsonian Magazine]

 

Neil Young & Jonathan Demme

 

Reflecting on the film in 2003, director  Jonathan Demme said: "What I feel more than anything is I’m glad to see that AIDS doesn’t bear really remotely the stigma which was quite overwhelming at the time, that it did 20 years ago."

Andrew Beckett and Joe Miller

 (Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington)

The impact of the film got people talking about HIV-AIDS and served to humanize the difficult subject. Marla Gold, a former assistant city health commissioner, HIV doctor, and public health dean at Drexel University, says Philadelphia managed to do what health leaders had tried and tried to do, yet often fell short: fostering an accurate public awareness about the AIDS epidemic. [WHYY.org]

 

 

 Tom Hanks as Andrew Beckett

 

Today, we reflect back on the lessons learned during the 1980's AIDS crisis about the stigma and discrimination against marginalized populations that must be tackled in order to eliminate medical prejudice and apartheid.  Thank goodness for those lessons we learned from the AIDS crisis which taught us not to fear the invisible unknown and to be kind and compassionate to those suffering.

Or did we? 

Only then can we all live  in  "The Cities of Brotherly Love."

 

"City of brotherly love 

Place I call home 

Don't turn your back on me 

I don't want to be alone 

Love lasts forever."

"Here's the final heart breaking scene of "Philadelphia" as it plays over the "family movies" of the characters as children. If anyone can watch that scene with this song playing over it and not be moved...well, you just don't have a heart."

Final scene of "Philadelphia"

More on Film Director Jonathan Demme and Neil Young.

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Photo of the Moment: Neil Young, Willie Nelson and Jonathan Demme

Neil Young, Willie Nelson and Jonathan Demme  Nashville, Tenn. - March 9, 2006
 (Click photo to enlarge) 

The Photo of the Moment is from 2006 of Neil Young, Willie Nelson and Jonathan Demme -- among many, many others -- attending the film premiere of the widely acclaimed 'Heart of Gold' in Nashville, Tennessee.

Judging from the attendees, it was almost like that March 2006 night in Nashville was the film's TRUE  premiere, compared to the 1st Sundance screening earlier.

Thus, completing the circle on those magical Nashville August 2005 nights.

Commentary on Nashville Ryman Concerts and "Prairie Wind" CD

Heart of Gold Film Reviews

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"When God Made Me" w/ Comment by Zeke Young

 "When God Made Me" by Neil Young

 

Today, the song "When God Made Me" from the concert film "Neil Young: Heart of Gold", directed by Jonathan Demme, is streaming on Hearse Theater | NYA.

The song's posting comes with a special comment by Neil Young's son Zeke:

I love the performance of this song.

It has such feeling and soulfulness to it. It is one of my favorites from the film Heart Of Gold that my Dad made with all his great friends along with the great film maker and director Jonathan Demme.

This is one of my favorites from this time of my Dads life.

Love
Zeke

Back in 2006, movie reviews for the concert film "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" were virtually unanimous in singing the film's praises.

The film received a standing ovation when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the consensus reaction was  "a lasting, sensational film that makes you feel like you’re sitting in a concert." Actor Robert Redford, the Sundance Festival director, attended the premiere along with many other celebrities.

"When God Made Me"
Neil Young and Fisk University Jubilee Choir
"Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast"
The lyrics for "When God Made Me" are ripe for interpretation. Start with the gospel choir-like Fisk University Jubilee Singers. The student vocalists introduced "slave songs" to the world and, in many opinions, preserved this music from extinction. So Neil Young has not embarked on some light-hearted exercise here as many were lead to believe.

Neil and the Fisk University Jubilee Choir
Live 8 Benefit Concert - July 2005 How can a man asking 10 questions provoke so much discussion?

The debate and controversy over the "When God Made Me" lyrics continues to this day. After flaring up after the song's debut at the Live 8 concert in July 2005, things settled down. Then when the song reappeared for the Hurricane Katrina Benefit "Shelter From the Storm" in Septemeber 2005, the debate heated up once again.

 

INTERVIEW: Inside Neil Young's Faith | World Cafe

Also, see "Prairie Wind": A Gentle Breeze Deceptively Lulls The Howls Of Loss.

More on "Heart of Gold" premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and the Nashville Ryman Concerts, the album "Prairie Wind", and the song "Heart of Gold", which inspired the film's title.

More on friendship and films of Neil Young & Jonathan Demme.

Neil Young & Jonathan Demme
"Heart of Gold" Premieres at Sundance Film Festival - 2006

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MASTER CLASS: Neil Young Speaks On Failure, Songwriting and Doubt

Jonathan Demme and Neil Young in Park City, Utah - 2012

 

In 2012, Neil Young and filmmaker Jonathan Demme held a "Master Class" at the Slamdance Film Festival.

In their dialogue about their life and art, Young and Demme shared thoughts on making the documentary film Neil Young Journeys,  as well as, Neil discussing failure, songwriting and doubt. 

