The new owner of a roadside diner stuck in a town built around an always leaking nuclear power plant plans to torch the place to collect insurance. However, an assortment of bizare character... Read allThe new owner of a roadside diner stuck in a town built around an always leaking nuclear power plant plans to torch the place to collect insurance. However, an assortment of bizare characters and weird events (such as spaceships flying around) gets in his way.The new owner of a roadside diner stuck in a town built around an always leaking nuclear power plant plans to torch the place to collect insurance. However, an assortment of bizare characters and weird events (such as spaceships flying around) gets in his way.
Gerald Casale
- Nuclear Garbageperson
- (as Jerry Casale)
Robert Mothersbaugh
- Nuclear Garbageperson
- (as Bob Mothersbaugh)
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One of the most unusual movies I have ever seen. Makes the three stooges look like total normalcy. Neil Young and the Devo members are in this a lot. This is a musical comedy, but not like one you have ever seen. Imagine an apocalyptic LSD trip after OD-ing on candycane and reading a playboy. No, that's not it either. Well, this is totally indescribable, but I will try. Imagine an alternate history where sometime in the 1960s or 70s, the world has gone gung-ho full blown nuclear everything. Kind of like Iran wants to be now. Just imagine the whole world like that- especially the USA. Most of the action or story takes place in a small combination gas station-diner. Yes, combination gas-station diner. Dean Stockwell is the owner. He is the straight man in the film, and is a hoot. Dennis Hopper plays two or three different characters. But the main focus is on Neil Young as a goofy, not too bright, very incompetent auto-mechanic. Yes, I forgot to mention there is a car repair garage at this combination gas station-diner. Walk inside the diner, and it looks bigger on the inside- like a full blown regular diner with sexy waitresses and a grumpy but amenable cook (Dennis Hopper) and all the usual eclectic customers. The band Devo works and plays music at the local Nuclear Power Plant down the street from the diner-gas station-garage. They wear day-glow radiation orange work clothes and strange looking nose tubes instead of masks. They play guitars with thick rubber gloves. OK-well that's enough description for now. Please-please if you do not have a very strange sense of humor, do not watch this movie. For some strange reasons I can hardly fathom (not), this film has not been available except on a rare laserdisc or OOP VHS not usually seen around much. However, this can be found in DVD form if you search hard enough on the internet.
HUMAN HIGHWAY is not for everybody and some parts don't work. Still, I love the flick. I think if in the writing they fleshed out the wonderful bizarre characters a little more, this thing could have been a masterpiece. As it stands, it has a wild surreal bent, with Neil Young and company not being afraid to fall on their collective face.
When the cast does the final WORRIED MAN number, it is rousing and strangely moving.. Everyones HUMANITY (as in HUMAN HIGHWAY) shines through. It is as if the company is both themselves and the characters they play.
When the cast does the final WORRIED MAN number, it is rousing and strangely moving.. Everyones HUMANITY (as in HUMAN HIGHWAY) shines through. It is as if the company is both themselves and the characters they play.
No doubt about it, most of these posts are on the money in describing this movie. When I slipped it into the VCR, I had no idea DEVO were in on the proceedings, but I was pleasantly surprised. These guys are so aggressively strange, anything they are in is worth watching at least once and this is no exception. The movie does ramble on and on with not much holding it together, and there are some weak romantic subplots, but I was looking forward enough to what came next so I kept watching. I loved "Booji Boy" and although the dream sequence with Young and DEVO seemed tacked on to give them an excuse to "Rok Out", Rok they do. And am I the only one to think Neil looks like he's on drugs? Plus, Dean Stockwell and Russ Tamblyn together at last and writing screenplays. Might David Lynch have given some advice on this one? It wouldn't be hard to believe, but he would have had better miniatures... This movie is easily whack enough to be worth seeing, especially if you are a DEVO or Young fan.
This is one of those movies that there is no in between on. You'll either love it or hate it. The thing is, those who hate it will hate for the very same reasons the others love it. Let's make no bones- This is a BAD MOVIE. And that's what makes it so great. The performances range from surprisingly decent (in the case of Devo) to ridiculously over the top (Neil Young) to barely coherent (Russ Tamblyn and the ever bizzare Dennis Hopper). The script is scattered and confusing, but contains flashes of inspired hilarity. And it somehow manages to be about something in the end! The highlights are a song-and-dance finale reminicent of Monty Python's Life of Brian and a brilliant deconstruction of Young's classic Out Of The Blue (performed by Devo and Young) which starts as a fairly straight ahead rendition and quickly devolves (so to speak) into a frenzied, chaotic "Screw You" to the fans of Young's sixties and seventies hits. So don't be a spud. Seek the movie out and savour it's delicious stench for yourself.
Those aren't spaceships, those are nuclear missiles ...
A treat for Devo fans, as well. This came out at the time that Neil Young was experimenting with the New Wave musical style himself with his album "Trans", several tracks of which can be heard in the film.
This film displays a very unselfconscious Punk/New Wave aesthetic. Sure, it's disjointed and nonsensical, but everyone's obviously having a lot of fun, and the set design is quite effective, and some of the special effects are interesting as artifacts of the time it was filmed.
Can you identify the four cast members who have also appeared in David Lynch films?
A treat for Devo fans, as well. This came out at the time that Neil Young was experimenting with the New Wave musical style himself with his album "Trans", several tracks of which can be heard in the film.
This film displays a very unselfconscious Punk/New Wave aesthetic. Sure, it's disjointed and nonsensical, but everyone's obviously having a lot of fun, and the set design is quite effective, and some of the special effects are interesting as artifacts of the time it was filmed.
Can you identify the four cast members who have also appeared in David Lynch films?
Did you know
- TriviaContains the only recorded collaboration between Neil Young and Devo, as they perform "Hey Hey My My (Out The Blue Into The Black)". The song is sung by Mark Mothersbaugh as his "Booji Boy" character,and changes a few lyrics in typical Devo fashion. (i.e. "Johhny Rotten" becomes "Johnny Spud").
- Crazy creditsWatch for Human Highway III
- Alternate versionsIn 2015 a Director's Cut was released to film festivals around the world. This new cut was re-edited from digital transfers of the original negatives. It features new footage, special effects, audio and other narrative devices.
- ConnectionsEdited into We're All Devo (1983)
- How long is Human Highway?Powered by Alexa
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