December 16, 2008.

The Day the Music Died.

Rating: 5
On my DVD shelf, this little music doc is filed in the Horror section, right between "The Exorcist" and "The Ring." Because this is one of the scariest things I've ever seen, perhaps because I'm not big on crowds, but still... for very good reason the name "Altamont" still delivers a shiver even in these days when pop princesses prance on stages 12 feet high in boxes of bulletproof glass while the rest of us dance alone in our rooms with our ipods. Okay, okay, I'm not saying that good live music does not exist anymore, but it's still boggles the mind to think that once the biggest band in the world thought it would be a great thing to give a free concert for a gazillion people on a stage 2 feet high and have the Hell's Angel's provide "security." The resulting murderous mayhem irrevocably disproved the goofy idea that a congregation of people f%$#ed up on hallucinogenic drugs will inevitably facilitate a beautiful fellowship of love and peace. The sad realization of that fact slowly and horribly unfolds during the film's narrative, and the impact of it punches the gut even 39-odd years after the fact. The documentation of this deeply misguided concert event simply pulsates with bad juju from the get-go. Menace seems to hang heavy in the morning air, and things get out-of-control very early -- the instant the frisbees start flying all hell seems about to break loose. The sheer massiveness of that surly, churning crowd next to the comparative tininess of the stage and the musicians on it is stunning as the violence erupts periodically, and increasingly, throughout the day. From a bewildered and frightened Gram Parsons pleading, "Please people please stop hurting each other!" to the infamous beating of Marty Balin (and Grace Slick attempting to soothe the crazed crowd with a rhythmic chant of "Easy, easy") to the culminating Boschian nightmare of glassy-eyed, horribly naked freaks climbing the stage to (seemingly) rip Mick and Keith apart as they perform a strangely turgid "Under My Thumb" -- this is one BAD TRIP. Of course, it goes without saying that this was made at the height of The Stones' beauty and brilliance as a band, and the early concert scenes from New York shows and the recording of "Wild Horses" are wonderful. Still this film will go down pretty hard in the end, especially for us sensitive types. A Must See but I highly recommend having a copy of "Jazz on a Summer Day" as an immediate antidote afterwards.

December 07, 2008.

Nice Film.but not completely.

Rating: 3
film only includes 3 songs on altamont,others all in the 1969 tour

Who has the original 15 songs by stones on that altamont show?

thanks to share that

or hope this film can make a OST including that again

December 06, 2008.

Good as it gets.

Rating: 5
This appears to be a true and accurate record of these events. Very absorbing and of significant historical interest. The music is good as well!!

December 27, 2008.

Tragic Classic.

Rating: 5
I have always heard that it is difficult to make a rock and roll film, let alone one that is also a documentary. Gimme Shelter is both- a filmed concert experience but one that also documents those events that take place behind the scenes.

This one gives the viewer virtually unlimited access to the Rolling Stones for their 1969 tour of America. We see the Stones as they perform at Madison Square Garden, working in the studio, and checking into hotel rooms. For Stones historians, there are brief glimpses of Ian Stewart- founding member and so called "sixth Stone", including one of him at the Altamont concert, asking for a doctor to please come to the front of the stage.

Some of the most fascinating scenes do not even have the Stones in them. These are the meetings that would take place in the office of famed attorney Mel Belli. Here is where the ill-fated Altamont show would be planned.

Last of course, is the Altamont concert. It was here that peace & love would collide with extreme violence with fatal results. Was it the end of an era? Did Altamont somehow symbolize the dawning of a new age in America- one in which Flower Power was replaced by death and destruction illustrated by the war in Vietnam?

Perhaps so but at its heart, Gimme Shelter was never intended to be a comment on the sixties nor was it supposed to make some sort of political statement. Gimme Shelter started out as a concert film about the Rolling Stones and it just happened to record something that went very, very wrong.

December 20, 2008.

"Babies".

Rating: 5
Saw Gimmie Shelter again last night and suddenly I felt like I was envisioning what the great artist Goya saw when painting the horrors into the faces of his characters. The buildup to Altamont, because you know it's coming, is full of tension and dread cloaked in the mundane. The footage shot from the stage ecompasses almost every emotion and reality known to man -- joy, sadness, fear, anger, sensuality, frivolity, violence, psychotic reaction ... as Goya saw it, the horror of existence and who we are. The most amazing shots: The hatred for everything Mick Jagger stands for etched in the face of a Hell's Angel standing right next to him on stage, staring....In the aftermath of the killing, young men in police caps -- yet clearly not police or police hats -- milling around on the stage ineffectually.
People have ripped the Stones for living in a self-deluded bubble during these times, but you've got to hand it to a horrified, at times speechless Mick -- considered by many in those days the devil himself -- as he tries to calm the crowd, appeal for sense and sanity. "Babies, please..." I'm sure he was scared the Hell's Angels might kill him too.
P.S. -- One of the Angels knocks out Marty Balin, and, go figure!, he got up and wrote the smash hit "Miracles" just a few years later for Starship. Peace.