 

“First of all, you have to trust yourself, there’s nobody else that matters.

It’s over if you start looking at other people, that’s what I think. The other thing that you have to be willing to do, and you have to be ready to embrace it and accept it and really open it into your life with open arms with wide-vision is failure.

Be sure to welcome failure, say, ‘You’re okay with me failure, come on in.’ Because then you have no fear, if you have no fear and you believe in yourself and only listen to yourself then you are number one. Everything else is behind you. Your name is on it, it’s your life, it’s your film. 

Everybody else be damned.

If you doubt what you’re doing, then fuck it, don’t do it and live with that. Why do something if you doubt it’s what you should be doing? What do you want to do? What is the way that you want to do it? Is somebody telling you to do something a certain way that you don’t want to and doubt if this is the right way, or do you doubt if this is something worth making a film about? 

Those two things, that’s taboo. Doubt, no.”

 

 

Also see, Coffee with Neil Young and Jonathan Demme (#1 of 4 parts).

Segment #2 of Coffee with Neil Young and Jonathan Demme at Slamdance Festival

Also, see Neil Young Journeys Film Premiere.

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Comment of the Moment: Jonathan Demme Double Feature Weekend: Neil Young's Complex Sessions + Trunk Show

Neil Young and His Band
via Jonathan Demme's Concert Film Trunk Show

This past weekend on Screen #2 in Hearse Theater of Neil Young Archives, a Jonathan Demme Double Feature was streamed of the films Complex Sessions (1994) and Trunk Show (2009).

Jonathan Demme's concert film Trunk Show from the 2007 tour has been long sought for years for a proper re-release and folks were not disappointed judging by some of the rapturous comments. But before getting to the Comment of the Moment, a couple of runnerup CotMs to mention.


Photo by Larry Cragg
First, a comment by Scotsman who compares Tim Pope's London Hammersmith concert film with Demme's Trunk Show.

No Hidden Path (with extended fizzling guitar solos that sound like fissures erupting in the Earth) is a highlight of both shows, but whatever it sacrifices in pure unbridled energy at the penultimate London show is made up for in musical sharpness and focused intensity - the sense that the guitar solos have their own story to tell and journey to take us on. Thankfully we now have had the chance to enjoy both films, on their own merits. But for me, Tim Pope's London is the most captivating of the two films.

Definitely an interesting an analysis of the two filmmakers and their approach to capturing Neil Young in concert, so be sure to check out Scotsman's full comment.


Second, a response to Scotsman's analysis by Dan S.:

I agree with Scotsman that London creates a more compelling concert experience. Yet Trunk Show manages to create a slightly more intimate experience, although in a truncated fashion. I actually loved both films equally but for different reasons, and extremely happy that Neil plans to release both films commercially.

Trunk Show's Mission: "To blow your eardrums out"
Now the Comment of the Moment on Jonathan Demme Double Feature Weekend: Neil Young's Complex Sessions + Trunk Show by Mister Henry:

Who Is Watching

"We are not souls dwelling in a body. We are bodies dwelling in the soul."
--Tiokasin Ghosthorse

When my grandsons are older, I can watch Trunk Show with them.

I can tell them how we saw the show in Boston just a few days before this was filmed, when Pegi opened for Neil and then sang with the band. When Ben and Rick rocked like kids in the garage and No Hidden Path was even longer and more glorious than this one, or maybe it was just me and their uncle being there to see it and hear it and be there.

I can tell them how the man who directed this film was a charming and creative person, how he came to Boston to show the film he made and talk to everyone there about it, tell them about being there when he talked about his decision to put more cameras there and that he was one of the people filming the show. About how he illustrated his method by having his friend Robyn Hitchcock perform a song and asking anyone with a camera--back then it was not that common and often forbidden to have one at a concert--to film Robyn's performance and send the video to him, he'd try to include it with his own film of the performance using lots of his own cameras to get a feeling of how people experience live music.

I can tell them this was a different way to film music, before live streams and DIY shows and whatever else has happened since then. That they were doing something a little bit different that maybe caught on and gave us a chance to see how it was. That every film is really a bit of time travel but mostly it's what you're seeing right now and how that can be a part of the present and the past. That I sat one morning thinking of them and our family while trying to find words to describe how it felt to be there.

I can tell them how wonderful and also sad the songs about Carrie seemed then and even more so now. How watching Neil with Pegi and Ben and Rick can make you happy even when you're thinking that they're gone. How knowing that Jonathan and Elliot were such a big part of this and they're gone was part of my reason for appreciating this now while I'm thinking of them and what we might do later. How Neil had this film that lots of people wanted to see because the music is great and the performers were amazing and he decided to show it at just the right time.

Sometime later I can tell them how it was dedicated to a friend who was part of so many wonderful films, how he was a great buddy to Ben and his family. I can tell them about the people who are gone and are still here when we watch and think and talk about them. How music is like love and life is our song. Then we'll watch and listen and be there again.

