Human Highway
Encyclopedia
Human Highway is a 1982 comedy film
starring and co-directed by Neil Young
under his pseudonym
Bernard Shakey. Dean Stockwell
co-directed the film and acted along with Russ Tamblyn
, Dennis Hopper
, and the band Devo
. Included is a collaborative performance of "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
" by Devo and Young with Booji Boy
singing lead vocals and Young playing lead guitar.
The film was shown in only select theaters and was not released on VHS until 1995. It received poor reviews upon its premiere and with the benefit of hindsight has received favorable reviews more recently.
) has received ownership of the failing business by the Will of his recently deceased father. His employee, Lionel Switch (Neil Young
), is the garage's goofy and bumbling auto mechanic who dreams of being a rock star. "I can do it!" Lionel often exclaims. After some modest character development and a collage-like dream sequence there is a tongue-in-cheek choreographed musical finale while nuclear war begins.
At the destroyed gas station-diner post nuclear holocaust Booji Boy
(Mark Mothersbaugh
) is a lone survivor, but after his cynical prose the opening credits are a return to present time prior to apocalypse.
At the nuclear power plant nuclear garbage persons (members of Devo
) reveal that radioactive waste is routinely mishandled and dumped at the nearby town of Linear Valley. They sing a remake of "Worried Man Blues
" while loading waste barrels on an old truck. Meanwhile, Lionel and his buddy Fred Kelly (Russ Tamblyn
) ride bicycles to work. Fred states that Old Otto's recent death was by radiation poisoning. They remain unaware of the implications as Lionel laments it should have been himself that died because he has worked on "almost every radiator in every car in town."
Early in the day at the diner Young Otto announces he must fire an employee for lack of money. He chooses waitress Kathryn (Sally Kirkland
) who has a tantrum and refuses to leave. She sits down weeping at a booth that has a picture on the wall of Old Otto (also Stockwell) and chooses on the juke box the song "The End of the World". Later, waitress Irene (Geraldine Baron) overhears Young Otto's plans to fire everybody, destroy the buildings and collect on a fraud insurance claim. Irene demands to be included in the scheme and to seal the deal with a kiss.
Although Lionel has a crush on the waitress Charlotte (Charlotte Stewart
), she has a crush on the milkman Earl Duke (David Blue). After an earthquake Duke, dressed in white, enters the diner with a delivery. He flirts with her saying, "Charlotte ...on my way over here this morning I thought about you and the earth moved." She replies, "You felt it too!" He also offers her a milk bath. While he is there a dining Arab sheik offers him wealth in return for his "whiteness."
A limousine stops at the gas station. After Lionel learns his rock star idol, Frankie Fontaine (also Young), is in the limousine he insists the vehicle will need work. After meeting rock star Frankie, who appears to lead an opulent, sequestered and drug influenced life-style, Lionel says to the wooden Indian
in his shop, "Now there's a real human being!"
Lionel receives a bump on the head while working on Frankie's limousine and enters a dream. He becomes a rock star with a back up band of wooden Indians. Back stage he is given a milk bath by Irene. Lionel travels with his band (the wooden Indians) and crew (all people from his waking life) by trucks through the desert. The wooden Indians become missing.
During "Goin' Back" (a song by Young) the entourage recreates in the desert near a Pueblo. Native Americans prepare a bon fire to burn the wooden Indians which had been missing. Soon Lionel is playing music and dancing around the bon fire which appears to have become the center of a Pow Wow
. "Goin' Back" ends gazing into the bonfire of burning wooden Indians. "Hey, Hey, My, My" is a ten minute studio jam performance of Devo and Young.
Lionel wakes from his dream surrounded by concerned friends much like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz
. Soon there is the start of global nuclear war. No one is sure what is happening until it is announced by Booji Boy, as "the hour of sleep." He then provides shovels and commands everyone to "dig that hole and dance like a mole!" The cast then enters a choreographed adaptation of "Worried Man". The planet is engulfed in radioactive glow and the cast, still festive, climbs a stairway to heaven accompanied by harp music.
as "Lionel Switch", the garage mechanic, Russ Tamblyn
as "Fred Kelly" who is Lionel's friend, Dean Stockwell
as "Otto Quartz", the restaurant and gas station owner and Dennis Hopper
as the cook, "Cracker". The waitresses were Charlotte Stewart
as "Charlotte", Sally Kirkland
as "Kathryn" and Geraldine Baron as "Irene". Several of the cast members became favorites of David Lynch
. The members of Devo were cast as "Nuclear Garbagepersons". The film was released shortly after the death of 60's folk-singer David Blue who was cast as the milkman, "Earl Duke".
.
