Review of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young ‎– Déjà Vu (2008) by Mike M — 18 Jul 2008

After the lilting craft of the "Prairie Wind" album, Young's new selection of songs rather fall into the slightly ranty Culture Club/Edwin Starr mode of "War, war is stupid/War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, say it again"; asking singer-songwriters what they think of armed conflict is only ever going to be as revealing as asking General Tommy Franks what he makes of the new Coldplay album.

What's fascinating about "Deja Vu" - what brings it in line with the Dixie Chicks doc "Shut Up and Sing", the last cine-clash between musicians and warmongers - is that it's one of the few concert movies to give a real voice to the audience, and able, through that audience, to draw a wider portrait of America as of 2006.

.. If Cerre's narration suggests something one might encounter on public-access television, as a demonstration of freedom of speech in all its forms, the film is scrupulous, principled and, ending with a sincere performance of "America the Beautiful", patriotic - and it emerges in a year where, one way or another, America *has* to make a change.