Thanks Mr Henry, Scotsman, Dan and all for sharing your thoughts and comments!

And what did we think?! Well, we were there for the filming of Trunk Show both nights for Neil Young @ Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA Concert Reviews on Dec. 9 & 10, 2007 and here's our concert review.


Neil Young @ Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA Concert Reviews on Dec. 9 & 10, 2007
Concert Review by thrasher

photo by thrasher

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Jonathan Demme Double Feature Weekend: Neil Young's Complex Sessions + Trunk Show

Neil Young & Jonathan Demme
"Heart of Gold" Premieres at Sundance Film Festival - 2006

A Jonathan Demme Double Feature Weekend with Neil Young's Complex Sessions (1994) + Trunk Show (2009) on Screen #2 | Hearse Theater | NYA.

Film Director Jonathan Demme (22/2/47 - 26/4/2017) is credited with THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991), PHILADELPHIA (1993), SOMETHING WILD (1986), HEART OF GOLD (2006) and RACHEL GETTING MARRIED (2008).

Jonathan Demme and Neil Young have had a long and highly productive relationship over the years.


Both Bruce Springsteen and Young were nominated for Academy Award nomination in 1994 for Best Song in a film for Jonathan Demme's "Philadelphia". Bruce's nominated song was the film opening "Streets of Philadelphia" and Neil's was the closing title track "Philadelphia".

The Complex Sessions
A Neil Young & Crazy Horse Film
Directed by Jonathan Demme

Neil Young and Crazy Horse's "Change Your Mind" from the Complex Sessions masterfully captures the group in all their power and beauty.

Recorded at the Complex Studios in Los Angeles, where Neil Young and Crazy Horse had recorded Sleeps With Angels, director Jonathan Demme filmed them performing four songs from the album. Shot over two nights on Oct. 3-4, 1994, the 30-minute video contains "My Heart," "Prime Of Life," "Change Your Mind," and "Piece Of Crap."

In the 15-minute "Change Your Mind," with its lengthy instrumental passages, Demme varies the lighting from near darkness to excessive brightness. (See "Change Your Mind" lyrics analysis.)

"Change Your Mind"
Neil Young and Crazy Horse

From NEIL YOUNG'S - and Rock n' Roll's - Finest Moment (Fi - The Magazine of Music & Sound, June, 1996) by Paul Williams:

At my local record store, I recently came across a videocassette which apparently had been available for a year, but which I'd never heard about, called Neil Young and Crazy Horse: The Complex Sessions. Bought it, brought it home, watched and listened and was absolutely astonished.

Don't fall into the trap of believing that the great moments in rock and roll history are all in the past. This twenty-seven minute performance by one of rock's greatest and most enduring artists and bands is headline news. What rock and roll has always tried to achieve has never come any closer than this, or Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," or Janis and Big Brother live in 1967, or Springsteen and E Street in 1975.

You shoulda been there.

And in this case, thanks to the miracle of recording technology, you can be. This videotape will wear out no faster than your all-time favorite 45, it is just as deserving of repeated plays, just as possibly able to continue to deepen its resonance through the rest of your lifetime. The best argument I've ever heard for owning a "home theater" setup with superior audio capabilities.

The mix on this tape is so brilliant it even sounds good on a damn TV set, but I keep wanting to turn it up louder than the TV will go.

The Complex Sessions seems to me to represent a pivotal moment in rock history (as, say, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" did), not only because it's so good but also because it is a breakthrough in the creative use of a medium (the long-form rock video as a work of art) that has defeated most supplicants, including Neil as often as not. On the other hand, it isn't selling many copies, and in our increasingly corrupt pop culture, that and inches of press coverage are the only measurements of "significance." Oh well. Great music is still great music.

If a tree falls in the forest but nobody writes a review, did it make a sound?

Complete article on Complex Sessions NEIL YOUNG'S - and Rock n' Roll's - Finest Moment (Fi - The Magazine of Music & Sound, June, 1996) by Paul Williams.

More Jonathan Demme and Neil Young, Sleeps With Angels reviews, and "Change Your Mind" lyrics analysis.


Neil Young Trunk Show was filmed over two nights at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia, PA in December 2007 which we had the privilege of attending.

Photo by thrasher
More on the Trunk Show concerts in Philadelphia.


Neil Young
Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA - December 2007
Photo by thrasher
Below, a Jonathan Demme interview on Neil Young Trunk Show film at Toronto Film Festival in September, 2009.



From Variety - Demme digs Neil Young concert pics :

"We don’t have an illusion that this is something that can move into a movie theater and play for weeks," Demme says, acknowledging the tough times facing docus. "I’m hoping we’ll have some great moment in theaters, but I know full well this is a cable and DVD play." Demme is already prepping the DVD, which will include eight songs not seen in the 82-minute theatrical version.

