The movie's primary setting is the last day on Earth at a small gas station-diner in a fictional town located next to a nuclear power plant. The characters are diner employees and customers including Young Otto (Dean Stockwell) who has received ownership of the failing business by the Will of his recently deceased father. One 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!" he often exclaims.
The song "Breaking in the Wind" highlights the opening scene set in a post-apocalyptic world. Devo are bizarre in this film as radiated garbagemen, not surprisingly. Booji Boy is especially strange, with his mask, squeaky voice and gasoline-tasting.
Dennis Hopper who played the addled cook (among other roles) was performing knife tricks with real knives 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.
The version of this film I watched was a VHS transfer, and as far as I know there has been no real attempt to bring this film out on DVD. I am not a fan of Neil Young, and I found this movie largely boring and pointless, but for the fans, a good transfer would work wonders: improved sound would be nice, but if the grainy picture could be cleaned up, this has the potential to become a cult classic.
If you're a die-hard Devo fan, or a Neil Young fan, try to track this one down. I wasn't too pumped about it, but your mileage may vary.
Human Highway
1982
Comedy / Drama / Sci-Fi
Human Highway
1982
Comedy / Drama / Sci-Fi
Plot summary
The plot revolves around a small gas station-diner in a fictional town next to a nuclear power plant. A choreographed musical dream sequence takes place as the nuclear blast occurs. At the destroyed gas station-diner post nuclear holocaust Booji Boy (DEVO's Mark Mothersbaugh) is a lone survivor. At the nuclear power plant, trash collectors (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. There's a leak at the power plant and "Barrel go boom," as the power plant worker so succinctly puts it. A character's (Otto) recent death is by radiation poisoning. A noted sequence in the film features the band DEVO (named after "de-evolution") and a bizarre rendition of "Hey, Hey, My, My". In a particularly ironic manner, DEVO covers Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In the Wind" just before Booji Boy says: "I don't know what's going on in the world these days. It seems that everybody's just got everything turned around." "People don't seem to care about their fellow man. They're all going for that big ice-cream cone in the sky. They haven't figured out what happens when your eyes get bigger then your belly. Like an ostrich who eats his pizza with his head stuck in the sand. If they can't see it, it isn't there. And you know, it really *does* take a worried man!"
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Very Poor Concept Video
Loads of Fun
A silly romp, with model trains as a backdrop. Glowing nuclear plant workers. Rear projection bike rides. The guy from "quantum leap". A short snippet of Young singing "Ride My Llama". It's goofy, quirky, maybe not great, but interesting and a bit daring.Oh yeah, it's fun.
I will never put down Neil Young again.
I'm watching this movie in anticipation of catching my two favorite actors, Dean Stockwell & Dennis Hopper, in a couple of offbeat roles....but wait, is that Devo? And who is the weird character in the doll's mask? And why is the art direction so...arty? And Neil Young, with buck teeth and thick glasses, acting like a kid brother of Jerry Lewis....hold on, this ain't no offbeat movie - this movie is so OFF the beat, it's incredibly hip! I couldn't stop watching the damn thing....yep, Neil is really singing "Tonight" from West Side Story while wiping the windshield, 'cause, you see, Russ Tamblyn is his buddy, and, oh forget it.....Then, to find out Dean Stockwell and Russ Tamblyn helped write this production...and, what, you say Stockwell directed it? I'm in love. And I will never put down Neil Young, either.