I have yet to see Martin Scorsese's Rolling Stones concert doc Shine a Light despite owning the Blu-ray. I simply have no real interest in seeing it. So, when I received Criterion's Blu-ray edition of their 2000 release Gimme Shelter there wasn't any rush to give it a watch, but regardless of musical tastes this is more of a documentary than it is a musical concert event.

This is a moment captured in time as the Rolling Stones (along with the likes of Santana, Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills and Nash) set out to put on a free concert in San Francisco when the decision to incorporate the Hells Angels as part of concert security over approximately 300,000 people at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway results in mass hysteria. Four births and four deaths are contributed to the evening, and one of the attacks is caught on camera as a knife-weilding Hells Angel takes out a man before he could fire his gun. Featuring some of the best and most influential Stones songs, Gimme Shelter is a wild and equally somber film experience.

Gimme Shelter is edited together around these fateful events using footage from the concert, the search for a venue, the band's preparation and the subsequent aftermath. Among the songs included are the too be expected "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Honky Tonk Woman," "Sympathy for the Devil" and, of course, "Gimme Shelter." I won't comment on the performances as I am hardly a music critic, but one song I will say hits all the right notes is the studio recording of "Wild Horses" playing over footage of a restful Stones. Much of the music speaks to the tone of what is happening on screen as the story plays out, and "Wild Horses" is an absolutely brilliant moment serving as the musical highlight of the piece, that is other than included footage of Ike and Tina Turner opening for the Stones at Madison Square Garden as Tina's sexually charged "I've Been Lovin' You Too Long" even makes Mick Jagger stand up and take notice.

The finale features the mayhem from the event and a stunned Jagger saying, "Oh, it's so horrible." These words are certainly appropriate as the concert took place on December 6, 1969 and Gimme Shelter was released in 1970 and is viewed as the end of the era that was the '60s. After recently watching the Criterion Blu-ray release of D. A. Pennebaker's Monterey Pop, Gimme Shelter is a far cry from the peaceful events depicted there or even those of Woodstock, which took place less than four months earlier. This is a much darker look at a movement as "peace and love" seemed to have met its match. Robert Christgau writing for Newsday in 1972 wrote, "Writers focus on Altamont not because it brought on the end of an era but because it provided such a complex metaphor for the way an era ended."

Criterion's Blu-ray looks a lot like the previously mentioned Blu-ray release of Monterey Pop, which is hardly a surprise seeing how both were shot on 16mm and as such there is only so good it can be made to look. Like I wrote in my review of that collection, "I haven't seen the original DVD release, but I suspect this would be an improvement although I can't imagine it is a major one."

In terms of supplementary material the only new addition not found on the DVD release are exclusive Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround sound mixes, and DTS-HD Master Audio surround and stereo mixes. In these terms the audio is excellent, but it will be up to your ear to determine if the advanced 5.1 is too much of a separation for your sensitive ears.

In terms of the features I remain a bit down the middle. The audio commentary includes directors Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin and collaborator Stanley Goldstein and were all three recorded separately and then edited together. Commentaries such as this are instantly required to work much harder to gain my praise and while this one improves as it goes on, adding insight from the production's source, it never fully wins me over. More impressive are the audio excerpts from KSAN Radio's Altamont wrap-up, which you hear in bits and pieces in the film as we watch the band members' reactions. Here the four-hour day-after show is cut down to 90 minutes and includes introductions by then DJ Stefan Ponek, which adds a bit of welcome context to each excerpt. With a running time of 90 minutes it makes for perfect background listening as key moments presented in the film are expanded upon and immediately capture your ear.

There are also four rough outtakes from the film, two photo galleries presented in black-and-white and color and three trailers. The final bonus is a 37-page booklet that includes all the essays originally offered on the DVD release except for one, the piece written by ex-Oakland Hells Angels chapter head Sonny Barger, but that can be read online right here. Speaking of which, all can be read online, here's the list with links: "Rock and Roll Zapruder" by Amy Taubin, "The True Adventures of Altamont" by Stanley Booth, "Snapshots from the Road" by Georgia Bergman, "The Decade That Spawned Altamont" by Michael Lydon and "The 'Demonic Charisma' of Gimme Shelter" by Godfrey Cheshire. Of course, reading these selections online is hardly as fun as holding the booklet, which is part of what makes Criterion's titles so appealing.

Overall, this isn't a film I would purchase simply because I am not a Stones fan and won't likely watch it more than the once. However, that isn't to say this isn't an absolute must for many others out there. This doc has been acclaimed as the greatest rock film ever made and unfortunately my limited film resume in that area doesn't allow me to back that statement up, but I will say it is quite impressive and at a mere 91 minutes there is absolutely no reason not to give it a watch. I would assume Rolling Stones fans already own the DVD release, but if not this is one to rush out and buy.

Related post categories: DVD and Blu-ray Reviews, Home Video News : Gimme Shelter

Permalink   |   RSS Feed | No comments yet