Rating: 
Summary: Blunt object trauma
Review: 'The Year of The Horse' comes on like a languorous sledgehammer, just like being at a Neil Young concert. Shot almost entirely in Super 8, the film retains a ragged, free-form look that behooves the subject matter. This video gives you absolutely fantastic concert footage and some interesting looks back at the band's early years. Unfortunately, most of the interviewing and editing comes off as scattered and incoherent. There are very few intelligent questions asked and even fewer decent responses. For example, some of the interview material is covered several times for no reason. I got sick of hearing Poncho complain that there was no way that some witty response could sum up 30 years of insane band history. Sure, he may have had a point, but the extra 3 or 4 times that he stated the same thing should have been dropped on the editing floor rather than included. Instead of focusing on the band's place in history, this film instead focused on the relationships between the band members - something which is fairly innocuous and boring given everything else that could have been done with the subject matter. I love Jarmusch and I love Crazy Horse. While there are worthwhile nuggets of both in this film, the presentation gets pretty formulaic and stale (inane interview, great concert footage, inane interview, great concert footage, etc.). As a side note, the extra DVD features are fairly bland and do not add any real value to the package.
Rating:
Summary: By the album instead
Review: Although die-hard Neil Young fans will no doubt embrace every song in the movie, casual fans may become a bit bored. The song selection here does offer a few choice cuts that are not on the live Neil Young album of the same name, such as the rarely heard "Stupid Girl". And that's a good thing. However, a couple of cuts on this video, such as the the brash and tired "F*&kin Up", may make you reach for the remote. As for the "documentary" side of things, the interviews between the songs tend to quickly become dull. Fans will learn nothing new, and casual viewers may be confused as to who these people are that are being referred to. The guitarist Poncho states snidely (and I am paraphrasing here), "You think you can learn everything about this band from this short documentary?" Then the camera cuts away leaving the viewer with nothing at all. Later in the film, he says almost the exact same line to the camera, perhaps forgetting that he said it before. The answer clearly is, "No, I won't learn very much at all from this documentary." A saving grace for the video comes in a few short clips of documentary footage from the '70's and '80's. These clips show the band sometimes unaware of the camera, sometimes hamming it up. They're a great depiction of Neil Young and his band in their prime. They also represent everything a documentary film should be. Sadly, there are too few of these moments in this film. The director does manage to sneak himself into the picture several times, along with the name of his production company (I think they're even in the trailer.) This should make it easier to avoid his documentaries in the future. Buy the DVD "Rust Never Sleeps" if you want a concert movie, or buy the album "Year of the Horse" to get the music from this film instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Grungy, Grainy, Gritty, and Great
Review: Can't get to the show? No problem! Jarmusch gives you an all-access pass through the highs and lows of life on the road with Crazy Horse over the decades, and the ride hasn't slowed down a bit, though the players may have rusted a tad. This movie isn't as much a concert as it is a lesson in how four people (five if you include the late Danny Whitten) can constantly churn out better and better music every time they get together. There's no such thing as "status quo" with Crazy Horse. Yeah, the interviews show how life on the road gets tiresome, but once they hit the stage it all seems worthwhile. And, for any doubters out there, you won't see a better performance than the ones Neil the the boys put on for this disc. There's not a bad song to be found, and the sound quality puts you in the front row (you can choose Dolby 5.1 OR DTS). The video's there only for background - well edited, but don't expect to see every detail, every line in their faces on stage. At one point, the members of Horse talk about their jackets... the ones that say "Neil Young and Crazy Horse" on the back. Then Neil points out that HIS jacket just says, "Crazy Horse." He knows, and I hope that the others do also, that they all contribute to the sound that's uniquely theirs. If you want loud, great rock 'n roll with none of the garbage that sometimes gets in the way, like so much of today's music, I can't recommend this higher. (Even if you DO like today's stuff, get this anyway and see where it REALLY comes from.) Hey Hey, My My, Crazy Horse will never die!
Rating:
Summary: Finally...................but could be better.
Review: Finally a film about Neil Young and Crazy Horse, but I have to agree with 'Young and Disjointed' (previous reviewer). I LOVE Crazy Horse. Neil and the Horse are by far one of the greatest live bands ever. But these are nowhere near their best performances. This movie seems to have been filmed mainly during the 1996 Broken Arrow tour. The band seems bored and Neil appears to be already moving on to the next thing but is stuck finishing this tour. There are some great moments but not enough to make this a GREAT film which it could be if performances from every era of Neil and the Horse were shown, such as some Danny Whitten gigs, Tonights the Night tour, Rust Never Sleeps tour, more of the Zuma tour. How come the great footage of 'Like a Hurricane' from 1976 all of a sudden cuts to the end of the 1996 live version just as the 1976 version starts to mesmorize? It's things like that that make the film disjointed. It could be so much better, and I think Neil knows it.