Additionally, Demme is thinking about another film with Young to complete the trilogy: "I just feel that the physics lead to a third movie." he says.

Trunk Show's Mission: "To blow your eardrums out"After Greg Kot's rave review of 'Neil Young Trunk Show: Scenes from a Concert', we thought we'd be hard pressed to find a critic who could top describing the indescribable.

From Reverse Shot by Andrew Chan:

Trunk Show allows us an intense focus on an aging man throwing his entire body into the music, at times seemingly surprised by the passion and sheer sadness of the sound he’s making.

There are, indeed, few sounds in popular music more heartbreaking than a Neil Young vocal.

Sometimes a sharp and atonal bleat, sometimes hanging nervously in the back of his mouth, Young’s voice is so instantly memorable it needs no words and no narrative to flesh it out. Demme trusts in this and is clearly, appropriately, in awe of it, but he also isn’t interested in presenting us the same permanently plaintive Young. In an interview, he has even advised: “If you’re not a Neil Young fan, don’t waste your time . . . if you don’t love electric guitar, don’t go.”

Accentuating the murkiness and loudness of the rocker’s new material is a stage lit by dim, sickly yellow and purple spotlights, substituting for the comfort of Heart of Gold’s ochre and umber. Gone are the backdrops depicting hearth and home; here, a few grotesque props remind us of the set design for the grungy Young-directed concert film Rust Never Sleeps. As if standing in defiance of those who accused Heart of Gold of pimping Young as some Starbucks-friendly folkster (or those who remain suspicious of an artist who briefly cultivated a soft-rock following in the Seventies), Trunk Show eventually announces its mission to blow your eardrums out.

The meat of the film is not the bravely shy singer but the merciless guitarist, and “No Hidden Path,” a monstrous 20-minute jam that brings the first half to its climax, serves as a kind of litmus test. Taken from his latest studio album, Chrome Dreams II, the song starts out with images of moon and mist that would have fit in the lyrics of “Harvest Moon,” before launching into the type of vague spiritual pronouncements that have recently muddied Young’s once-vivid songwriting.

Once the guitar takes over, though, there’s no turning back. A cacophony of escalating moans, yelps, and screeches, the performance is likely to try the patience of all but the truest devotees. But by the end, the uninitiated may feel they’ve undergone something like a religious conversion—especially when Young lets our bleeding ears rest once again on some of those impossibly delicate ballads. Even the most brutal of art-house provocateurs would have a hard time cinematically sustaining such an outburst of anguish and foreboding, while steering us so swiftly back to safety and solace.

What emerges is the most coherent and generous portrait of this artist yet captured on film, and probably the most remarkable melding of his soft and hard sides since the 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps. When he’s stalking across the stage in a rocked-out stupor, wisps of hair dangling in his face, it’s the force of his commitment that moves you. Where Heart of Gold showed us a man ready to make peace with the dying of the light, Trunk Show gives us all the rage Young has left in him.

Awesome Andrew. Thanks!

More reviews of 'Neil Young Trunk Show: Scenes from a Concert'.

From an interview with Director Jonathan Demme on Spinner by Liisa Ladouceur:

"The film was shot over two nights in 2007 at the Tower Theater in Pennsylvania during Young's 'Chrome Dreams II' tour. It eschews the chronology of the concerts' set lists, instead jumping around between electric and acoustic numbers both familiar ('Cowgirl in the Sand,' 'Cinnamon Girl') and rare ('Ambulance Blues, 'Mexico') and what passes for costume changes at a Young show (jacket goes on, jacket comes off). The focus is on the interactions between Young and his band, and Demme admits there was 'minimal' pre-planning before the shoot. 'I just tried to respond spontaneously to the music,' he says.

One impromptu moment captured in the film is when Young appears to forget the words to his hit 'Like a Hurricane.' Demme responded by putting the lyrics up onscreen, karaoke style. 'The whole point of that song is that the person telling the story gets lost in a hurricane,' Demme explains, laughing. 'So when Neil is wandering around the stage, forgetting to sing into the microphone, it was like he got lost, too. I thought it was perfect. And Neil liked it; he asked me to keep it in.'

Demme admits he's a 'Neil Young groupie' and says he's already planning a third film with the singer, although no details are forthcoming. And while he says 'nothing can ever compete with live music,' he still finds concert filmmaking exciting.

'We can present a more intimate view of what's going on on the stage.' he says. 'We can pull the audience out of their seat and put them inside the music. Because it's the music that's the message. It's what takes us on the journey.'"

A terrific interview with Demme on MSN by Seán Francis Condon:

"Seán Francis Condon: Is 'Trunk Show' the most elaborate sound mix you've done?

