Human Highway

1982's HUMAN HIGHWAY, co-directed by Neil Young (as his cinematic nom de plume Bernard Shakey) sounded like my kinda midnight movie.  My initial awareness came when Siskel & Ebert reviewed it on their television program.  At the time, I was most interested that Devo appeared in it, and cast in a red glow of radioactivity, to boot.   But I was confused by a Devo/Neil Young collaboration.  The film had zero chance of opening in West Palm Beach, Florida, and I never saw it play on cable, not even MTV.  I forgot about it for many years.

Recently, I read that the film was remastered and re-edited.  Yes, the sometimes dreaded "Director's Cut".  This is the version I saw.  I've read of the changes, mainly that the ten minute performance of "Hey Hey My My" (by Young and Devo, led by Booji Boy) had been shaved.  It must've been swell, though even the few minutes we have here really help this shapeless, largely improvised nonsense.  There is something of a plot involving a diner/gas station that has been inherited by Young Otto Quartz (other co-director Dean Stockwell) and the local nuclear power plant, whose waste is removed by those glowing spud boys, who repeatedly sing the old folkie "Worried Man Blues" as they go about their grim business.

There are several silly characters who spout silly lines, which were written by the respective actors.  Dennis Hopper is a cook named Cracker who feeds pancakes to raccoons.  Sally Kirkland plays a rough, opportunistic waitress named Kathryn.  Young is a doofus mechanic named Lionel and Russ Tamblyn is his equally dense friend Fred.  Some of these actors play more than one role.  Everyone seems to be having a good time.  Unsurprisingly, Young had to put up his own money to fund this thing.

And honestly, it's terrible.  I love bizarre, stream of consciousness type cinema but while this has creative, colorful production design (in that artificial "Let's put on a show" sorta theatrical way) and surprisingly skillful direction and cinematography (by David Myers), a majority of the time I felt like I was watching someone's (tedious) acid trip.  From some reports, that's exactly what HUMAN HIGHWAY was.  The film is completely devoid of dramatic interest.  The comedy is just goofy.  There are a few smiles, but for the most part this is torturous, ocasionally saved by some inspired bit of weirdness.  Even Devo is somehow made to be dull, save that aforementioned performance with Young.

Yes, the music is good.

Clearly Young was trying to make statements about nuclear proliferation and the treatment of the American Indian, but they don't come off.   There's also an odd moment when a sheikh covets the "whiteness" of a randy milkman.

And there's that curious dream sequence, which looks and feels nothing like the rest of the movie.  It shows the musings of Lionel, who longs to be a rock star, and features Native American imagery and a backstage milk bath.  It has the look of 1970s home movies or outtakes.  The peyote was strong with HUMAN HIGHWAY.