Neil Young: Harvest Time

The running time of Neil Young's 1972 album 'Harvest' is less than 40mins. 'Harvest Time', his documentary about the bringing in of 'Harvest', runs to a little over 2hrs despite overlooking a couple of songs. Admirers of Young will know exactly how that can happen and they will love it.

The film has an Arts & Crafts feel, rough-hewn and quirky. It skips between playing and recording, interviews and landscapes. It is consistently fascinating on the process of recording music, where Young's painstaking approach doesn't exclude mystical possibilities - a ghost in the studio, an echo from the rolling hills. Directing himself, he comes across as an agreeable, thoughtful young man (he was in his mid-20s), but he is disappointingly opaque on the subject of his own creativity. 'Harvest Time' is intriguing and frustrating.

Neither the title track nor 'The Needle and the Damage Done' makes it into the film, and 'Old Man' and 'Heart of Gold' are shoe-horned into the final reel. 'Alabama', by contrast, features at length, twice.

Any Neil Young fan will truly love this ramble through what was a high water mark of 1972 & the Album that is possibly his most well known in this artists career, Harvest.

My long suffering wife who just doesn't get my obsession with Neil took some talking around to go and sit through this once I explained "it's a biopic made 50 years ago about an album and a string of concerts and live tv special that he had tucked away in his back catalogue and never released till now" But if you are a fan you'll understand NOTHING this genius of a man does is straight forward, if his mews is saying go this way , that's what he does, not for fame and glory but for his art.

This all may sound pretentious but I'm guessing if you're looking at this film on here you've got a better than average chance you'll know what this man is.

The most underrated singer songwriter in the last 60 years?

Still he continues to surprise, like dropping this gem into cinemas so you can go and see it in the format that it was intended to be shown. It would have been so easy to put this on a streaming service much like other older mega bands have in recent years and his fans would have sought it out , but on the big screen?

Well that's just spoiling us and I thank him so much as I do with filling my life with his music.

If you don't know Neil Young and you are looking at reviews to see if it's worth spending your hard earned money on well if you like acoustic guitar at its best if you like a good ol' boy that likes cars and checkered shirts then maybe but go on your local streaming services and listen to Harvest If you like it you may well become infected with the music , if not well he will keep entertaining us that do and not take a Pause to think why you don't That's just what he does much like this movie Film it Produce it Sit on it for 50 years Then realise it Genius!