Monday, October 17, 2011

Neil Young: Don't Be Denied

Neil Young's music has always struck a deep chord with audiences and been highly influential for subsequent singer/songwriters. Here we are taken on a journey through his career from his early days in Winnipeg through stints with Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Crazy Horse, and Devo, always following his own musical route no matter the cost to personal fame and professional relationships. Through interviews with collaborators including David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, James Taylor, and Nils Lofgren as well  as Young himself, we get a sense of the difficult and extremely talented man. During the course of the film, Young does come off as self-important, and when he claims that it has been "all about the music" and later shown on stage during his Living With War tour playing under a jumbotron displaying W. news clips, he just sounds downright phony. And still, he has made some great, piercing songs and had an incredible career along the way, which is nicely documented here.