Jimi Hendrix Video:

		List Price: $19.98		Label: Rhino / Wea Salesrank: 30551 Released: September 26, 2000
		Our Price: $11.55
		Used Price: $12.70
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
This is "Rainbow Bridge" completely restored to its original, uncut 125-minute length from the only remaining 16mm print in existence. Nothing is missing! See Jimi Hendrix in concert backed by drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox playing such mind-blowing musical milestones as "Purple Haze," "Foxy Lady," "Voodoo Chile," and others atop Hawaii's Haleakala Volcano. A mix of mysticism and music shot mostly at the Rainbow Bridge Occult Meditation Center on Maui, the 1971 film also includes interviews with Hendrix, who, through a psychedelic haze, talks about his life, beliefs, and, in what now seems prophetic, his death, which would occur only three months after the film was shot. 125 minutes.

Description of Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge:
Hippy-dippy at its hippy-dippiest, Rainbow Bridge is a piece of counterculture slag that capitalizes on its footage of Jimi Hendrix (who died not long after filming). Actually, Hendrix only shows up at the very end of this long, bizarre film, bringing the same luster that Sean Connery did to the dreadful Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Prior to that, however, are the slight and stupid trials of Pat Hartley, a woman sent to Hawaii to check out a commune. She finds a utopia for Philosophy 101 dropouts and the kinds of freethinkers Joe Friday used to deflate so easily on Dragnet. Not a frame of this film is interesting--not thematically, not cinematically, not any-atically. Hendrix fans will probably find Rainbow Bridge worth it for those lingering moments of the master and his guitar, but fast-forward to get there. Better yet, track down the late guitar master's incendiary (literally) performance from Monterey Pop, bracketed by equally astonishing turns by other '60s greats. --Keith Simanton

Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge Reviews:
A very weird film featuring (not starring) Jimi Hendrix
2009-11-13 - Well, this is a very bizarre little film: It starts off being about this girl, Pat Hartley, leaving the Left Coast and going to the island of Maui, where some very strange UFO freaks have this foundation-- The Rainbow Bridge Foundation, and have New Age lectures from freaky old ladies who talk about Space Bases on the fifth moon of Jupiter, and a strange albino who tries to persuade a horny hippie chick not to try to hump him, and some instructions about meditation and other far-out New Age atuff. About this time we meet some arriving surfers who have just smuggled a bunch of hashish from the far east in a hidden compartment in his surfboard, he and his buddies cut the board open, amd start smoking it, and we see some surf footage of the same kids for a little while, when Pat Hartley, the girl from the begginning of the movie starts to party with Jimi Hendrix back at the Rainbow Bridge Foundation. Jimi starts laying down some spaced-out rap on Pat, talking about how he'd like to ball her, and how Cleopatra is dressed up like a Social Worker with a mattress tied to her back screaming "Curb service! Curb Service!," and then it's time for Jimi's show. A couple hundred spaced-out hippies sort of stagger up the mountainside, and hang out in front of the stage, and then Jimi comes on and does his thing for a half hour or so, and the film ends.

Really. It's that disjointed. It doesn't make much more sense watching it today than it did when I originally saw it as a midnite movie 29 years ago in a rather inhebriated condition. Be that as it may, it's got Jimi's second-to-last performance ever in the U.S., and it gives us a few songs off his never to be released "First Rays Of The New Rising Sun" LP like "Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)", and a few old numbers, and then it's over... the sound quality of the concert could have been better (actually the 2nd set was filmed but never released, because the wind blew too hard into the microphones, and the sound quality was even worse).

For a lot of us kids, this was our first or second introduction to seeing Jimi Hendrix actually play; although several films had been filmed, only this, "Woodstock", and the film "Jimi Hendrix" were actually screened much in the U.S.A. in the decade after his death. It's quite a little cultural artifact. It doesn't dissapoint, but better films and more material has surfaced and been released in the last 30 years-- see the (more or less) complete "Woodstock" performance, "Wild Blue Angel", "Live At Monterey", "Band Of Gypsies", and "Jimi Plays Berkley."

Rhino released a "Director's Cut" of this DVD about a decade ago, that ran 125 minutes-- most of the new footage was more New Age programming from the Rainbow Bridge Foundation, and none of it was from Jimi's performance at the end of the film. This, at 108 min., does not appear to be that Director's Cut.

Jimi Hendrix - 'Rainbow Bridge' (Rhino)
2009-10-11 - Review no. 44. I'm going to try to be fair with this DVD. True, out of all the Jimi Hendrix concert films I've seen, this is the very least desirable. It's noted that Rhino produced the DVD from the only 16mm print in existence. Really? I want to know want happened to all the other copies? Were they pawned off and burned? I remember seeing this movie in a theater at some midnight movie madness on a Friday night like some of the FM rock radio stations would often have in the late '70's. It's a shame here that there is maybe thirty minutes of actual Hendrix performing - if someone in the production department had maybe managed to double that figure, then maybe 'Rainbow Bridge' would have turned out better. Just TOO much nonsense and hippie 'fluff' through out this 95-minute DVD. I would possibly watch this DVD every couple of years but only when I was in a strange mood. Strictly for the completists and die-hard fans.

