Neil Young: Heart Of Gold documents two nights of music courtesy of Neil Young and a few pals performed live at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. Directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme (of Silence Of The Lambs fame), it's an excellent piece that effectively captures the spirit and the rough beauty of Young's music with style and grace. No stranger to filming musicians (Demme had previously worked with The Talking Heads and New Order after he left Corman's fold but before he hit Hollywood pay dirt with Hopkins and Foster), Demme's film is simple enough to make sure that the music comes first but slick enough that it always looks good.

At the time that the movie was made, Young was touring for Prairie Wind, his latest record. He's joined on stage by Emmylou Harris who accompanies him on a duet for The Old Guitar, a highlight of the show, but for the most part this is almost completely his show regardless of how nice her voice sounds next to his.

Neil Young has always had an almost painful sincerity to his voice which has made his music very poignant and very powerful at times. Demme wisely allows this same unique voice to carry the film. While the performances were shot using a pretty high tech nine camera set up, it's rare that the movie feels over stylized or flashy, and more often than not the concert is shot in close up, allowing Neil's vocals to carry the performance rather than flashy editing or lighting tricks. That being said, some of the editing choices do result in some minor sound synch issues and if you pay attention you will probably notice them in more than a few spots. It's a shame that this couldn't have been corrected but it's part and parcel with shooting concert films with more than one camera sometimes.

One of the more interesting aspects of the concerts captured here are the set lists. After a few minutes of initial interview footage, the performance begins and we hear tracks from Prairie Wind first. The material here is very melancholy, dealing with some of the more unpleasant aspects of what happens to someone when age starts to catch up with you. In part, this is what Heart Of Gold is all about. While the lyrics of the newer material might not have the anger or the bite that some of his better known sixties and seventies output has had, they're still important in the context of the times, Young makes sure of that. His music has grown old with him, but he remains an important artist and one who, as evidenced by his recent Living With War record isn't afraid to call it as he sees it. This material seems to be both perceptive and reflective, and it feels as if it is very personal to the man who is singing it.

From there Neil brings it back to material from both Harvest and the follow up to that classic, Harvest Moon, both of which are a fair bit different from Prairie Wind in both sound and content – the constant between all of this material, as varied as it is, be it acoustic or electric, is the singer himself, and from that point on he changes up the set list a fair bit. Young's voice remains strong and unusual but not unpleasant. It's strained at times but not painfully so, more like sincerely so, he sings it like he feels it and he means it and throughout it all he remains very calm and very casual. He plays most of the material in a grey suit and a white brimmed hat, looking very cool and easy going, playing some songs standing, other sitting with his guitar or at the piano. The backing band sounds great behind him, but they not to try and overpower him, and he remains the focal point of the film as he should, particularly as he goes through many of his more popular tracks in the later half of the performance.

Between songs, Young tells stories in that strange, rambling way he has about him. He tells us of a guitar that he plays that once belonged to the late Hank Williams (who was an obvious influence on him) and he tells us of the old caretaker who worked on his farm who inspired him to write Old Man, one of his best known songs. In the end, it doesn't do anything new or provide us with anything that Neil Young hasn't really given us before, but that's really part of its charm. Young is a rare constant in the tumultuous world of pop music and even when he's experimenting he's still Neil Young. Heart Of Gold is as good a document of what the man brings to the stage as any thing else out there, and it stands as an interesting and oddly personal look at a man who has been pouring his heart and soul into his music for decades now.

Video:

The anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen transfer presents the movie in its original aspect ratio and with a few minor quibbles it comes up looking pretty strong. Concert videos often don't look so hot due to the stage lighting and camera positioning but thankfully Heart Of Gold doesn't suffer the way that so many live performances do. Color reproduction is strong and while there are some times where the action on the stage gets a little muddy looking from lighting but thankfully this only happens occasionally and the norm for this release is a very detailed and colorful image with plenty of both foreground and background detail. Skin tones look good, black levels stay strong and while there is some shimmering from time to time it isn't over powering. Mpeg compression artifacts are never a problem and edge enhancement isn't ever too noticeable either. Paramount has definitely done a nice job on the picture for this release even if it is a bit soft in spots.