AN INDIAN IN THE WESTERN LIGHTHOUSE

web site by Herve CIRET

"Journey through the past", the first Neil Young's movie now available in DVD. The film starts off as a loose subjective juxtaposition on Neil Young in real life and on stage; by cross-cutting between his rough personal perceptions and footage of his performances, Young manages to create a sense of how he transforms scattered input into finished product. But after half an hour, he begins to shy away from anything so personal, and the film has progressively less to do with him from that point on. By the end, Young is barely in it at all, having been replaced by a lot of useless-looking objects. There's a Mercedes limo, odd bits of statuary, a truck that talks back to its owner. There are mysterious black-robed horsemen who materialize on a beach somewhere, in what Young calls "sort of a Lawrence of Arabia parody." There's a man who does card tricks (listed in the closing credits as "the grey-faced dude"), and a dazed-looking guy who starts off in cap and gown and collects bruises all through the film. Wearing an official Woodstock T-shirt and what looks like Young's own plaid flannel overshirt, the graduate finally opens a fake Bible, takes out a cross-shaped syringe and shoots up by the sea.