Year of the Horse . Tucson Weekly . 11-03-97

Year of the Horse

DIRECTED BY: Jim Jarmusch

REVIEWED: 11-03-97

Jim Jarmusch consolidates his reputation as the Kurt Cobain of filmmaking with Year of the Horse, a gritty documentary about the original grunge band, Crazy Horse. The opening credits declare "proudly filmed in Super-8, 16mm, and hi-8," three low-budget formats that Jarmusch enhances with expensive post-production so they look as much like 35 mm film stock as possible. The film documents Neil Young and his bandmates over about 20 years, interspersing then-and-now interviews with footage from a recent tour. Okay, I like Crazy Horse, but only an absurdly devoted fan could be entranced by concert footage of three middle-aged guys standing in a half-circle clutching guitars and bobbing from the knees as though they were cranes engaged in a mating dance. Jarmusch is apparently such a fan. The concert footage takes up most of the film, and it's even more stale for being filmed in hi-8, a consumer-grade video format. This fandom extends to the respectful, fawning interviews with the band members. It's too bad Jarmusch didn't learn more from all the great documentaries that have been already made about bands. One of the strengths of D.A. Pennebaker's terrific Don't Look Back is that it portrayed Bob Dylan as an enormously talented artist who could also be a real asshole. But Neil Young could take his grandmother to Year of the Horse.

--Richter

Interviews
Year of the Horse

Full Length Reviews
Year of the Horse
Year of the Horse

Other Films by Jim Jarmusch
Dead Man

Film Vault Suggested Links
Into The Deep
Brakhage
American Movie

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