Drop A Tab And Blow Your Mind
2009-08-25 - What all of the people reviewing this "film" don't understand is that this film was almost definitely created with LSD usage in mind. It's actually hard to tell what's real and what isn't at times. The drug-smuggling is apparently real and the LSD commune is definitely real. When this was made, a lot of these types of radical hippies were under the understandably foolish impression that LSD was going to change the world. Now, I suppose no one really plans on ingesting mind-altering hallucinogens and watching random films, but that's what happened to me many, many years ago... believe me... this movie was created solely for the purpose of LSD. It isn't some cheesy attempt at catching the "vibes" of the 60's or anything of the ilk.

The meditating hippies, the wind tunnels, the strange audio manipulations during Jimi's introduction... these are just a few examples of several scenes made especially for chemically-altered perceptions. They even break up these visually arresting scenes with a few minutes of nonsense throughout the film. This is very important because if the entire film was nothing but a visual mindf@#k, it would cause potential harm psychologically. I know this might sound like complete nonsense to most of you, but TRUST ME: this was not intended to be viewed sober, nor under the influence of anything but lysergic acid diethylamide. The extremely rare viewer who has done as I have will no doubt agree. The key instruction is to administer the dosage shortly before viewing. When this is done, the viewer (or maybe just myself, hahah) will lose all memory of any involvement of Jimi Hendrix by the time you hit the 20 minute mark. When, all of a sudden, you see Jimi Hendrix slurring about wizards, your synapses will most likely go haywire trying to assess what is happening to your eyeballs. Next, the crowd at the volcano chants a unified 'om' and a short but intense Jimi Hendrix concert quickly "melts your brain". Absurdity about aliens closes the film and then you proceed to wander the streets aimlessly pondering just why no one informed you that Jimi Hendrix was/is the center of the universe.

Anyway, if you don't have any acid, avoid this "film" like a hillbilly avoids a gay bar unless you are a complete maniac for Hendrix or you simply suffer from schizophrenia or any similar mental disorder.

This is what happens when managers make creative decisions!
2008-01-05 - Those of you who read my other reviews will figure out that I am a BIG Hendrix fan. I mean BIG TIME. But not so much that I will mindlessly swallow anything that's presented that Hendrix is on.

In fact, the behind-the-scenes story of the film is infinity more interesting than the film itself could ever be.

An earlier reviewer gave a good description of the circumstances surrounding the making of this film. Hendrix' manager, Mike (Little Satan) Jeffery invested in a film that was being directed by an acid burnout, occultist, and former Andy Warhol associate named Chuck Wein, and the result was a cinematic disaster. Jeffery forced Hendrix to appear in the film in an attempt to recoup some of his losses. He also had to use the soundtrack album to release new music. At the time, Hendrix and Jeffery borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from Warner Bros. to build Electric Lady Studios. The agreement was that WB would recoup the loan out of album sales. However, the contract said nothing about soundtrack releases; which meant that WB would only get their relatively small percentage of the album's sales. Slick move on Jeffery's part. WB was furious, BTW, but that's all history.

So what was the result? A crappy, incomprehensible movie that is useful only for a brief and distorted glimpse at a small part of a bygone era as seen by a hippie space cadet with more money than any sane person should have allowed him to have, and a few snippets of Hendrix performing on top of a volcano.

(Footnote: Mitch Mitchel did indeed have to re-do his drum parts. He nailed them all in one take! Way to go, Mitch!! RIP)

Chuck Wein died in March of 2008, having done almost nothing of any merit since.

All of Hendrix' concert footage can be seen on [...]. So, don't bother with the DVD.

Appreciate the Film For Its Own Merits -- A Historical Gem!
2007-08-24 - To begin, it would be a mistake to approach viewing this film as a
"Jimi Hendrix film." As I understand it it began as a documentary about
the Rainbow Bridge meditation center. When it was filmed nobody knew
Jimi's death was but two months down the road. The film was supposedly
bankrolled by the Brotherhood of Eternal Love (qv) -- the loosely knit
communal family that first delivered mass quantities of high-quality
LSD and Afghan hashish to the western world.

That said, the film could have benefited from some better writing and
editing. Still, we are provided a window upon a moment in time and
space when a positive vision of what might have been was still alive
and progressing. Take the film and appreciate it. There will be no more
like it. As strange as it appears at first glance it is valuable
historical footage that is like none other. The Hendrix footage is just
a bonus -- the icing on the sunshine-frosted cake.