Dennis Hopper
who played the addled cook was performing knife tricks with a real knife on the set. Sally Kirkland
attempted to take a knife from him and severed a tendon. She spent time in a hospital and later sued claiming Hopper was out of control. Hopper has admitted to drug abuse during this time period.
For Devo it was their first experience with Hollywood. Gerald Casale
said the band felt removed observing the odd behaviors including excessive alcohol and drug abuse and rock star adulation with Young as the central "most grounded" person.
The "Hey Hey My My" footage with Devo was recorded at Different Fur
, San Francisco. Mark Mothersbaugh as "Booji Boy" during this performance inserted the Devo line, "rust never sleeps". The line would soon after become the inspiration for Young's works with the same name. Young showed the footage of this performance to his band Crazy Horse
. Guitarist Frank Sampedro
has said they played "Hey Hey My My" "harder" as a result.
(Rugrats, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Herbie: Fully Loaded). Most of the songs by Young in the film would be released on the album Trans
.
as "goofy and enjoyable" and Young's acting as "surprisingly funny". It was also suggested by TV Guide that the film would have done well on the midnight circuit that existed at the time of its initial release. Yet, a critic of
cult films reviewed the film as being self-absorbed and worthwhile only for completists. An original intent by Young to reference the dream-plot of The Wizard of Oz
has been recognized in a Rotten Tomatoes
synopsis describing the film as "The Wizard of Oz on acid." A more recent review by Seattle Times critic Tom Keogh notes the film's use of "hyper-real sets" predating Tim Burton
and a surety of direction at times recognizably influenced by Paul Morrissey
and John Waters
.
in 1995, twelve years after its initial screening. It has not been re-released, or transferred to DVD
as of March 2011. Several scenes from the movie appeared on the Devo music video collections We're All Devo
and The Complete Truth About Devolution
, and were edited to appear as one continuous video for the song "Worried Man".
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
starring and co-directed by Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
under his pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Bernard Shakey. Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
co-directed the film and acted along with Russ Tamblyn
Russ Tamblyn
Russell Irving "Russ" Tamblyn is an American film and television actor, who is arguably best known for his performance in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story as Riff, the leader of the Jets gang....
, Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
, and the band Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
. Included is a collaborative performance of "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
"Hey Hey, My My " is a rock song by Neil Young. Combined with its acoustic counterpart "My My, Hey Hey ", it bookends Young's successful 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps...
" by Devo and Young with Booji Boy
Booji Boy
Booji Boy is a character created in the early 1970s by American New Wave band Devo. The name is pronounced "Boogie Boy"—the strange spelling "Booji" resulted when the band was using letraset to produce captions for a film, and ran out of the letter "g"...
singing lead vocals and Young playing lead guitar.
The film was shown in only select theaters and was not released on VHS until 1995. It received poor reviews upon its premiere and with the benefit of hindsight has received favorable reviews more recently.
Plot
Employees and customers spend time at a small gas station-diner in a fictional town next to a nuclear power plant unaware it is the last day on Earth. Young Otto (Dean StockwellDean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
) has received ownership of the failing business by the Will of his recently deceased father. His employee, Lionel Switch (Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
), is the garage's goofy and bumbling auto mechanic who dreams of being a rock star. "I can do it!" Lionel often exclaims. After some modest character development and a collage-like dream sequence there is a tongue-in-cheek choreographed musical finale while nuclear war begins.
At the destroyed gas station-diner post nuclear holocaust Booji Boy
Booji Boy
Booji Boy is a character created in the early 1970s by American New Wave band Devo. The name is pronounced "Boogie Boy"—the strange spelling "Booji" resulted when the band was using letraset to produce captions for a film, and ran out of the letter "g"...
(Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Allen Mothersbaugh is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games....
) is a lone survivor, but after his cynical prose the opening credits are a return to present time prior to apocalypse.
At the nuclear power plant nuclear garbage persons (members of Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
) reveal that radioactive waste is routinely mishandled and dumped at the nearby town of Linear Valley. They sing a remake of "Worried Man Blues
Worried Man Blues
"Worried Man Blues" is a folk song in the roots music repertoire. Like many folks songs passed by oral tradition, the lyrics vary from version to version, but generally all contain the chorus "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song/It takes a worried man to sing a worried song/I'm worried...
" while loading waste barrels on an old truck. Meanwhile, Lionel and his buddy Fred Kelly (Russ Tamblyn
Russ Tamblyn
Russell Irving "Russ" Tamblyn is an American film and television actor, who is arguably best known for his performance in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story as Riff, the leader of the Jets gang....
) ride bicycles to work. Fred states that Old Otto's recent death was by radiation poisoning. They remain unaware of the implications as Lionel laments it should have been himself that died because he has worked on "almost every radiator in every car in town."