Demme: No. In fact, when we did 'Heart of Gold' - when I've done any of these performance films, whoever's doing them - you cut to the board mix. But then you go on to a movie mixing stage, and you break all the tracks down and you make a brand new mix that in theory is going to be the best sound tapestry and make sure you get everything right. We did 'Heart of Gold' that way, and Neil was at the controls. But here, the more we cut to the board mix, the more I thought it would be insane and kind of against the whole vibe of this show and the film to break that up. This sounds live to me! So, we really stuck with the board mix. Ninety-five percent of what we hear now is what the people in the room heard those nights. There are a couple of places where just one of the levers wasn't up enough and we couldn't hear something. Here and there. This is essentially like a bootleg soundtrack."

From Guardian.co.uk:

DEMME: "When I see him galumphing across the stage in the middle of No Hidden Path, so deep in a trance-state, making sounds that I've never heard and I find so thrilling … it's like if Tchaikovsky had been a guitar player. I just think in terms of the word master coming into my head. Look at this grizzled master just burning this stuff down."

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Also, see Trailer for Neil Young Trunk Show Movie.

More on the Trunk Show concerts in Philadelphia.


Jonathan Demme and Neil Young
More on Jonathan Demme and Neil Young:

- Young and Demme Discuss Trunk Show Movie

- Trunk Show's Mission: "To blow your eardrums out"

- Unscripted Interview: Demme & Young

- Director Jonathan Demme on "Prairie Wind"/Heart of Gold film

- "Heart of Gold" Premieres at Sundance Film Festival

- The Complex Sessions: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Directed by Jonathan Demme


Photo by Larry Cragg
Also, In Memory of Jonathan Demme: 1944 - 2017 .

Film Director Jonathan Demme has passed away at age 73
Musician Neil Young and Director Jonathan Demme - 2012
Photo by Victoria Will/AP
(Click photo to enlarge)

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STREAMING THIS WEEKEND: "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" Film + Reviews

"Neil Young: Heart of Gold" Film

This weekend, the concert film "Neil Young: Heart of Gold", directed by Jonathan Demme, will be streaming on Hearse Theater | NYA.

Therefore, mining and metallurgy metaphors coming your way.

Movietone: Heart of Gold

Directed by Jonathan Demme

Honoring the great traditions of Nashville music at the Ryman Auditorium, home of The Grand Old Opry. Thanks to Jonathan Demme for making this picture.

Streaming at the Hearse Theater all Weekend pic.twitter.com/jE3XooOlX6

— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) March 14, 2020

Back in 2006, movie reviews for "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" were virtually unanimous in singing the film's praises -- and critics were nearly unanimous in using mining and metallurgy metaphor phrases like "glittering gold" and "strikes gold" in reviews.



Here's a sample of some of the reviews for the Jonathan Demme film of the 2005 Nashville Ryman concerts.

From New York Metro review "Young at Heart: Jonathan Demme syncs up perfectly with Neil Young" by David Edelstein:

"Among the achievements of Neil Young: Heart of Gold is that it triumphs over its exalted press notes, which describe it as "a groundbreaking union of film and music ministered by Jonathan Demme and Neil Young." Ministered, huh? I've always
preferred my country-rock with a grain of sulphur, but the Reverend Demme's track record with concert films (chiefly that celebration of transcendental alienation Stop Making Sense) is as good as anyone's, and the Reverend Young, bouncing back from a brain aneurysm, has certainly earned the right to take the long view. And by the time the director gets to Young and his musical family standing around tuning their instruments - it's right before an August 2005 Nashville performance of Young's latest album, Prairie Wind, at one of the former sites of the Grand Ole Opry - you get an inkling of the movie's fluid grace."

From MTV.com review "'Neil Young: Heart Of Gold': The Magic Of Music Made Visible" by Kurt Loder:

"'Heart of Gold' isn't quite like any other concert movie. There are no frantic edits, no showy montages, no swooping pans across a cheering audience. (In fact, the audience isn't even shown.) The picture was shot entirely with long-range lenses, which means there were no cameramen scurrying around the stage to distract the musicians. The performances move forward in long, serene takes, and the result is a film that focuses completely on the playing and singing. The musicians' empathic interaction is revelatory."

From The New Yorker review by DAVID DENBY:

"Demme keeps the cameras right in front of the performers, and he avoids the stale rock-concert ecstasy of swooping and swivelling and shooting into the lights. Nothing in this movie is aggressively sold; nothing in it is intended to change your life. The attitude is "Take it or leave it -- this is what Neil Young is."

Ignoring the audience in the hall, Demme concentrates on the music and the lyrics and the relations between Young and members of the band -- sometimes just a nod, a smile, a raised eyebrow. Since the sound is unusually clear as well as full, one can actually hear the lyrics in all their mournful near poetry. One might call "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" soothing, even becalmed, but mellowness and ripeness, when they exist at this high level of craft, should have their season, too."

Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN Concerts - Septemeber 2005
CBC.ca review "Forever Young - Jonathan Demme captures Neil Young at his best in Heart of Gold" by Stephen Cole:

"Elegantly lit and handsomely staged in the neo-classical country style Young intended — no haystacks or sequins! — this concert film has the burnished glow of a Vincente Minnelli MGM Technicolor musical from the 1950s. And no one seems happier to be transported back in time than Young, decked out in a pewter swallowtail coat and wide-brimmed gaucho hat, as he sidles up to prim and pretty cowgirl Emmylou Harris for an old-fashioned duet."

Neil Young and Emmylou Harris
Guess who has 11 Grammy Awards and which one has zero?From New York Times review "A Weathered Rocker but Still Unbowed" By MANOHLA DARGIS:

"In 'Neil Young: Heart of Gold,' the colors shift from ocher to shades of blue as the mood shifts from plaintive to rueful. Every so often a scrim slides awkwardly into place behind the musicians and a painted train cutting across a prairie is replaced with an interior scene of a skinny cat, a fat chair and a fireplace. The show's simplicity and homespun vibe serve Mr. Young's emotionally tremulous songs, both the new and the old, wonderfully well. At one point, during one of his occasional verbal rambles, he says half-jokingly, half-defensively that he's got some love songs left in him. This film, which is at once a valentine from one artist to another and a valentine from a musician to his audience, is surely proof that he does."

From The Washington Post "Neil Young film becomes American family affair" by Bob Tourtellotte:

"Neil Young, iconoclastic troubadour for decades of counter-culture in the United States, has made the ultimate American family film.

It seems ironic, but it is true, says Jonathan Demme, who directed "Neil Young: Heart of Gold," which is now playing in U.S. theaters.

The term "family film" is associated with Disney and Pixar and huggable stuffed toys. Young's song "Needle and the Damage Done" speaks to heroin addiction, and he will forever be linked to 1960s and 1970s anti-war protests with songs like "Ohio" from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And since then, the 60-year-old has only grown in stature to become a standard bearer for angst-ridden teen rockers.

Yet, in "Heart of Gold," the Canadian-born Young and Demme have created what they term a "dream concert" of songs from his recent "Prairie Wind" album and older "Harvest" and "Harvest Moon" records that conjure spirits of country-and-western music's past and harken to a simple life in the North American heartland.

"It puts me in touch with some deeply felt, old-fashioned, powerful ideas about what America stands for, what the family stands for, what friends stand for," Demme told Reuters in a joint interview with Young. "There's a complete absence of cynicism. I think it makes you feel good to be human."

From Newsday.com review "Being Neil Young: A Survivor's Song" BY JAN STUART:

"You don't have to be a Neil Young fan or contemporary to be deeply moved by the prescience of these songs or the affirming presence of his back-up singer wife, Pegi, his friend Emmylou Harris (who provides memorable assist on "This Old Guitar") and a graying fraternity of studio-musician pals from the year one. To see and hear "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" is like soaking in a warm tub filled to the brim with luxuriant, life-restoring music."

From LA Daily News "Forever Neil Young" by Fred Shuster:

"It was a very personal performance, like my club performances before I became well-known, before people developed preconceptions of who I am," Young, 60, said from his home near San Francisco. "The idea was based on the old folk tradition where you'd talk a little about a new song before you'd play it. Very much in the Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan tradition - although Bob never talked that much - in the fact we were doing all new songs for an audience that had never heard them before. This was a crowd who knew what to expect - it wasn't a crowd yelling for 'Heart of Gold.' "

From Village Voice review "Long May He Run: At 60, a not-so-young Neil confronts death with elegiac hymns to family, friendship, and love" by Tom Charity:

"Plaintive and valedictory, Prairie Wind unfolds as a testament: Almost all the songs default to the first-person singular, and judging by Young's simple, straightforward intros, he means them to be understood as such. "Here for You" is dedicated to a daughter who has left home. "Far From Home" is about the right resting place, and "This Old Guitar" is a tribute to the instrument he "inherited" from Hank Williams and will pass on in turn one of these days. Mortality and remembrance are abiding themes; abiding is another."

"Thanks to Jonathan Demme for making this picture. Johnathan was so supportive of my music.
I will never forget what he did for me." - NY
Neil Young & Jonathan Demme
"Heart of Gold" Premieres at Sundance Film Festival - 2006

From Rolling Stone review by Peter Travers:

"The first half consists of songs from Prairie Wind, the album Young recorded last year after a brain aneurysm threatened to call him out before he hit sixty.

Screw that. With a voice that still stands up to the country-rock throb he coaxes out of his guitar, Young lets his new songs of hard and high living on the Canadian plains bleed into the classics he wrote for Harvest and Harvest Moon. Demme is there to catch every note of bruising beauty. You don't just hear it in the music, you see it etched in Young's face. This is more than a movie, it's a privilege."

On The Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum ChuckHD28 posts on a preview screening:

"The whole package draws you in and has you believing that you have the best seat in the house. The shots Demme captures are of intimate moments. Intimate moments between and among the musicians, their music and the audience. Knowing looks, smiles and nods among and between performers. That innate sign language between a leader and his band. Count it out Chad, enter now Keith, all finish. Almost indetectable inflections that the all together ensemble reads in near perfect harmony.

Oh, and since there might be a couple of people here who have some interest in Martin guitars, I suppose I should mention the Martins. Neil's 1941 'bone and his Longworth era D-45 are featured, as well as a new, (as it looked to me) D-28 (rosewood D with a black pickguard), that Pegi Young played for a couple of tunes. Of course, Neil mentioned that the 'bone once belonged to Hank Williams and that this was likely the first performance the Ryman had seen of this guitar since Hank Williams, Sr. last performed there. BTW, also on stage playing guitar was Grant Boatright, the gent responsible for introducing Neil to Tut Taylor and "Hank" back in the early 70's."

From Chromewaves "I've Been A Miner For A Heart Of Gold", Frank blogs:

"There's a real serenity and vulnerability about Neil in these performances, in both the songs and the somewhat surprising openness of the between-song dialogue - it's a real celebration of his life, his family and friends. The first half of the film is all new material, but later on he gets into some classic acoustic material which sounds so good, it might well bring a tear to your eye.

On the visual front, the film is appropriately understated, using slow cuts and tight close-ups on the performers in conjunction with simple but warm stage and costume design to create an intimate, elegiac and down-home atmosphere perfectly suited to the mood and setting of the Grand Ole Opry. Most past tour films featuring Neil have concentrated on trying to capture the chaos of his electrified Crazy Horse material, and justifiably so - the Horse in action is something to behold. But Demme shows that Neil Young the folksinger is just as electrifying on the screen as the ragged rocker, though in a completely different way. This is a very special film, not just for the quality of the music but for capturing a brilliant artist at a very key point in his life and his career. Definitely worth seeing for any Neil fan, and stay for the closing credits - they're mesmerizing."

From Chicago Tribune review "For Young and Demme, `Heart' a dream project" by Mark Caro:

"To make a "Prairie Wind" movie, Young said he and Demme batted around several ideas, including a plan to "film all kinds of things in Canada and find old stock footage and go back to the Indians." But, he added, "we elected to just let the music speak."

"There's so much dream imagery and dream themes throughout so many of the songs," Demme added. "At a certain point, I think we were joking, it was like, `Hey, let's make it a dream concert!' The great part is it's Neil Young's dream. Nothing will go wrong. It'll be the perfect musicians. It'll be the perfect venue.'"

Young said, "Let's make a movie that looks like a dream concert that is something that, if I closed my eyes and thought of the best way I could see to do a concert at that time, that would be it."

So Young lined up his band from "Prairie Wind" -- a collection of veteran rock, country and soul players who have backed him in the past, including keyboardist Spooner Oldham, steel guitarist Ben Keith and the Memphis Horns -- and booked the historic, acoustically pristine Ryman for two August performances. Meanwhile, Young and Demme conceived of the concert in cinematic terms.

Young's ambition to make unified albums meant to be heard (or seen) in their entirety can be interpreted as yet another against-the-grain move by this maverick musician. This is the iPod age, after all, when songs are sold individually and scrambled according to the listener's whims.

But when you watch "Heart of Gold," you have to go on Young's emotional journey as he designed it.

"It forces it to be an album," Young said. "You go to the film, you have no choice.

"You can't shuffle `Heart of Gold.' You can't shuffle that sucker. You can't take it with you -- at this point, anyway." "

From Philadelphia Inquirer review "Making a concert film come alive" by Dan DeLuca (via Largehearted Boy):

"Demme proclaims himself 'perfectly happy' with Heart of Gold.

'In fact, I think I'm more happy with it than anything I've ever done,' he says. 'My whole position was that if Neil Young is actually going to agree to let me film him performing, then I want him to love this movie, and reflect what he cares about... . I didn't want to impose my thing. I wanted to memorialize his thing.'"

Musician Neil Young and Director Jonathan Demme - 2012
(Film Director Jonathan Demme Passes At Age 73)
From Ain't it Cool News by MiraJeff:

Neil Young fans will be pleased.

I saw the film at the Paramount Screening Room and the sound was incredible. If this film sneaks into a multiplex in addition to the art-house theaters, see it at theater with better sound. The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville was the original home of the Grand Ole Opry, and the acoustics are incredible. The sound in this movie is like another Neil… a Diamond. It’s gorgeous. You can even hear maracas shaking, and honestly, who doesn’t like maracas? Granted at 103 minutes, I think the film runs a song or two too long. By the end of it, Neil Young has kind of worn out his welcome, but then again, I’d much rather pay for 10 bucks for 103 minutes of Neil Young than 50 bucks (probably) for a 75-minute Weezer concert, which trust me, is generous for them. The one big question about this film is, why do we need it? Why now? Why Prairie Wind? At a concert, you’re with your buddies, you’re under an influence or two (hopefully), and you can talk, which you can’t do at a movie. I admit to looking at my watch several times and I noticed a few other critics doing it too. As a theatrical experience, it drags a bit, especially if you don’t like one of his songs. However my roommate Anders Hester, lead singer of The Alright Ma’s, went to the screening with me and being a huge Neil Young fan and having gone to several shows, said it was the most vulnerable he’d ever seen Neil Young, who in his opinion, plays one of his best shows. Obviously, there will be differences of opinion depending on your allegiance to Neil Young.

