Human Highway [VHS]

Human Highway [VHS]
by Dean Stockwell

Our Price: $30.00
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: VHS Video
See more movie releases

Buy this VHS video movie at online store in your country
Canada

Product details

Actor: Bob Casale, Dennis Hopper, Gerald V. Casale, John Herzog (II), Sally Kirkland
Director: Dean Stockwell
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 83 minutes
Release Date: 1995-08-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Warner Bros / Wea
Studio: Warner Bros / Wea

VHS Movie Reviews of Human Highway [VHS]

Movie Review: A very mixed bag
Summary: 3 Stars

Just because you like ice cream and tomato sauce doesn't mean you should mix 'em together. I think that's what happened here. I couldn't imagine not liking a movie with Neil Young, Devo, Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell, etc.... well, live and learn.

The pieces of this movie don't hang together well. It's like there were two different films and someone just mashed them together with no regard for whether or not they would fit. On one side we have the somewhat didactic Devo pieces, with Booji Boy in a role similar to the chorus in a Greek play; he's like a court jester, who gets away with speaking ugly truths because he's too silly to take seriously.

On the other side we have Neil Young's surreal pseudo-story. Despite some interesting snippets of dialog, no particular thread is developed far enough to inspire any real interest in the story, and no character is developed enough to make us care what happens to them. Which, in a way, is probably Young's point - the tiny events of our little lives just aren't as interesting as we think they are, and they don't matter. But that doesn't make for engaging storytelling.

But, between Devo's solid personification of doom and Young's dreamlike depiction of everyday life, there is one amazing performance which, in my opinion, redeems the movie. It's their joint rendition of "Hey Hey My My." This lengthy, frenzied, and apparently spontaneous studio session is the only honest moment in the entire movie. All the campiness, tongue-in-cheek lecturing, and coyness that candy-coats the film's depiction of our shallow, ugly civilization is put aside for a straightforward primal scream. The speeches and the dreamy videos are nice, but the wailing fury of this number is a catharsis of disgust, contempt, and disillusionment. Young and Devo work together as if in a trance, and no one seems to want to break the spell. It's genuine and moving.

Write your own review

More Human Highway [VHS] reviews:
1 2 3

Summary of Human Highway [VHS]

Neil Young's 1982 comic mess of a feature left many faithful fans baffled and was otherwise unappreciated at the time of its release. But with the benefit of hindsight and shifts in pop culture in the last couple of decades, much of Human Highway now feels warm and funny where it once looked disastrously undisciplined. Nostalgia helps: gilded memories of Devo's decadent antics long ago now make their recurring role in this film (as nuclear plant workers bathed in a suspicious red glow) almost sentimentally appealing. Similarly, Dennis Hopper's role as a chattering nutcase and short-order cook named Cracker looks sharper and more laughable now, and Dean Stockwell's perfectly timed performance as a slimeball businessman is even more entertaining knowing the former child actor was on the threshold of a career revival. (Stockwell is also credited as a writer and codirector of Human Highway.) The story, such as it is, concerns the goofy goings-on at a remote diner and gas station just down the road from a disintegrating nuclear plant. Stockwell's character has inherited the failing, ramshackle eatery and is crafting secret plans to torch the place. Meanwhile, Young's character, a dorky mechanic, swoons in the presence of a favorite waitress (Charlotte Stewart), bickers with his boyish partner (Russ Tamblyn), and dreams of playing music to an audience. Much of the film looks spontaneously conceived, but the players are all so good they know exactly where the laughs are. Influences are easier to spot now, too, particularly the freewheeling set-ups of Paul Morrissey and John Waters (though without their perversity). The hyperreal sets and backdrops actually anticipate Tim Burton by a couple of years, and overall the direction is more sure than most of us could see at the time. --Tom Keogh

Classic Rock Music CDs

Movies most talked about in Classic Rock Music CDs

Paul Mccartney, Wings - Wings at the Speed of Sound
Release date: 1996-09-24; Music CD
Best price: $259.98

Small Faces - Boxed
Release date: 1997-11-01; Music CD
Best price: $43.38

Dr John - Gris Gris
Release date: 1994-07-15; Music CD
Price in other shops: ~~$18.98~~

Eric Clapton: Live in Hyde Park [VHS]
Warner Bros / Wea; Release date: 1998-02-17; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.75
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

Human Highway [VHS]
Warner Bros / Wea; Release date: 1995-08-08; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $121.00

The Monkees - Head [VHS]
Rhino / Wea; Release date: 1995-01-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.42
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~

Ozzy Osbourne - Live & Loud [VHS]
Sony; Release date: 1993-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $3.96
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~

Bruce Springsteen - Unplugged [VHS]
Sony; Release date: 1992-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~

Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel - P.O.V. [VHS]
Virgin Records Us; Release date: 1992-06-29; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $121.90

Toto - Past to Present [VHS]
Sony; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $72.82

Similar Video, DVDs, Audio CDs

Out Of The Blue
Release date: 2003-09-30; DVD
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops: ~~$9.98~~

Neil Young International Harvesters - A Treasure (CD)
Release date: 2011-06-14; Published: 2011; Music CD
Best price: $8.76
Price in other shops: ~~$18.98~~