Young@Heart

Wonderful DVD, need to see it to fully appreciate. Makes me smile as I think of my 80+ mother doing something similar ... I realize I am still very young with many opportunities ahead - this bunch is inspirational!

I supervise a staff of service coordinators who work in low-income housing communities. I'm always on the look out for materials to share at our staff meetings; methods to encourage people to view our seniors with a fresh outlook. Talk about thinking "out of the box!" This movie was loaned to me by an employee. I took it home; immediately ordered my own copy; and now have seen it 3 times. I will be playing it at our next staff meeting and I'm so excited! This is a great production not only in terms of the story line but also the way the film is stitched together. I want Bob Cilman's job!

I have found my favorite new movie!!!
Words cannot express how great a movie "Young at Heart" is. If you watch this movie and are not moved, you must see a doctor to see if your heart still beats. This is one of the most joyous movies I have seen in a long time. This movie made me cry and laugh, and at all times felt completely genuine in its intention.This is one time when 5 stars are not enough.
This movie cannot be missed!!!

Often when people explain why they don't like musicals they say, "I just can't believe people would just be talking one minute and then break out into song the next." These same people might not be bothered by loud explosions in space in a science fiction film or a man shooting a six shooter accurately a couple of hundred yards away in a western or a miracle amphibious vehicle that allows its passengers to survive not one but three falls over large waterfalls. But spontaneous song is going just too far.
Maybe it's because we live in a society that spends much money for concerts and downloads to enjoy the music of others while fewer people are making music of their own.
That's not a problem for the members of Young@Heart, a chorus depicted in the documentary movie of the same name. In 1982 this chorus group, whose members are all 70 years old or older, was founded. Initially they performed vaudeville songs like "Yes, We Have No Bananas," but their director, Bob Cilman, pushed the chorus to try something different: rock and roll.
Many of the chorus members had a preference for classical music, opera or the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein. But they were willing to take on the challenge of music by the Talking Heads, David Bowie and the Clash (or as the 92 year old member Ellie refers to them, "The Crash".)
The new songs are not always greeted with good cheer. When Cilman is asked how he thinks the members will react to Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia" he cheerfully says "They'll hate it." But when interviewed, the members insist that the challenge of new music keeps their minds and voices active and alive.
At times, though, I wondered how really new some to the music was to the members. The film was made in 2006. "I Feel Good" is introduced to the singers, and I was thinking that James Brown released that song in 1965. That means that chorus members in their 70's were in their thirties when the song was released. When Mick Jagger is going to turn 65 this year and Paul McCartney just turned the same age, and Elvis would have been eligible to be in Young@Heart if he had lived, it makes one wonder if rock and roll can still be considered a young person's game.
And at times during the film I wondered if the filmmaker (Stephen Walker) and the audiences don't approach the chorus in a condescending manner ("Isn't it cute those old people singing rock songs!") But the group's music is genuinely powerful. The music video of the group singing the Ramone's "Sedated" is energetic and funny. Coldplay's "Fixed" which was meant to be performed as a duet but becomes a solo is heartbreaking.
The members of Young@Heart have a unique understanding of the command in the Psalm 96:1 "Sing to the Lord a new song." So many of us are content to listen to the oldies stations on the radio that play the music of our youth. In church, we want to sing only the songs we know. But that's not what God wants for us. He wants us to sing a new song not just to keep our minds fresh but also our spirits.
Considering the age of the group members, it should not be a surprise that in the film we see the group struggle with greater challenges than tricky rhythms and lyrics. Illness and even death plays a role in this film as it does in the members' lives. Their grace in facing life's ultimate challenges will inspire the view even more than the film's music.

This story is utterly wonderful, sad, inspiring, and fantastic all at the same time!! It is a must have!!