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 Young @ Heart A Country Very Much for Old Men
In a country where we hide our senior citizens away in house-like boxes where they can be conveniently fed and cared for, Young @ Heart is a 107-minute reminder that our elders are at their best when they are not swept under the carpet. Since 1982, conductor Bob Cilman has been directing the chorus after which this film is named. There’s only one requirement to join: a minimum age, which has been rising since the chorus began. The bar is now set at 73. This documentary follows Cilman and his chorus members as they prepare for a special, one-time concert to be performed in the city they call home:
A couple of them, in fact, go kicking and singing. Fred Knittle, for instance—who is no longer able to tour with the group due to complications resulting from congestive heart failure—quips that he toured “from continent to continent until I became incontinent.” Now tied to a portable supplemental oxygen supply via a nasal cannula, Fred is recruited by Cilman to participate in a special duet for the concert—a melancholy arrangement of Coldplay’s “Fix You,” with long-time chorus member and literal never-say-die fellow former-chorus-member Bob Salvini. Long ago told by doctors that he only had months to live, Fred still makes special appearances with the chorus, the click of his oxygen supply acting as its own metronome, ticking away an odd alternate tempo while his basso rumblings keep audiences on the edge of their seats. It’s tough to talk about the film’s many, many moving highlights without giving away too many of its pleasures. But you’ll probably get a kick out of the music videos that director Stephen Walker produced with the group, such as The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated.” And you can look forward to the most meaningful version of Prince’s “Nothing Compares to You” that you will ever hear, plus a moving warm-up concert that the chorus performs for inmates at a local prison. The latter typifies the heart of what Cilman and his Young @ Heart Chorus is about: connecting people with people, and demonstrating that the supposedly “Disposable Generation” is far from finished making meaningful contributions—straight from their overflowing hearts. The most powerful visual metaphor in the film is one that was likely unintended. The space that the group uses for its rehearsals is apparently some kind of multi-purpose facility. In the background, stacked along the walls, are piles upon piles of folding tables. Throughout the film, they just lie there… and it’s easy to wonder: What do those tables ever get used for? What use could they possibly serve? The answer just might be your call to find the answers—rather than sitting there and wondering, pull them out and perhaps their purpose will become clear. Those things that you once relegated to uselessness may turn out to be the most practical tools that you ever stuffed somewhere out of sight—perhaps in some high-rent box. Young @ Heart is rated PG for “some mild language and thematic elements.” Seriously, unless your kids’ grandparents are lily-white saints, there’s nothing here your children haven’t heard before. Take them along… please. Courtesy of a local publicist, Greg attended a press screening of Young @ Heart. Also be sure to read Greg’s interview with Young @ Heart’s Musical Director Bob Cilman. |
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The film starts us out in an expectations-defying fashion. Lest you think that this will be some geezer novelty act with old folks singing “My Darling Clementine,” suffice to say that the opening number serves notice that you’re in for something unique—and I won’t spoil it by telling you what the song is that 92-year-old Eileen Hall belts out with the chorus backing. I will tell you, however, that the song was a hit for The Clash, and it sets the tone for the film. These are not folks who will “go gently into that good night.”