If you’re still on the fence about seeing this movie and you’re a guy, I’ll recommend it because of one musician I haven’t mentioned yet. Emmylou Harris. This woman is stunning. Incredibly beautiful. I have no idea how old she is and out of respect, I won’t look it up on the Internet for this review. I have a newfound appreciation for this woman. I didn’t even realize she’s won 11 Grammys. A bunch of other cool guitar, harp, and broom (yes broom) players join her and Neil Young onstage. It all amounts to something special, but whether or not that magic translates to the screen well is up for debate. To each his own my mother would say, and after all, music is deeply personal. I’m not going to ruin the set list but it will please fans and semi-fans to know that he does play “Old Man,” saying that he wrote the song about a guy he bought a home from. But Heart of Gold is made up primarily of his latest album Prairie Wind (not the song, which is one of the least good in the film), the album that many consider one of the artist’s bests. To be honest the film did spike my interest and make me want to hear more, just like Walk the Line made me want to listen to Johnny Cash more. Speaking of, if someone ever has to play Neil Young in a film, I nominate Tom Wilkinson. The likeness is uncanny.

The bottom line is that to see an artist like Neil Young do what he does best, the movie is definitely worth 10 bucks. You’d pay that to hear a shitty cover band at a frat party. So ultimately, this film is critic proof, because who hates Neil Young? Who is going to pan a 2-night performance when Neil Young was scheduled to have brain surgery less than a week later? Think he had a lot on his mind? Music is the man’s sweet release, so show him a little respect and see Neil Young: Heart of Gold if you get a chance.

The Shadow of Rick "The Bass Player"

From by HERALD NEWS by Adam Zagoria:

New Jersey native Ellen Kuras, who said she listens to Young's music every day, filmed the concert portion of the movie in Super 16mm using nine cameras. The goal, according to Demme and Kuras, was to create the "dream state" evoked by many of Young's lyrics.

Before singing the title track to "Prairie Wind," Young tells the story of how his "daddy" suffered from dementia in the last part of his life.

"I know some of you know what that's like," he said. "It's something to see your loved ones living in the moment."Then he launches into the title track, singing, "Prairie wind blowing through my head/Trying to remember what my daddy said/Before too much time took away his head."

Later, Young explains how he wrote the song "Here for You" for his 21-year-old daughter, Amber, now out of the house and in her final year of college.

"There was a time I used to write songs like this for girls my own age," Young cracked, smiling toward Pegi. "It's a new genre, the 'Empty Nester,' and they might have their own radio station for 'em."

"When your summer days come tumbling down," the song goes, "and you find yourself alone/Then you can come back and be with me/Just close your eyes and I'll be there."

Prior to singing "This Old Guitar," Young explains how the guitar he is using for the concert used to belong to legendary country singer Hank Williams, who might have used it in his final appearance at the Ryman in 1951.

"The more I play it, the better it sounds," the song goes. "It cries when I leave it alone."

After completing the songs from "Prairie Wind," Young returns to his roots on "I Am A Child," "Harvest Moon" and "Heart of Gold," the first lines of which seem to have new meaning given what Young has recently gone through:

"I want to live, I want to give. I've been a miner for a heart of gold."

He wraps up the set with "Old Man," "The Needle and the Damage Done," "Old King," "Comes A Time," "Four Strong Winds" and "One of These Days."

Demme realized that another song would be needed when the film credits roll, and so he approached Young about that possibility. After saying he would think about it, Young agreed.

The result is a beautiful solo version of "The Old Laughing Lady" that Young plays on guitar while seated in a chair before an empty auditorium as the film ends. When he completes the song, the old singer puts on his hat, packs up his guitar in an old case and slowly walks off the stage.

Demme, who sat in the corner of the Ryman watching the performance, said the moment was appropriate because Young told him that after a concert, he likes to go out and look at the empty house.

"So he was essentially doing what he always does," Demme said. "And I had no idea he was going to do it."

br>More on "Heart of Gold" premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and the Nashville Ryman Concerts, the album "Prairie Wind", and the song "Heart of Gold", which inspired the film's title.

More on friendship and films of Neil Young & Jonathan Demme.

Neil Young & Jonathan Demme
"Heart of Gold" Premieres at Sundance Film Festival - 2006

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