Human Highway
Sep 04 - Sep 06, 2015
(Dean Stockwell & Neil Young, United States, 1982, DCP, 88 min)
Director's Cut!
Filmed in the late 1970s, premiered in 1982, recut by Neil Young, a couple of decades on the midnight movie lineups in laserdisc, and now traveling the festival circuit in 2015 in its recut, definitive edition: Human Highway.
Directed by Young and written by no one, this acid-trip-turned-film features Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, and Devo, with Neil himself in the lead role. This thoroughly surreal experience makes a tough film to describe. An improvised absurdist musical comedy about the nuclear holocaust. Which makes sense, right?
In the idyllic town of Linear Valley, no one’s concerned about the nuclear power plant, least of all the glowing plant employees (Devo) In a ramshackle diner/gas station down the road, an owner and his starry-eyed mechanic (Stockwell and Young) entertain a rollicking revolving door of local characters passing through. From there, cue the dream sequences, the musical numbers, and the head scratching.
Self-financed, and acting as writer, director, and lead, Neil Young was free to explore his own ideas about America in the nuclear age, and the freewheeling results must be seen to be believed.
Words cannot explain or replace the experience of watching this movie. - Fast Company
Needless to say, it's a very strange thing to watch in a dorm room as a stoned, impressionable 20-year-old (or so we would assume). - Exclaim