Early in the day at the diner Young Otto announces he must fire an employee for lack of money. He chooses waitress Kathryn (Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Kirkland was named after her mother, fashion editor Sally Kirkland, who was a fashion editor at Vogue and LIFE magazines, and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Frederic McMichael Kirkland, worked in the scrap...
) who has a tantrum and refuses to leave. She sits down weeping at a booth that has a picture on the wall of Old Otto (also Stockwell) and chooses on the juke box the song "The End of the World". Later, waitress Irene (Geraldine Baron) overhears Young Otto's plans to fire everybody, destroy the buildings and collect on a fraud insurance claim. Irene demands to be included in the scheme and to seal the deal with a kiss.
Although Lionel has a crush on the waitress Charlotte (Charlotte Stewart
Charlotte Stewart
Charlotte Stewart is an American film and television actress.She is most famous for her role as the schoolmarm 'Miss Beadle' on Little House on the Prairie and her work with director David Lynch....
), she has a crush on the milkman Earl Duke (David Blue). After an earthquake Duke, dressed in white, enters the diner with a delivery. He flirts with her saying, "Charlotte ...on my way over here this morning I thought about you and the earth moved." She replies, "You felt it too!" He also offers her a milk bath. While he is there a dining Arab sheik offers him wealth in return for his "whiteness."
A limousine stops at the gas station. After Lionel learns his rock star idol, Frankie Fontaine (also Young), is in the limousine he insists the vehicle will need work. After meeting rock star Frankie, who appears to lead an opulent, sequestered and drug influenced life-style, Lionel says to the wooden Indian
Cigar store Indian
The cigar store Indian or wooden Indian is an advertisement figure, in the likeness of an American Indian, made to represent tobacconists, much like: barber poles advertise barber shops; Show globe for an apothecary; or the three gold balls of the pawn shop. The figures are often three-dimensional...
in his shop, "Now there's a real human being!"
Lionel receives a bump on the head while working on Frankie's limousine and enters a dream. He becomes a rock star with a back up band of wooden Indians. Back stage he is given a milk bath by Irene. Lionel travels with his band (the wooden Indians) and crew (all people from his waking life) by trucks through the desert. The wooden Indians become missing.
During "Goin' Back" (a song by Young) the entourage recreates in the desert near a Pueblo. Native Americans prepare a bon fire to burn the wooden Indians which had been missing. Soon Lionel is playing music and dancing around the bon fire which appears to have become the center of a Pow Wow
Pow-wow
A pow-wow is a gathering of North America's Native people. The word derives from the Narragansett word powwaw, meaning "spiritual leader". A modern pow-wow is a specific type of event where both Native American and non-Native American people meet to dance, sing, socialize, and honor American...
. "Goin' Back" ends gazing into the bonfire of burning wooden Indians. "Hey, Hey, My, My" is a ten minute studio jam performance of Devo and Young.
Lionel wakes from his dream surrounded by concerned friends much like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
. Soon there is the start of global nuclear war. No one is sure what is happening until it is announced by Booji Boy, as "the hour of sleep." He then provides shovels and commands everyone to "dig that hole and dance like a mole!" The cast then enters a choreographed adaptation of "Worried Man". The planet is engulfed in radioactive glow and the cast, still festive, climbs a stairway to heaven accompanied by harp music.
Cast
The cast in credit order includes Neil YoungNeil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
as "Lionel Switch", the garage mechanic, Russ Tamblyn
Russ Tamblyn
Russell Irving "Russ" Tamblyn is an American film and television actor, who is arguably best known for his performance in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story as Riff, the leader of the Jets gang....
as "Fred Kelly" who is Lionel's friend, Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
as "Otto Quartz", the restaurant and gas station owner and Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
as the cook, "Cracker". The waitresses were Charlotte Stewart
Charlotte Stewart
Charlotte Stewart is an American film and television actress.She is most famous for her role as the schoolmarm 'Miss Beadle' on Little House on the Prairie and her work with director David Lynch....
as "Charlotte", Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Kirkland was named after her mother, fashion editor Sally Kirkland, who was a fashion editor at Vogue and LIFE magazines, and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Frederic McMichael Kirkland, worked in the scrap...
as "Kathryn" and Geraldine Baron as "Irene". Several of the cast members became favorites of David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
. The members of Devo were cast as "Nuclear Garbagepersons". The film was released shortly after the death of 60's folk-singer David Blue who was cast as the milkman, "Earl Duke".
Production
Over four years Young spent $3,000,000 of his own money on production. Much of the filming was in 1978 on a Hollywood soundstage. The set which included the diner and gas station was built to Young's specific requests. His initial idea was to portray a day in the life of Lionel and bystanders during the Earth's last day. The actors were to develop their own characters. The script was a combination of improvisation and developing small story lines as they went. Young, Stockwell and Tamblyn were central in the writing. A portion of the dream sequence was filmed at Taos Pueblo, New MexicoTaos Pueblo, New Mexico
Taos Pueblo is a census-designated place in Taos County, New Mexico, United States. It is north of Taos. The population was 1,264 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Taos Pueblo is located at...
