Tuesday, May 20, 2008

"Young@Heart" Will Make You Want to Sing

I bet you’ve never seen the amazing sight of a couple of dozen senior citizens belting out Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancin’ in the Dark” to a truly captive audience: inmates at the local county jail. That scene is just of the many ones that will have you laughing and sometimes crying in the new documentary “Young@Heart,” which I happened to discover today to my total delight.

Young@Heart is the name of a chorus started in 1982 in Northampton, Massachusetts, led by Bob Cilman, at least 30 years their junior. The chorus members’ average age is 80. Men and women, black and white, the troupe members have one vital thing in common: a zest for life that propels them to want to learn songs such as Sonic Youth’s “Schizophrenia,” even though the songs inscribed in their hearts are more likely to be from “The King and I” or “The Sound of Music.” The movie documents their preparation over seven weeks for a new show, and we see them struggle to get the words and rhythm of James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good),” and Coldplay’s “Fix You, “ among others, a challenge they gamely meet, even when one chorus member needs gigantic magnifying glasses to see the words.

This movie reminds us of how vital it is for everyone to keep a sense of purpose, and willingness to learn new things even after heart attacks, cancer, and other ravages of aging have taken their toll. This group loves to sing, and their work in the chorus keeps them living to the fullest. As one of the funniest members of the group, Fred, quips, “We sang on every continent until I became incontinent.” Another man in the group, asked how low he can sing, zings back, “Depends on loose my shorts are.”

The movie is poignant: not all the members of the chorus will make it to the final show, where 92-year old Eileen Hall, cane in hand, sings a moving rendition of the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?,” bringing the house down with thunderous applause.  These folks aren’t afraid of death: they are afraid of being dead while still living, which would be their fate if they gave into the dullness and inactivity that their years could invite. These old rockers will have none of it. As one of the prison guards notes after they finish singing Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” at the Hampshire Jail, “Lotta spirit in these folks.”

Check out the movie trailer here. If you’re not smiling and singing by the end of it, well then, you really need to see the movie!