Festival Express
by Bob Smeaton, Frank Cvitanovich
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Janis Joplin, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, The Band, The Grateful DeadDirector: Bob Smeaton, Frank Cvitanovich
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Ann Carli
Producer: Garth Douglas
Producer: Gavin Poolman
Producer: John D. Trapman
Producer: Nick Faulks
Producer: Nick O'Hagan
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Compilation, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-02
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Line Home Video
Movie Reviews of Festival Express
Movie Review: Expressive
Summary: 4 Stars
I'd been looking forward to this for a long time, having savoured the films of Woodstock, Monterey and the Isle of Wight for their evocation of a time which could just conceivably turn out to represent the greatest degree of mass enlightenment ever achieved by the human race. Why do I say this about a bunch of stoned hippies listening to music? Well, mainly because of the music. The best of Hendrix, the Doors, Janis and many others is positively otherworldly, and if anyone's made music like that since about 1973, I for one haven't heard it yet. Anyway,this time it is Janis's turn, and while she's not quite at her very best, she's still a mile more intense, interesting and, for want of a better word, devoted, than any other female rock vocalist of the last 50 years. Even putting Janis aside, this is a fine and rare piece of music-history film, and as with the best of this type of thing (viz Rock'n'Roll Circus) to watch is to feel like you're entering something like Pharoah's tomb: a different, wonderful, weird world. And although it's only 40 years ago, it feels as far away as ancient Egypt in many ways. Another interesting act is Buddy Guy. Eric Clapton called him without a doubt, and by far, the best rock guitarist ever. You get a rare taste of him here, and for that alone it's a disc well worth buying.
Summary of Festival Express
Festival Express is a rousing record of a little-known, but monumental, moment in rock n' roll history, starring such music legends as Janis Joplin, The Band, and the Grateful Dead. Set in 1970, Festival Express was a multi-band, multi-day extravaganza that captured the spirit and imagination of a generation and a nation. What made it unique was that it was portable; for five days, the bands and performers lived, slept, rehearsed and did countless unmentionable things aboard a customized train that traveled from Toronto, to Calgary, to Winnipeg, with each stop culminating in a mega-concert. The entire experience, both off-stage and on, was filmed but the extensive footage remained locked away -- until now. A momentous achievement in rock film archeology, Festival Express combines this long-lost material with contemporary interviews nearly 35 years after it was first filmed.DVD Features:
DVD ROM Features
Theatrical Trailer
The vintage concert footage alone makes Festival Express a memorable and worthwhile endeavor, offering scintillating performances by Janis Joplin, the Band (their rollicking version of "Slippin' and Slidin'" is particularly mind-blowing), the Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy, and others (remember Mashmakhan?). In 1970, during the heyday of the rock festival, promoter Ken Walker decided to organize a traveling musical revue, bringing the mountain to Mohammed, as it were. In five days' time, the festival played in three Canadian cities with the entire conglomeration traveling, playing, and getting smashed together the whole way. Nearly as rewarding as the live performances are the candid scenes of the train ride itself, an endless jam session and party during which musicians of all shapes and sizes let their hair down--musically and otherwise. The contemporary interviews with Walker and some of the surviving musicians aren't particularly noteworthy, except as a way to prove that it all actually happened. Walker comes off as a hero in the film: he treated the musicians like royalty and insisted that the train roll on even though he was losing his shirt. (His financial failure is a large reason why this material stayed in the vaults for so long.) Perhaps the most remarkable scene is an off-the-cuff, LSD-fueled train jam featuring Joplin, the Band's Rick Danko, and the Dead's Jerry Garcia playing the old chestnut "Ain't No More Cane." Danko is so obliterated that even Janis has to ask him if he's OK--when Janis is worried about your state of mind, you must be pretty messed up. --Marc Greilsamer
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