Journey Through the Past (1973)

Journey Through the Past: Directed by Neil Young. With Buffalo Springfield, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills. Don’t look for a narrative, it’s an Art Film. A series of vignettes referencing the South and a commentary on religion as opiate. See it for the live footage of Buffalo Springfield and CSNY.

“Having been a fan of Neil Young for several years, I never thought Iu0026#39;d get the opportunity to see this rare film. However – a bit of online sifting is all it takes nowadays, and Journey Through The Past is out there as a BitTorrent. Not sure if this is something IMDb condone, but Iu0026#39;m sure theyu0026#39;ll let me know by deciding whether to post that or not! The copy Iu0026#39;ve found is clearly from an n-th generation videotape (how it found its way on to any videotape Iu0026#39;m sure is a story in itself, as the film never found commercial release outside of the few cinemas that showed it) and the picture is washed-out, occasionally wobbly but essentially watchable. Basically no worse than finding a vintage first-issue Chainsaw Massacre tape, or any video nasty of a similar age.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film itself has had a reputation over the years for being poorly conceived and poorly received; an incoherent navel-gazing exercise that probably didnu0026#39;t even make much sense to Young once the pot wore off. What must be considered, though, is that much the same was said of Youngu0026#39;s u0026#39;73-u0026#39;75 album releases in their day, and much of his music from that u0026quot;Dark Periodu0026quot; is now held to be among his strongest work. Hence my summary headline above; if you appreciate the myriad tangents that Young went off on during his 1970s recorded work, then youu0026#39;ll at least know where this filmu0026#39;s coming from.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn more detail then, Journey Through The Past is part-documentary of Youngu0026#39;s first five-six years as a recording, touring artist; and smaller parts road movie and surrealist fantasy. If you consider these three aspects together, you might get a sense of why this film reminds me on more than one occasion of Werner Herzogu0026#39;s late 60s-early 70s work, particularly Fata Morgana (thereu0026#39;s even some brief desert scenes here among the fantasy sequences). That is, of course, if Herzog suffered a serious whack on the head and lost all of his directorial and editorial talent in a month-long amnesia; Young was no great movie-maker at this early stage in his career (and judging by Human Highway a decade later, probably wouldnu0026#39;t learn much more).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut therein lies a lot of the filmu0026#39;s charm; when you hold this up against, say, Led Zeppelinu0026#39;s rather pompous Song Remains The Same, Journey Through The Past does have a lot going for it in its homespun unpretentiousness and intimacy. The countercultural-political sequence of the film, about 45 minutes in, might be clumsily handled, but you kind of get the idea. Thereu0026#39;s a fair amount of goofy comedic material here too, from a grinning Buffalo Springfield camping it up in a TV spot, to Graham Nash in a dapper gold waistcoat calling for the legalisation of marijuana (after identifying a drummer-rolled joint at first sight), to a hard-hatted Young clambering around in a scrapyard then later giving some Jesus Freaks a pricelessly deadpan baiting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd of course, if you want some electrifying footage of early CSNu0026amp;Y, itu0026#39;s here providing arguably the highlight of the movie; youu0026#39;ll wish this footage went on for much longer. Much proof is provided that Stephen Stills was possibly the coolest human being in the universe during the early 70s. The u0026#39;Harvestu0026#39; rehearsals do drag on a bit (thankfully not to the sheer tedium that they went to on the soundtrack album) but are still an interesting snapshot of Youngu0026#39;s work-in-progress at the time. And if youu0026#39;re left bemused by the bearded wanderer/junkie, black hooded Klansmen, and the bishop, the general and their chauffeur in the fantasy sequences, I wouldnu0026#39;t take it too seriously. Young did pass it off as u0026quot;No plot. No starsu0026quot;. Enjoy this film primarily as a great rock documentary. Seek it out!”