Blu-ray Review: The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (Criterion Collection)

Not exactly up my alley, but I enjoyed it immensely

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Tuesday, September 22nd 2009 at 12:18 AM

The latest one-time DVD-only Criterion release to get the Blu-ray upgrade treatment is their 2002 release of D. A. Pennebaker's Monterey Pop in either a single-disc or double-disc boxset "complete" edition. I was sent the Complete Edition for review, which includes Pennebaker's 79-minute 1968 feature, which includes 14 separate songs performed by 13 different bands/artists as well as additional music played over the pre-concert establishing shots. The second disc includes the complete sets played by Jimi Hendrix (49 mins) and Otis Redding (19 mins), but that's just the official footage as Criterion's presentation includes even more not included in the original releases.

Before I detail everything you get with this collection, let me start off by saying this isn't necessarily the kind of thing I would rush out and buy. I enjoyed watching it immensely and it served as much as a musical education as it did a piece of entertainment, but the likelihood of me personally returning to watch it again is slim. At least that is my current prediction having only watched it for the first time a few days ago. I say this merely as a personal movie-watching opinion and not one based on the subject matter, because as much as this isn't a title you would find me adding to my shopping cart, it's certainly a quality piece of entertainment for those whose tastes turn in this direction.

As someone that doesn't own a single song from the group of artists performing in this film, not out of dislike, simply because they don't rise to the top of my go to list, although I am sure many would say my favorite artist of all-time, Prince, was highly influenced by more than one of the musicians playing in this festival. The performances range from The Mamas and the Papas singing "California Dreamin'," The Who singing "My Generation," Jimi Hendrix performing "Wild Thing" and a spectacular closing performance featuring Ravi Shankar captivating an unsuspecting audience with "Raga Bhimpalasi." It's a fascinating collection of artists, songs and performances, each one unique from the one before it and filled with the emotion that tells the story of the '60s.

Along with those already mentioned, there are performances by Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Starship and Eric Burdon and the Animals, which also carries over into two hours of performances not included in the 79-minute Monterey Pop feature.

The feature itself has an excellent retrospective commentary by producer Lou Adler and Pennebaker, which lends itself well to the included 29-minute feature with Adler and Pennebaker, which is referred to as an "interview" but is really just the two guys having a conversation about the festival and the film that came as a result. On top of that there are four separate audio interviews totaling 66-minutes with John Philips, Cass Elliot, David Crosby and Derek Taylor. Conversation here deals a lot with the set-up of the festival and reminded me a lot of some of what I just saw in Ang Lee's recently released Taking Woodstock. The conversation also trends toward the festival itself, the highs and lows and overall impressions.

The first disc also has a collection of Elaine Mayes's photos taken during the festival, which you can flip through as an annotated flip-book or as a 12-minute video presentation with Mayes supplying commentary. Similar to the Mayes photo flip-book is a look at the festival program, which is presented in such a size that you can actually read the included essays.

The second disc includes the previously mentioned "Jimi Plays Monterey" and "Shake! Otis at Monterey" sets in their entirety, both of which also come with their own audio commentaries. The Hendrix piece is killer with an outstanding title sequence featuring Hendrix playing "Can You See Me?" while artist Denny Dent paints a graffiti portrait of Hendrix. Redding's set, in my opinion, is highlighted by the camerawork above all else as I thought it was the best shot sequence of the entire festival with Redding often in silhouette and then occasional bright flashes of white light as he stepped out of frame. Jimi's 49-minute set includes 11 songs while Redding's includes five.

Supplemental features include two commentaries on "Shake!" with music critic and historian Peter Guralnick on both, first discussing Redding's Monterey performance and then a before-and-after discussion on the impact it had on his career. Hendrix's performance has a great commentary with music critic and historian Charles Shaar Murray that serves as a great companion piece to a short video excerpt with Pete Townshend of the Who with a great story of who gets to go first and destroy their instruments first. Accompanying "Shake!" is an interview with Redding's manager Phil Walden that actually didn't impress me all that much.

The video presentation on all three features is just as you would expect from 16mm film stock with noticeable grain. 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. The audio, however, is astounding offering several options including a lossless restored and unrestored stereo tracks as well as a 5.1 mix presented in DTS-HD on all three films. Just as I didn't see the original DVD release, I didn't hear it either, but I can't imagine it being able to stand up to the quality on hand here.

Finally, both discs come with the expected high-quality booklet inserts. Along with Monterey Pop comes a 43-page booklet with essays from critics Michael Lydon, Barney Hoskins and Armond White. The second disc includes an eight-page booklet with an essay from "Rolling Stone" senior editor David Fricke.

Overall, this is a music lover's dream. While these aren't my personal favorite artists I was swept away, which tells me those that really enjoy the music of the '60s and '70s will eat this up. Criterion's presentation is as impressive as always and while the two discs contain a lot of material I wouldn't be surprised if those that see it as a worthy addition to their collection bust through the entire set on a lazy afternoon weekend.

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