Theatrical Review of CSNY: Déjà Vu

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The highlight of "CSNY: Déjà Vu" doesn´t involve a number performed by the band. A bubbly young reporter for an entertainment TV program kicks off her interview with Neil Young by observing that the band´s new tour has generated some controversy, "Especially your new song ´Let´s Impeach the President.´ So what is the song about?"

The title of Young´s hastily penned screed against George W. Bush reflects the level of subtlety on display in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young´s 2006 "Freedom of Speech" tour, the subject of the new documentary directed by Neil Young under his pseudonym Bernard Shakey. Of course, subtlety isn´t the point. In a landscape saturated with mass media advertisements disguised as news programs, you have to shout in order to get anybody to pay attention. It works, but the attention isn´t always good.

The band´s tour goes swimmingly well in the so-called blue states but once they hit Atlanta, the road gets a little bumpier. Everything is hunky-dory until they launch into "Let´s Impeach the President" (I hope you can figure out what it´s about on your own) which comes complete with a multi-media presentation of a smirking George Bush spewing cheap war rhetoric above a scrolling stock market-style ticker indicating the number of American deaths in Iraq by month (but why no ticker for the vastly higher number of Iraqi deaths?) Most of the audience continues to cheer but a good third of them turn hostile, first flipping the band the bird (and, no, they´re not requesting "Freebird") then marching out of the theater in high dudgeon. Documentary cameras wait to capture footage of enraged ticket holders who apparently didn´t read a single line of advance publicity regarding the concert before shelling out their money. How dare they criticize the president when we´re at war? Who do they think they are to shove their message down our throats? Cram it up your ass, Neil Young! (Apparently, bodily orifices are central to this form of dissent.) I wonder how many of them knew that Neil Young is from Canada and Graham Nash from England. That might have really set the blood a´ boiling.

While political ideology is always at the forefront of the documentary (and the tour), Young is also interested in exploring the artist´s role as a social advocate. He isn´t willing to just "shut up and sing" and for some inexplicable reason this is actually a hot-button issue for people who feel a performer should simply perform and remain neutral observers of society. Fortunately, CSNY wasn´t swayed by this limited and ahistorical view of art when they feverishly wrote and recorded "Ohio" in the immediate aftermath of the Kent State massacre, producing one of the greatest protest songs of all time.

"Let´s Impeach the President" doesn´t rise to the level of "Ohio" or "Wooden Ships." This seems to be the year of the sexagenarian rocker on the big screen with the Stones´ "Shine A Light" also hitting theaters a few months ago. While the Stones are far from their peak they have at least been performing together constantly for more than four decades. CSNY has broken up and reformed multiple times with various members taking time off for various reasons (I´m being discreet here.) The fire still burns within, but it doesn´t translate into the same energy or synergy on stage. Many of the numbers are rather desultory though part of this is attributable to the documentary´s surprisingly mediocre sound quality. Crosby, who has aged gracefully into an avuncular walrus, seems particularly detached, and is the member who appears least in the off-stage interviews.

Reporter and Vietnam Veteran Mike Cerre served as an embedded reporter in the initial Iraq invasion and is invited to embed himself with CSNY for their Freedom tour. He serves as writer/narrator for the film. Presumably his role is intended to give the film a veneer of objectivity, but his presence is never really tangible. Young and company are the unquestioned stars and the whole affair has a distasteful self-congratulatory feel to it. The back-patting appears justified in light of the hostile reaction in Atlanta and clearly stems from Young´s passionate belief in his project. However, it also leads to some major lapses in judgment such as when Young claims that he and his bandmates are "just like the people who enlisted" and marvels that "against the odds, we´re all still here." Granted, Crosby´s stubborn maintenance of his above-ground status is as unlikely as Keith Richards´ but playing in a band isn´t remotely akin to signing up to get shot at in a foreign country. Spinal Tap drummers aside, the odds of surviving a lifetime of rocking are simply not comparable to surviving an active tour of duty.

Graham Nash provides a concise abstract for the group´s (and the film´s) mission. He acknowledges that they may only be preaching to the choir but adds: "I just wish the choir would get off their asses." And that´s the point that Young and company are getting at here. It´s great to be informed, but that isn´t enough. You have to get angry enough to act. Neil Young did. "CSNY: Déjà Vu" may not inspire anyone else to follow suit, but it´s a relative rarity: a passionate, politically engaged concert documentary. If you´re the sort of person who thinks a group should just "shut up and sing" do what the outraged customers in Atlanta should have done: stay home.

On the DVDTown scale, rate it a 6/10.

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