Classic and Indie Film Series: GIMME SHELTER (1970)

It's only rock and roll.

Until it isn't.

I can take or leave most concert films. I'm glad they exist, because nothing is more indicative of a culture than its music. And while most "rockumentaries" are simply chronicles of this band's tour or this singer's performance, some concert films are so well-made that they aspire to be more than that. STOP MAKING SENSE (1984), a wonderful film of the Talking Heads 1983 "Speaking in Tongues" Tour, is a wonderful example of a film that is so well made you kinda don't care if you particularly like The Talking Heads or not. Of course that film was directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme, so there's that.

And then there's this infamous film.

Not that well made. Sequences of iconic songs that almost never finish. An iconic singer that sounds off-key for much of the film.

And yet, many people consider GIMME SHELTER (1970) to be one of the most important documentaries about rock and roll ever made, proving that sometimes you get "lucky", if you want to call it that.

To understand that, you need to transport yourself to a much idealized time and place - San Francisco in the late 1960's. It was a time of peace, love, sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

In the late summer of 1969, a miracle had happened on a farm in New York State near a town called Woodstock when some of rock and roll's most iconic bands came together for what was originally supposed to be a 3=day ticketed music festival, but when it became clear that just wasn't going to work, most everyone went ahead and did the show for free, creating a warm fuzzy memory for flower children everywhere that are still entranced by it today. Indeed, one of those rockumentaries I mentioned that managed to rise above its material was the film chronicle of that festival which continues to be one of the most successful music documentaries ever made - WOODSTOCK (1970).

Four months later, in December 1969, the members of Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, mainstays of the Haight-Ashbury scene in San Francisco, wanted to try and recreate the spirit of Woodstock on the West Coast. When The Rolling Stones, who were just ending their 1969 U.S, Tour, agreed to sign on for this this once again free "Woodstock of the West," it appeared that things were set for lightning to strike again.

But that was their mistake. You can't really recreate a serendipitous accident. Just ask the organizers of the fateful attempt to do a modern Woodstock just a few years ago. Yeah. There was a concert. But it just wasn't the same. And what in 1969 was supposed to be a peaceful and joyous day of music, love, and yes...a lot of drugs at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco, quickly turned into a day of bands running for their lives, hate, murder, and yes...a lot of drugs.

GIMME SHELTER is the perhaps accidental film chronicle of that fateful day, which people have described as the "most horrific day in the history of rock and roll" (a title which, I'm sorry, belongs to February 3, 1959, the day Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens died in a tragic plane crash, changing music forever). But I'll admit, the Rolling Stones free Altamont concert is a pretty close second.

I'm not trying to be uncharitable to the Maysles Brothers (David and Albert) or Charlotte Zwerin who are credited as co-directors of GIMME SHELTER. Ms. Zwerin and the Maysles directed some very fine documentaries in their career, including the equally iconic rockumentaries made at the Monterey Pop Festival just a few years later. But let's face it, the reason you may have seen this movie and not the Monterey Pop film is because this one ended up catching unexpected lightning in a bottle, and it had nothing to do with the music. The Buddy Holly plane crash probably deserves the moniker of "The Day the Music Died". But the free Rolling Stones Altamont Speedway concert deserves the title "The Day the Sixties Died."

I don't want to get into too much detail here, as part of the fascination of this movie is watching how one bad decision leads to another and ends up with four people dead, scores injured, a founding member of Jefferson Airplane assaulted, and The Grateful Dead, for Pete's sake, refusing to take the stage.

And...oh yeah...there's the Hell's Angels, who depending on who you ask, were either the scapegoats or the villains of the whole affair.

All Zwerin and the Maysles really had to do was turn on their cameras, which is what they did, managing to capture some shaky footage of multiple beatings and one murder on camera. The film represents perhaps some of the most chaotic and anarchic live event footage ever captured on film. Watching helplessly is Jagger and the Stones trying desperately to get everyone to chill. It's disturbing stuff, and the circumstances overcome the movie's technical flaws.

After all, its tough to get a good shot or hold a camera steady in the middle of a riot.

One of the inspired choices the filmmakers did make, however, was to show the footage as the band later saw it in the editing room. For the band, it was the first time they had seen some of what had actually happened or what their own reactions to the chaos in front of them had been. For much of the film you see Jagger and the band sitting in front of a film editor looking and smiling at some of the earlier tour footage from New York and elsewhere. This was a band on top of the world at the time, and they seem rightfully proud (although I still contend Jagger was really off key). But as the Altamont footage is shown, the mood noticeably changes in the room, and although Jagger has always blamed the Hell's Angels for the violence at Altamont, you can read it in his face that he wonders just how much he himself might have had some responsibility.

Come decide for yourself if he's right.

Presenting our Indie & Classic Movie Series, where we'll all get together to watch a variety of classic and independent films.

I have the movies. I have the projector. I have a big 10 foot roll down screen and nice padded chairs and room for about 15 people in my living room. If the event fills up and we have a long waiting list, I might decide to move things to the backyard, where I have a full drive-in setup.

I'll have some stuff to nibble on and some drinks, and if we end up moving outside, I'll have a full free concession stand. But feel free to bring other stuff if you want. Per policy I do not serve alcohol (don't want the liability), but feel free to bring your own.

We'll socialize for about a half hour before the movie, which will start promptly at 8:00.

CARPOOLS - My parking around here really is limited thanks to overbuilding on nearby lots, so carpooling is encouraged.

In keeping with the general idea of this group, we will have a short discussion about the film and the filmmakers before and after the movie. I hope you'll participate.

Hope to see you there.