Rolling Stones Video:

		List Price: $39.95		Label: Criterion Collection Salesrank: 2162 Released: December 1, 2009
		Our Price: $23.00
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Called "the greatest rock film ever made", this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour. When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco’s Altamont Speedway, Direct Cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin were there to immortalize on film the bloody slash that transformed a decade’s dreams into disillusionment.

Stills from Downhill Racer (Click for larger image)

Description of The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]:
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

The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Blast From the Past
2009-12-14 - This Direct Cinema (Cinema Verite) documentary ultimately brings us to a Rolling Stones Concert, the final stop on a North American tour in 1969. There along with 300,000 mostly stoned flower children, a couple dozen mostly intoxicated Hell's Angels acting as security, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner and of course the Rolling Stones, we witness chaos in the making.

The documentary begins with New York concert footage and then takes us to a film editing room where Mick Jagger, along with the filmmakers are watching film clips of the Altamonte Concert playing on a flat bed editing machine. The footage shows events' unfolding at the time a man was killed. After being disarmed of a pistol, this man is stabbed and beaten to death by a group of Hell's Angels right in front of the stage. The murder is shot from the stage, as the Rolling Stones perform "Under My Thumb," but it's difficult to tell exactly what's going on until the footage is viewed frame-by-frame. There were, in total, 4 deaths and 3 births at the concert that day.

Early in the film we see scenes of the Rolling Stones performing at venues, including Madison Square Garden where relative calm prevails. But after watching the promoters arrange to bring the concert to the Altamonte Speedway, it soon becomes clear that disaster is looming. At the concert venue we see long lines of cars coming to the concert, people getting stoned, running naked and hanging out. The musicians performing before the Rolling Stones have difficulty keeping the stage clear and a Hell's Angel hits one musician. When Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones start performing "Sympathy for the Devil" it seems to transform the crowd into an unruly mob.

Gimme Shelter does not have any interviews. Typical of a Direct Cinema documentary we are brought into the story as observers. In this case we are more then "flies on the wall." It feels somehow that we too are in danger. This documentary is a fine example of the work of David Maysles, Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin. Who are the same team that made other documentaries including Salesman in 1968. Salesman takes us door-to-door with Bible Salesmen selling bibles. We sit in as they pitch prospective customers, go to sales meetings and the local diner. In both Direct Cinema documentary films; the filmmakers seem to be invisible.

Gimme Shelter started out as a concert tour documentary but not a lot of pure performance scenes were used as more attention is paid to the upcoming concert in California. Events created a story no one anticipated, one that came together in the editing room. Still the scenes with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones performing are revealing of what the band was like in those days; perhaps the perfect gift for a Rolling Stones fan with a Blu-ray Player.

This Blu-ray Disc release has excellent sound and has been totally restored and enhanced using the original 16mm color negative. It is well worth owning and viewing.

J R Martin

Hippies and Hell's Angels
2009-12-04 - Do you want to watch a concert film or a movie about a really poorly executed concert that lead to a bad vibe and murder? You don't get enough of either in this film. The concert footage is remarkable - Mick Jagger is on fire and Mick Taylor is . . . maybe 20. As to Altamont - this film makes everyone who put it together look like a jerk - including the film makers (is this a snuff film because they show the murder (sorry to give away the ending - TWICE). Putting on a concert for over 100,000 over a weekend - don't think so. Hiring a gang for security - not too smart. Add annoying hippies (really annoying hippies)- disaster. At the end of the day, Sonny Barger has the voice of reason - go figure.

Unquestionably, the GREATEST Rock and Roll movie, ever!
2009-11-18 - Read the other reviewers...not a single negative review. This is what Rock and Roll USED to be before the advent of synthesizers, effeminate little boyz w/ ponytails and/or tattoos, "punk," which, in truth, TRIED to "keep the fire burning," James Taylor/Carole King et al, and...disco.
But what I REALLY, truly appreciate is that "ABKCO" or "London" or "Decca," whoever, didn't prostitute Gimmie Shelter like the...pimps did "Woodstock." That is what adds the integrity to "Gimme Shelter."

