The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (The Criterion Collection)
by Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker
List Price:
Our Price: $56.08
You Save: $23.87 (30%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $49.49 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Country Joe McDonald, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Pete Townshend, Ravi ShankarDirector: Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker
Brand: N/A
Producer: John Phillips
Cinematographer: Albert Maysles
Cinematographer: Barry Feinstein
Producer: Alan Douglas
Producer: Frazer Pennebaker
Producer: Lou Adler
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, DTS Surround Sound
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 270 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-11-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: Important document of the summer of love
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember seeing this movie for the first time watching it on pbs (channel 13 in ny) in the early 80s and being blown away by it. Sure some of the groups were not entirely to my teenage rock obsessed mind, the Mamas and the Papas for example. But they were part of the time. Thats what this movie really captures, a moment in time. Just two years later the world would look and sound quite different. So Monterey Pop is really a sampler of Rock, Soul and Folk from the time. Btw, the closing of the film with Ravi Shankar long albeit edited performance is one of my favorite parts. (Ravi Shankar's complete set is available on cd btw and well worth searching out.)
Ok, now onto this set. The first disk has the original movie remastered with the best sound its ever had. Given the equipment they used to originally film this the work thats been done mastering it for this set deserves real praise. Sure its still grainy, and there's still hair in the gate for some shots.
(Given that these were inexperienced filmmakers working with D.A. Pennebaker this is exusable, they got the footage, thats what really counts. In this day and age when we can document almost every aspect of every event I thik we take the effort needed back them too much for granted.)
The commentary by D.A. Pennebaker and Lou Adler, unlike a lot of commentary on dvds these days, really gives you an idea of what was being done here. Lou Adler talking about putting the festival together and Pennebaker about the problems of filming. A suppliment with the program for the festival and another suppiment with photographer Elaine Mayes's photographs with commentary by her on them. Audio interviews with several performers rounds out the first disk.
The second disk contains footage of the performances of Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix in full.. or at least as full as we'll get.
Jimi's performance is wonderful stuff. Extras include some pretentious commentary and a still bitter Pete Townsend talking about deciding who went on first. Jimi's film itself also includes some footage of the Experience performing in England earlier the same year. The performance from the festival is the real meal here though. Jimi is on, the audience is appreciative and somewhat overwelmed by hearing him for probably the first time. Jimi pulls out all his stage tricks here, soling behind his head, behind his back, playing one handed, playing with his teeth etc.... Even better there's some different camera footage of the closing performance of wild thing mixed in with whats in the main movie.
Otis's film is incredible as well with the MGs and Mar-Keys backing him up. Again here is a performer in love with what he's doing and the crowd in love with him. With Otis dying within six months or so of this performance, having it and having it being so very very good makes it a treasure. Some highlights: Otis doing the song that a "little girl" took from him anyway, Otis singing can't get no satisfaction and "this is a song I want to dedicate to all the mini skirts". The list could go on and on. Extras here are informative commentary on Otis's performance and unfortunatly short career. Especially poignant is an interview with Phil Walden, Otis's manager.
Once again the footage looks beautiful on both films and the soundtracks here sounds even better than the main film to me.
Third disk, is a real treat for those wanting more performances filmed but not in the film. For my money the Who's performance of A Quick One is the real gem of the disk. Although The Electric Flag don't fail either. The Association's game attempt to do Along Came Mary, while not quite successful, is still interesting.
I won't go into more details here but I do want to address a problem I have with the some of the other reviewers on this. Some seem to hold D.A. Pennebaker in contempt for not including film of other whole performances but don't seem to understand that in most cases it doesn't exist. If they had listened to the commentary and read the booklet that came with the disks they would have understood that for most acts only a song or two for each group was planned to be filmed to conserve film. Anything else that got filmed is a bonus. That Jimi and Otis's whole sets or most of their sets, were filmed is luck. Sometimes a cameraman would film or not film a performance by mistake. That seems to be the case with Laura Nyro's Wedding Day. Albert Grossman didn't even want them to film Janis at first and only relented after the first performance went over so well. There is no film of the rest because of that. (Once again reading here is the key to understanding. Its right on the menu screen for the Holding company performances on this disc, as well as elsewere as I've already said.) The Grateful Dead didn't play a ten minute song that was too long to put in the film as one reviewer says but instead Pennebaker says the cameras ran out at ten minutes into their first song. (The dead could and would play long, especially at this time. Deadbase list three songs for this set: Viola Lee Blues, Cold Rain, and Alligator.) Missing footage from some of the performances here are filled in with crowd footage but a large block like that would most likely not work with this technique. Most of what was completely filmed is on this set. The Tiny Tim footage is not taking the place of better footage, its just part of what was filmed. He was very much part of the world of '67 and although not serious I'd rather he fill up space than just not have something filling the disk at all. For those wanting more of the performers there is a cd set with more complete sets.
The packaging includes a booklet with informative essays, histories and commentary.
Ok with that over with, just to recap. Great film, some great performances and some that are simply worth it for the historical value, Other reviewers who complain about missing performances are just misinformed....and/or possibly were temporarily illiterate when watching the disks, I don't know. Anyway, Totally worth the price.
Summary of The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (The Criterion Collection)
Documentary about Monterey Pop Festival of 1967; includes festival footage and performances.Genre: Music Video - Pop/Rock
Rating: NR
Release Date: 12-NOV-2002
Media Type: DVD
Similar DVD Movies
Concert for GeorgeWEA DES Moines Video; Release date: 2003-11-18; Published: 2003; DVD
Best price: $20.16
Price in other shops:
A Night at the Family Dog 1970 (The Grateful Dead / Jefferson Airplane / Santana)RED Distribution; Release date: 2007-08-07; DVD
Best price: $10.16
Price in other shops:
Concert for BangladeshWEA DES Moines Video; Release date: 2005-10-25; Published: 2005; DVD
Best price: $19.56
Price in other shops:
A Perfect Haze: The Illustrated History of the Monterey International Pop Festivalby Harvey Kubernik, Kenneth Kubernik
Santa Monica Press; Published: 2011-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.51
Price in other shops:
The Last Waltz (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 2002-05-07; DVD
Best price: $7.23
Price in other shops:
Festival ExpressNLV; Release date: 2004-11-02; Published: 2004-11-01; DVD
Best price: $12.48
Price in other shops:
Woodstock - 3 Days of Peace & Music (The Director's Cut)Woodstock; Release date: 1997-03-26; DVD
Best price: $26.77
Legends of the Canyon: Classic ArtistsAlfred Publishing; Release date: 2010-08-31; DVD
Best price: $8.18
Price in other shops:
The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2000-11-14; DVD
Best price: $16.16
Price in other shops:
Woodstock: Three Days of Peace & Music (Two-Disc 40th Anniversary Director's Cut)Alfred; Release date: 2009-06-09; DVD
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: