Jimi Hendrix Video:

		List Price: $24.98		Label: Rhino / Wea Salesrank: 106996 Released: December 1, 1998
		Our Price: $14.99
		Used Price: $9.43
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
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

Rainbow Bridge Reviews:
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.

"Waving the Freak Flag High"
2007-01-22 - Apparently most people who acquired this film expected a glorious tribute to the mythical Jimi Hendrix. Their disappointment is understandable. Although Hendrix is present in many ways throughout the film (his music forms the main soundtrack, plus there's some nice footage of his famous "volcano-concert", and finally he is shown speaking to two other characters for a few minutes about... whatever), he is not at all the protagonist/hero nor even the main topic. To use the words of one of the characters in the film, Hendrix is just another "vehicle" to spread "the message".
That this slight confusion makes people so upset in the end is rather surprising. Especially because Rainbow Bridge is actually a very valuable and even entertaining document of its time, in particular the subculture that turned Hendrix into an idol to begin with. Perhaps instead of expecting another "movie", with cliché plots and superficial characters, viewers should be prepared to watch a kind of documentary (you can't even tell where facts stop and fiction begins, just like when you listen to the president) following a group of well-intentioned hippies who try to deal with the contradictory and very disappointing reality around them by taking refuge in an incongruous but protective reality of their own. Why not? The late 60s and 70s were, after all, an excellent time in Western history for a few young people to freak out by ridiculing and rejecting the so-called rational society around them, that was (just like today) mainly concerned with (over)producing commodities, waging wars and sending funny objects (sometimes with a few hominids in them) into outer space. All in order to fight poverty and ensure that everybody could be free and happy, of course.
In opposition to such noble aims, the hippie commune portrayed in Rainbow Bridge makes a radical turn towards mysticism and occultism (with psychedelic drugs and music thrown into it). On the whole, this actually provides for some endearingly hilarious opinions about the world. Especially when the characters talk in all seriousness of the "Space Brothers" who have come to planet Earth to teach humans to use infinite resources of energy, thus freeing them from the dictatorship of big corporations that control electricity, food and oil production, medicine, etc. Or when they imagine what they might have done in their previous lives (as if one life weren't bad enough!). Plus, if you ever wondered what Jimi Hendrix's astrological sign was and what (if anything at all) that might mean, Rainbow Bridge may just provide you with some answers. And if you never wondered - well, it won't hurt you to know, either.
Another complaint viewers have is about the lack of plot. Just like in real life, actually. Things happen, you are affected by them, you react to them, then something else happens, and it all goes on and on until you die. You'll be lucky if you understand anything in the process! To claim, though, that there is no order or idea behind Rainbow Bridge is totally exaggerated. Actually, the main character (Pat Hartley) moves from one situation/issue to another, in the end providing a general picture of the commune's attitudes, beliefs and even difficulties in finding out how to "do their thing". There is the impression that the world/government has gone crazy, the discomfort with the Vietnam conflict, the threat of a nuclear war, the effects of urbanization and industrial pollution on the environment, the question of how to spread their message to the rest of the world, the dilemmas of combining sex and drugs with meditation and prayer, and in the end their desire to be together "as one" in a spiritual way - culminating it the concert of Jimi Hendrix.

So you see, however wacky some of the ideas in this film may be, at least you will be exposed to oodles of interesting and unusual information. Which is more than most "movies" can do for you! On top of that there's the great music, the impressive images of late industrial civilization vs nature, and even (if that's your thing) the chance to hear your idol Hendrix rambling under the effect of some drug. It truly is as close to the musical genius as you'll probably ever get.
Whatever regrets he might have had about participating in Rainbow Bridge afterwards, a final misconception some viewers have concerns the idea that Hendrix does not belong in such an insultingly bizarre film. Actually, if you consider his music and lyrics, he couldn't have fit better into it. Listen:

"'Cause I've got my own world to live through
And I ain't gonna copy you.
White collar conservative flashin' down the street
Pointin' their plastic finger at me, ha !
They're hopin' soon my kind will drop and die but uh
I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, high !"

Yes, Rainbow Bridge is, after all, a great EXPERIENCE in the Hendrix sense. What else could you want? Enjoy the trip - and may the "Space Brothers" save us all before it is too late!


Great time on DVD
2007-01-12 - I was very interesting to look inside 60th with drugs, sex and music. It was the time when was born geniuses of rock-music. Amazing time. And Jimi Hendrix was the main core of this time I mean.

More concert, less filler
2006-12-27 - The Rainbow Bridge DVD/VHS is enjoyable as a laughable time capsule. However, being billed as a concert movie, this was anything but. If you purchased the "Soundtrack" album to the same movie you will be woefully disappointed since the LP contains great tracks from Hendrix but no performances from Rainbow Bridge (aka Rainbow Ridge) These performances weren't released on CD and Vinyl until about 30 plus years after the fact (and in limited pressings) The same can be said of this bait-and-switch movie. There are some great performances from Hendrix but a lot of it is still missing. Collectors have synced together segments of film and audio and produced some great footage which makes the rounds on the internet (YouTube, etc) but there is still no definitive release of the whole concert on DVD. If you enjoy Hendrix, purchase this and index the portions with his performances, the rest is insipid drivel thinly disguised as a movie.

You will either love it or hate it
2006-08-05 - I did not appreciate Hendrix's music until years after his death. His music was just too far ahead of the times. But, then, in my early 20s, I listened to the Band of Gypsys album and it has been my favorite guitar music .... ever.

Okay, now about this movie. Yes, it is definitely false advertising. The cover makes it sound like it is the typical Hendrix concert documentary, but it is anything but that.

I bought the VHS not knowing at all its history. I saw it in a sale rack for 4.99 so I figured, hey, why not. I almost took it back for a refund. But, I said almost because that was before I suffered through to the part where Jimi makes an appearance, and, then, it all fit perfectly. I was never into the rock and roll drug scene. It never made sense to me until I saw the movie. Now, while I still do not agree with it at all, at least I finally understand what the attraction was. That, in itself, is worth several times the cost of the movie. Jimi keeps teaching me things even to this day ...

Jimi was a great rock/blues guitarist. But, he was also a heavy drug user/abuser. Of course, he hated this movie because it revealed a side of his personality that he would rather have kept private. And, the protectors of the flame also want this movie to go away because they have never made peace with the dark side of Jimi. But, I am not going to judge him. His faults just made him human ... like all the rest of us other than that he happened to play the hell out of a guitar.

By the time I got to the end of the movie, I had decided this was to become a highly prized possession of mine. If you want to know the real Hendrix at his best and worst, this is the movie to get. The last minutes, when we finally get to see him playing live, is as good as all the other reviewers have said before me.

I also never realized how intelligent Jimi was, ouside of his obvious musical aptitude, until the few minutes when we see and hear him, wasted to the gills, and yet still able to spin the most incredible parable ... a highly insightful philosophical statement on man, God, myth, sex, religion, ancient Kemet beliefs, and the significance of the Third Eye.