CasparCritique: Dead Man

This blog is a-long time coming. Somehow it has been on my mind for some time, without concretizing. So now here it is, a critique on Dead Man, a great movie by Jim Jarmusch, but even more importantly to the CasparBlog: with a score by one of Caspar's favorites: Neil Young.

Now, maybe one of the reasons on hesitating to write this particular critique, was the question on my mind if I should go into Jarmusch' body of work, or stick by Young's music, because this blog is about music. But hey, I can write about my passions, right? And, so far the blog has written substantially about music in combination with documentaries. So, Caspar, don't hesitate, just rattle on! From the eighties onwards I have been following Jarmusch' carreer from a distance. Back then I remember seeing Down by Law, with Tom Waits in one of his character roles as a runaway convict. Shortly after I learned that Waits was actually a singer-songwriter, and my first encounter with his talent was his live album Big Time, starting with the unforgettable words 'good evening' in his hoarse, low voice. Another Jarmusch film I remember vividly was Night on Earth, with Roberto Benigni impersonating a sodomized sheep, getting the priest in his cab to die from a heart attack. You can imagine Jarmusch made quite an impression on young Caspar...
As we discussed in an earlier CasparCritique (CasparCritique: Year of the Horse), somewhere midway the Nineties, Jarmusch and Neil Young made a deal. Young would provide Jarmusch' new movie with a sound track, and as a return of favor, Jarmusch would make a documentary of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. On a personal note, Caspar gave the documentary 4 stars, but apparently, Neil Young wasn't very happy with the result. Do we think that Jarmusch was happy with the music score? I bet he did. The movie Dead Man was Jarmusch most expensive movie, and maybe his shot at becoming a bit more main stream (Caspar strongly advises not to take any of his apparent knowledge of movies too seriously), and the score made by one of the USA's big selling artists would certainly help in that respect.
Back to business Caspar, let's talk a little on the sound track. When I sat down the other day to watch the movie, I had no idea what to expect. As the movie is from 1995, I realized that Young's projects just before that were collaborations with Pearl Jam (Mirror Ball), and Crazy Horse (Sleeps with Angels). So, both band-, and rock oriented, although Sleeps with Angels was a bit more gloomier. But surprisingly Young's contribution to Dead Man is solo work. At the very start of the movie, you can hear Young's Gibson valve ampifier turned on loud. Then he starts hitting the strings slowly with the outer side of his hand, making a sort of thumping sound. With his pick, or plectrum, he scribbes notes and phrases, that because of the reverb in the amplifier, and probably some slight echo effect, gives a big sound like he'd be recording in a church. This is what continues throughout the movie, with the only, apparent, difference that he goes faster bit by bit, thus giving the movie a pace like a steam train slowly speeding up towards the end of the story. And I must say: a nice story it is. Leading character Johnny Depp as an accountant in the Wild West, getting into more and more trouble, and finally saved (or is he?) by an indian called Nobody.
I enjoyed the movie very much, and I thought the music accompanied it effectively. Also it fits in with Young's carreer for being different than the usual. If I'd had to give it marks, I'd give it five stars out of five. Not for being amongst Neil's best work, but for being the perfect accompaniment to one of Jim Jarmusch's master pieces.

A final thought would be on the accurateness of what you just read. Maybe what I just told you, on the technical side of things, and the substance of the sound track, could be wrong. The interesting part for me is that this CasparBlog is an account of watching a movie once, late night, and then telling about the score a few months later.

CasparCritique: The Year of the Horse

Wow, this was kind of heavy. After seeing Neil Young and Crazy Horse play live last night, now Caspar saw them again in this documentary by Jim Jarmusch. It was like you saw the show again, but in another year, another place, and more up close. In all its raw, 8 mm filmed material, with short introductions of the band members , its history and life on the road, the film does justice to its subject: four guys, two guitars, a bass and drums, plus a basket full of great songs; rock 'n roll in its purest form!
 
As I mentioned yesterday, I hadn't seen Neil Young and Crazy Horse live before. Funny enough, it was the documentary The Year of the Horse that I saw twice already when it was released in 1996, at the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. What struck me most back then was the loud and intense way Neil and the band played. I really liked it; most of the songs in the film I knew already and I related to (see:CasparLive: Neil Young and Crazy Horse). Peculiar how that CD was released under the same name, but contains a very different set of songs. Now, after having seen the live show, I thought the film even more impressive. We get so close, almost as if we are on the stage with them. But do not think you can get in between them somehow. The movie shows clips from the past when the band was fighting over the vocal parts, but if there is anything clear that we get from the film is that this is a very tight band, both musically and personally.
Funny how the film has been critized by various people over the choice of Jim Jarmusch to use 8 mm film. It gives the film a grainy touch, which is amplified by editing loosely shot material for example looking outside from the touring bus while on the road. This choice can be explained two ways. From the one hand it might give the movie a sort of artsy fartsy look (dixit guitarist Poncho Sampedro), that combines nicely with Jarmusch' image as the intelectualist, New York film maker. But on the other, we can say that it supports Crazy Horse's raw music, and characters. Anyhow, in my opinion it works well. The film is a nice pastiche, with great live performances, and some more or less pivotal scenes from the past, and short interviews with the guys, Neil's father, and their long standing manager Eliot Roberts (see also: CasparCritique: David Geffen always wins). This way we get the whole picture and introduction to the band in a great way. Surely, as Poncho Sampedro states three times, the film maker will not tell the whole story on the basis of a few questions and in two hours, but that would mean that the story could not be told by anyone. So, this is comes close enough.
One last thing that struck me was that guitarist Sampedro and bass player Billy Talbot apparently do not use any effects, or guitar tuning. Now that I think of it, also Neil himself is able to force his guitar to the max getting feedback from his amps, still being able to play the intro to Hurricane afterwards in a tuned way. Also, the way they stay close to eachother on a stage, no matter how big it is; they're in it for the music, and their love of noise. After so many years, so many stories, so many songs and so many tours, Neil Young and Crazy Horse are still the same guys as they were before. No pretentions, plug in your guitars and let's rock! This way, a movie can hardly ever go wrong for me; I'll give it 4 stars out of five!