The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - Criterion Collection
by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dick Carter (II), Jack Casady, Marty Balin, Melvin Belli, Sonny BargerDirector: Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, David Maysles
Brand: Image Entertainment
Primary Contributor: Marty Balin
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-11-14
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: (Seems About) 100 Years Ago
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm going to review this from a different perspective, that of a member of the crowd at this infamous show. As the documentary indicates, the site was thrown together at the last minute due to problems securing permits in the Bay Area. As a result, the crew was frantically building the stage, setting trailers in the backstage area and erecting lighting columns literally hours before the show.
My friends and I turned up early in the evening the night before the show and (along with others) helped the crew carry building supplies around the site. Can you imagine this happening in today's world when 20 semis pull up backstage and there are hundreds of union guys handling the rigging? While it was my intent to jam right up against the stage, my friend reasoned that we should sit back about fifty feet in order to hear the sound mix better. If you watch the film carefully, you'll notice that almost all of the violence took place within 20 feet of the stage. This leaves the impression that the entire crowd was involved in the middle of some horrible nightmare. At fifty feet from the stage, we could certainly see a lot of what was going down and the vibe was far from pleasant, but I never felt in any sort of danger and sure wasn't about to bail on one of the Stones' greatest live performances ever. Remember, there were approximately 300,000 people there and I'd guess that less than 20,000 of us (at least those without binoculars) really saw what was happening. I have friends that sat way up the hillside and partied through the entire day; their only awareness of any problems came as a result of the stage announcements.
I'm not saying the Maysles did a poor job re-creating what happened that December day in 1969. There was little time to plan shot sequences and the lack of lighting pretty much forced the cameramen to work within a few feet of the stage area. Nor am I denying that some horrible things took place that day. What I am trying to say is that things weren't necessarily as bad as they seemed on film. It's still a great film.
I only wish that the entire Altamont show was released as part of the bonus section of this DVD. A Blu-Ray re-issue would be nice as well.
Summary of The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - Criterion Collection
Called "the greatest rock film ever made," this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When 300,000 members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hell's Angels at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway, direct cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin immortalized on film the bloody slash that transformed a decade's dreams into disillusionment.To cite Gimme Shelter as the greatest rock documentary ever filmed is to damn it with faint praise. This 1970 release benefits from a horrifying serendipity in the timing of the shoot, which brought filmmakers Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin aboard as the Rolling Stones' tumultuous 1969 American tour neared its end. By following the band to the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco for a fatally mismanaged free concert, the Maysles and Zwerin wound up shooting what's been accurately dubbed rock's equivalent to the Zapruder film. The cameras caught the ominous undercurrents of violence palpable even before the first chords were strummed, and were still rolling when a concertgoer was stabbed to death by the Hell's Angels that served as the festival's pool cue-wielding security force.
By the time Gimme Shelter reached theater screens, Altamont was a fixed symbol for the death of the 1960s' spirit of optimism. The Maysles and Zwerin used that knowledge to shape their film: their chronicle begins in the editing room as they cut footage of the Stones' Madison Square Garden performance of "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and from there moves toward Altamont with a kind of dreadful grace. The songs become prophecies and laments for broken faith ("Wild Horses"), misplaced devotion ("Love in Vain"), and social collapse ("Street Fighting Man" and, of course, "Sympathy for the Devil"). Along the way, we glimpse the folly of the machinations behind the festival, the insularity of life on the concert trail, and the superstars' own shell-shocked loss of innocence.
Gimme Shelter looks into an abyss, partly self-created, from which the Rolling Stones would retreat--but unlike its subject, the filmmakers don't blink. --Sam Sutherland
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