Bad Trip
2009-09-16 - "Gimme Shelter" is rightly considered one of the most riveting rock documentaries ever made. A mere 4 months after the "3 Days of Peace, Love and Music" at Woodstock, the peaceful hippie vibe degenerated at Altamont. The Maysles Brothers- who chronicled the seamy side of Jackie O's reclusive,eccentric relatives in "Grey Gardens"--now chronicle the seamy side of the hippie movement. "Gimme Shelter" is a cinematic masterpiece of a terrifying, violent episode in American history.

"Gimme Shelter" breaks the fourth wall. It's framed with the Rolling Stones watching this very documentary, and their shocked,agonized reactions to it. Mick Jagger,in his younger days, comes across as a cute charmer. In his presence, women swoon, weep--and at one point, a topless woman tries to get onto the stage. There's the impish, immortal Keith Richards. The Rolling Stones are,above all, musicians. They are seen listening to their music, watching their Madison Square Garden concert. The music gives them peace. A sexy duet between Ike and Tina Turner provides an interlude.

Even if you aren't a fan of the Rolling Stones, you might come to like their music. The Stones seem naive about the effect of their music on people. "Under my thumb","Brown Sugar","Street Fighting Man","Sympathy for the Devil" and "Gimme Shelter" are songs with unpleasant subjects--the Stones don't seem to understand their lyrics might inflame people. It foreshadows Woodstock '99 when Limp Bizkit sang "Burn Things",then front man Fred Durst wondered why people were burning things.

"Gimme Shelter" also shows the polar opposite of Woodstock at the hastily prepared Altamont. It's a squalid place. There's public nudity (of those who should've kept their clothes on,really), public urination, drunkenness,and fights. The violence rises to a fever pitch when Mick Jagger gets beat up by a "fan" as soon as he gets out of the helicopter, and Grace Slick tries to pacify the crowd when Jefferson Airplane guitarist Marty Balin gets punched out. The concert spins out of control. When the Grateful Dead land, they are shocked when they learn about the violence. Had they performed,would the situation have improved? We'll never know.

"Gimme Shelter" shows the nightmarish end of the '60s. As the Summer of Love in San Francisco ended with squalor and drug addicts in the Haight, so did the peace&love end with violence&disorder. "Gimme Shelter" shows the dirt beneath the flower power.

Wow...Amazing film, but watch it for the story, not the music
2009-08-24 - Most of the negative reviews I've heard/read about this film were from people complaining about the quality/quantity of music performed. There's not a lot of it, and some of it is not of the best quality (several songs are truncated, either by violence or to preserve the film's pace. The Stones are clearly rattled when they perform at Altamont, too; they're looking around like they're scared they might be killed). There are some quite good performances by the Stones in the beginning, to set the film up. But that's not really what it's all about.

I'd almost consider this one more a horror film rather than a concert film; it was certainly horrific to witness everything going wrong. The beatings, the deaths (there were 3 accidental deaths that weren't recorded), performers being assaulted...all from an event that was supposed to be about spreading good will and good times. You can blame the Hell's Angels if you must, but the film dissaudes you from even doing that. There's a call-in in the beginning in which an Angel angrily addresses how they were misled. Accounts vary, but what he's saying is more or less correct. You can even see one of the Angels' bikes get kicked over; the owner grimaces and attempts to put the handlebar back on his expensive machine (interestingly, this guy isn't one of the ones who reacts with violence). These possessions defined who the Angels were; the hippies were defined by their rejection of possessions. Their juxtaposition was explosive.

You see Mick Jagger go from invincible Rock Icon to singing like he's about to burst into tears. You see Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane get knocked unconscious. You see savage beatings with pool cues. You see people half out of their minds on drugs. You see a possible homicide. Depending on how you look, you might see the death of the 1960's.

It's a powerful film, though it tends to provoke different reactions from different people. I won't go into detail of mine, but I will say that there are always consequences for your actions. If you're going to do something on this scale, you'd better do it carefully. If you live your life like you've got no responsibilities, you will be reminded. There's obviously more there than that, but it's a start. You should definitely watch it yourself and draw your own conclusions.