Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Disc 9 - which, remember, is Neil-speak for the set's 10th and final disc - is given over to the film Journey Through the Past, seeing its first release in any form since its 1973 theatrical debut. Directed by Young under his preferred nom de lens, Bernard Shakey, it includes music in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, though we really get it only in increments, as none of the songs in surround is complete or even uninterrupted.

Early TV footage of Buffalo Springfield miming "For What It's Worth" and "Mr. Soul" on The Hollywood Palace, shot on January 20, 1967 (and aired 3 months later), is in stereo. (This appearance can be seen in full via the Video Tape Log in the "Mr. Soul" folder on Disc 2.) It's interspersed with Young's visit to a Nashville radio station for an interview with DJ Scott Shannon. When the scene changes to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young at the Fillmore East on June 5, 1970, surround sound is engaged with a sweeping audience roar.

"Quiet now, quiet; shhhh," intones Graham, and the din in the rear drops off; you'll soon hear other audience members taking his cue and calling out in the back for silence. Acoustic guitars usher in "Find the Cost of Freedom," with Young's chordal pickings dominating the left front and surround channels, and Stephen's lead lines the two rights. CSNY's all-channel a cappella harmonizing begins sweetly, but it gets relegated to a supporting role as the onscreen action morphs to a man backstage who, gulping down a beer, disparages capitalism and the escalating price of concert tickets. Suddenly, the sonic gears shift smack into an in-progress "Ohio," where both Young and Stills spit out electric leads in the center channel on their Gretsch White Falcons.

The film's "Southern Man" segment is the most ferocious CSNY outing, with Young sneering through the lyrics front and center while he strangles his guitar, trading solos with Stills while Crosby's electric 12-string comp lines do their duty in the rear. In-barn rehearsal footage of Young and the Stray Gators working through Harvest material begins with crickets chirping all around, serving as the opening act for "Alabama," which features Ben Keith's razor-sharp pedal-steel dominating the middle. With "Words (Between the Lines of Age)" providing the full-channel accompaniment while a hardhat-clad Young tromps through a crushed-car-strewn junkyard in Nashville, the line that comes immediately to mind can only be "Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 1970s." And the subwoofer finally gets a workout as a fire in a sawdust burner crackles and roars while Young works through "Soldier" on piano at night.

Surround sound is also deployed for some music-free scenes. Wind whips through the rear as a bruised, bearded graduate in a black gown is dumped from a black Mercedes limo in the desert outside Las Vegas. Cresting surf comes from behind, too, as another bearded man listens to his self-propelled red Chevy truck talk back to him as he walks next to it on the beach.