Rating:
Summary: Grungy, Grainy, Gritty, and Great
Review: I ordered the DVD of "Year of The Horse" after first seeing it (in glorious mono) recently on the Independent Film Channel. I was awestruck by the juxtaposition of recent and archival footage, as well as the intense, lyrical quality of the band's music on such tracks as "She Slipped Away" (my personal favorite). I've been a Young / Crazy Horse fan for more than twenty years, and this film gave me new insight into the band, both as individuals and as artists. Jarmusch's use of grainy super 8 film for most of the modern footage perfectly complements the raw, edgy quality of the band's music. The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is first-class. Why four stars and not five? I wish the film were longer, with more concert footage!
Rating: 
Summary: Too bad this video doesn't show how good Crazy Horse is.
Review: I've been a Neil Young fan since the Buffalo Springfield days, and never pass up a chance to enjoy his music if I can. For my money, Neil has more talent, drive, and passion than any 5 "rock stars" around today. Thus, I was really looking forward to seeing this video. In a nutshell, the song list sucked, the "interview" clips were disjointed and felt contrived, and the overall production seemed weak. The best parts, for me, were the clips from the 70s and 80s, showing the band much more energized and focused. Even Neil looked and sounded old and tired in this overdone drivel. If you are new to Neil and Crazy Horse, PLEASE don't make any judgements based on this video. Instead, listen to all the music they've made, see the earlier video record, and dig Crazy Horse for what is really is: one of the best live rock bands to ever take a stage.
Rating: 
Summary: Young and Disappointed
Review: I've loved Neil and his music for many years. He's got to be on the top of your list if you ever want to see a concert that you will always remember (especially if you can catch him solo), but this DVD is NOT IT! I think I've seen every film Bernard Shakey has made and this has got to be the WORST. I was so disapointed with this video that I wanted to find Neil's address and send it to him personally and demand my money back. Don't waste your money on this one, there are no insights here, and the selections of tunes are uninspired at best. It's almost as though Young and Crazy wanted to make this as crappy as possible. If so, they succeeded. It's truly a tragedy, given the talent of these guys, but buy Rust Never Sleeps or Weld...You'll be happy you did.
Rating:
Summary: Blunt object trauma
Review: �The Year of The Horse� comes on like a languorous sledgehammer, just like being at a Neil Young concert. Shot almost entirely in Super 8, the film retains a ragged, free-form look that behooves the subject matter. This video gives you absolutely fantastic concert footage and some interesting looks back at the band's early years. Unfortunately, most of the interviewing and editing comes off as scattered and incoherent. There are very few intelligent questions asked and even fewer decent responses. For example, some of the interview material is covered several times for no reason. I got sick of hearing Poncho complain that there was no way that some witty response could sum up 30 years of insane band history. Sure, he may have had a point, but the extra 3 or 4 times that he stated the same thing should have been dropped on the editing floor rather than included. Instead of focusing on the band's place in history, this film instead focused on the relationships between the band members - something which is fairly innocuous and boring given everything else that could have been done with the subject matter. I love Jarmusch and I love Crazy Horse. While there are worthwhile nuggets of both in this film, the presentation gets pretty formulaic and stale (inane interview, great concert footage, inane interview, great concert footage, etc.). As a side note, the extra DVD features are fairly bland and do not add any real value to the package.
Rating: 
Summary: THE SWEETEST HARVEST
Review: Jim Jarmusch is as great an admirer of Neil Young as I am, and that's saying something! Neil Young's soundtrack for Jarmusch's film 'Dead Man' was a powerful contributor to that film -- I have the Japanese DVD, and it is due for Region 1 release late this year or early next. Jarmusch returns the favour by sculpting one of the best rockumentaries filmed, fully the equal of D.A. Pennebaker's 'Monterey Pop' and 'Don't Look Back'. The film focuses on Neil Young's long-time association with his favourite musical collaborators 'Crazy Horse' and spans a couple of decades, as the musicians work, drink, play and most important of all, perform. The film is sometimes very patchy 16 mm, but the ragged edge and graininess just seems to accentuate the raw power of Neil Young, as he pushes songs like 'Hurricane' to new heights. Buy it -- and check out 'Dead Man' as well. In that film, the combination of Jim Jarmusch, Johnny Depp,Robert Mitchum and Neil Young all in the one package is pretty unbeatable.
Rating:
Summary: Witness a genius at work/ but not behind the camera
Review: Neil has more scincerity, humility, vision, and integrity than most other popular artists. To see this great, ragged genius lit up with the delight of making music - loud, beautiful, raging music - and to hear him sing about the simple themes of love, peace, faluire, and triumph, makes this inconsitant film worthwhile. We see a true artist at work, burning in the grip of the flames of creation. Unfortunatly, the movie circles around and around Neil and the Band, without ever truely making contact with them. They stare quizicly into the camera, asking, alright, now what? The director obviously adores Neil and Crazy Horse, and finds something personaly inspiring and informative in them - but never fully communicates what this is to the audience. Oh well. It's still Neil, and it's really fun.
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