.
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
who played the addled cook was performing knife tricks with a real knife on the set. Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland
Sally Kirkland is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Kirkland was named after her mother, fashion editor Sally Kirkland, who was a fashion editor at Vogue and LIFE magazines, and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father, Frederic McMichael Kirkland, worked in the scrap...
attempted to take a knife from him and severed a tendon. She spent time in a hospital and later sued claiming Hopper was out of control. Hopper has admitted to drug abuse during this time period.
For Devo it was their first experience with Hollywood. Gerald Casale
Gerald Casale
Gerald Vincent Casale , often known as Jerry Casale, is a vocalist, bass guitar/synthesizer player, and a founding member of the new wave band Devo...
said the band felt removed observing the odd behaviors including excessive alcohol and drug abuse and rock star adulation with Young as the central "most grounded" person.
The "Hey Hey My My" footage with Devo was recorded at Different Fur
Different Fur
Different Fur is a recording studio located in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, and is located at 3470 19th Street...
, San Francisco. Mark Mothersbaugh as "Booji Boy" during this performance inserted the Devo line, "rust never sleeps". The line would soon after become the inspiration for Young's works with the same name. Young showed the footage of this performance to his band Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse (band)
Crazy Horse is an American rock band best known for its association with Neil Young. It has been co-credited on a number of albums throughout Young's career and has released five albums of its own.-Early years:...
. Guitarist Frank Sampedro
Frank Sampedro
Frank "Poncho" Sampedro is an American guitarist and member of the rock and roll band Crazy Horse, known mainly for its longtime collaboration with singer-songwriter Neil Young....
has said they played "Hey Hey My My" "harder" as a result.
Credits
Editing and post-production supervision is credited to James Beshears (Madagascar, Shark Tale, Shrek). The screen play is credited to Bernard Shakey, Jeanne Field, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn and Beshears. The members of Devo were asked to write their own parts. Choreography is credited to Tamblyn. Music is credited to Neil Young and Devo. The film's score was the first by Mark MothersbaughMark Mothersbaugh
Mark Allen Mothersbaugh is an American musician, composer, singer and painter. He is the co-founder of the new wave band Devo and has been its lead singer since 1972. His other musical projects include work for television series, films, and video games....
(Rugrats, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Herbie: Fully Loaded). Most of the songs by Young in the film would be released on the album Trans
Trans (album)
Trans is the twelfth studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released in 1982. Recorded partially and released during his notorious Geffen era in the 1980s, Trans baffled many Neil Young fans. Some suggested that the album could be a satirical message that Young was trying to send about the...
.
Release
Critical reception
Human Highway is commonly reviewed as a "bizarre" comedy. Following the film's official premiere in Los Angeles, June 1983 it was shown only briefly in a small number of theaters. It received poor reviews by critics and confused audiences. After the film's release to VHS in 1996 it has since received more favorable reviews such as being described by TV GuideTV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
as "goofy and enjoyable" and Young's acting as "surprisingly funny". It was also suggested by TV Guide that the film would have done well on the midnight circuit that existed at the time of its initial release. Yet, a critic of
cult films reviewed the film as being self-absorbed and worthwhile only for completists. An original intent by Young to reference the dream-plot of The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
has been recognized in a Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
synopsis describing the film as "The Wizard of Oz on acid." A more recent review by Seattle Times critic Tom Keogh notes the film's use of "hyper-real sets" predating Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
and a surety of direction at times recognizably influenced by Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey is an American film director, best-known for his association with Andy Warhol.Morrissey attended Ampleforth College, a private Roman Catholic boarding school and Fordham University, both Roman Catholic schools, and later served in the United States Army...
and John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
.
Home video
The movie was only released in a VHS fullscreen edition (as well as LaserDisc) by WEAWarner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
in 1995, twelve years after its initial screening. It has not been re-released, or transferred to DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
as of March 2011. Several scenes from the movie appeared on the Devo music video collections We're All Devo
We're All Devo
We're All Devo! is the second home video release by new wave band Devo. Released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1984, We're All Devo! is a collection of Devo music videos from 1976 to 1983.-Synopsis:...
and The Complete Truth About Devolution
The Complete Truth About Devolution
The Complete Truth About De-Evolution was the third home video release by new wave band Devo. It is a collection of Devo's music videos from 1976 to 1990. It was released on Laserdisc in 1993 by Voyager and on DVD by Rhino Records in 2003.-Synopsis:...
, and were edited to appear as one continuous video for the song "Worried Man".