Filmed in San Francisco in October 1978, Rust Never Sleeps is a searingly triumphant set by one of the indisputably great rock combos of all time – Neil Young & Crazy Horse – at the peak of their power, a well-earned victory lap the end of a rough decade for the group (founding member Danny Whitten died in 1972 and the band disintegrated, only to be reorganized and reenergized with their unfuckwithable 1975 “Zuma” LP). Rock hagiography is all well and good, but what of Neil Young’s inscrutable eccentricity? Oh, this Bernard Shakey-directed jam has that in spades (or given Young’s sartorial choices, suspenders): weird theatrical interludes, oversized stage props, and the best use of Jawas in any movie before or since. Jawas? Jawas like from STAR WARS? Yes. Jawa roadies. It was the ‘70s. By the by, Bernard Shakey = Neil Young.
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