Powerful

Absolutely the worst movie.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

A lot of people have made mention that this concert was the death of the hippie ideal. I would argue that the hippie never existed in the first place. It was all just an excuse to take drugs, have sex and avoid responsibility while claiming the fight for some higher impossible cause. What we see here is what happens when idealism runs it course and all that is left is drug addicted people who have no clue whatsoever. It is interesting to watch the musicians trying to cope with the Hell's Angels who just have a totally different reality. It is a bit like Mad Max meets Mary Poppins in that respect. Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane singing woefully out of tune and then trying to calm down the crowd so that the Angels stop beating them, as if that is really the problem. She tells them "Both sides are temporarily f***ing up, we need to stop f***ing up" the Angels head man gets on stage and tells people that they are the problem. There is a complete lack of organization, the Angel's even being told to park their bikes at the foot of the stage. Eventually we see a member of the audience pull a gun and get stabbed by a Hell's Angel's member. Musically the Stone's are quite good, Mick's voice is spot on and the music great. He tries to calm the crowd but he isn't a bouncer or anyone who commands that kind of respect. It's out of control, the bikers rule the roost. Watching Mick at the end as he reviews the footage, he tries to show some kind of professional distance. He neither looks disturbed (although he claims to be) or surprised or anything really. A bit of trivia, the Hell's Angel's tried to assassinate Mick Jagger due to this concert.

There is a lot of history in this film. It starts with Melvin Belli representing the Rolling Stones negotiating for the concert site for the free concert. Belli is the same guy who defended Jack Ruby after he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. His conference calls to the people representing venues for this "free" concert, are interesting and attended by all the Stones. While Ike & Tina Turner do get a little concert footage in this film, the missed opportunity here is that there is no footage of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young who were also a part of the concert. The film does have the footage of a murder by the Stones hired Hells Angels Security, along with some clubbing. This is history.It is interesting that the Stones wanted to re-stage Woodstock 4 months later according to all the accounts, yet this makes no sense. Woodstock became a "free concert" but actually only after the huge crowd broke down the retaining fence. Until then, everyone there had paid to get in. The Stones decided to make the Alamont concert free from the start. There was chaos and last minute planning, which was totally different than Woodstock too.Because the concert was free, and not well planned, it turned out to be different than Woodstock. The traffic jam getting into Alamont shown must have been even worse when the crowd left. The huge crowd at Woodstock had so much trouble leaving, that an unfinished Interstate Highway, Route 17, had to be opened to let the traffic out. The music in this film is great as the Stones tour that year was the group at it's height and songs like "Brown Sugar" would become hits. Little was it known that the Stones when this was filmed, would outlast The Beatles, and most of the other musical acts featured in the concert by many years. They art still performing in 2017 which is when I am writing this. This concert music might sound a little crude compared to recording of the same songs, but live concerts technology had no where near the technology in the recording studios at this point in history. Live concerts never sounded like studios at this time. The very first live rock concert albums proved that, and the first 2 live rock concert albums were done by The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean. The albums got better after that, but too often the concerts did not have any way to create the same sound as the groups did in the studio.The amazing thing with this film, is the sequences at the end with Mick Jaggar watching the film of the murder which could have been much worse. Not revealed in the film is that the victim getting stabbed was killed because they were pulling out a gun. Without the stabbing, it can not be sure how many folks might have died if the gun man had opened up.The peace and love of Woodstock are over when this was filmed. As for free concerts, they still happen but rarely with this big named a group. As for murders at large events, they got worse after this. Crowd control at events had some major breakdowns years later where many were killed trying to leave large events.In a way, this film having killings at a concert event showed there were things to come that would make people forget this one.

Certainly not a filmed concert, this important documentary describes, in a very sensitive and powerful way, the incredible human bestiary that rushed towards the 1969 free Rolling Stones show located on Altamont speedway, California.Complete disorganization, brutal security staff, drug abuse will turn this rock party to an awful black celebration that will lead to more than a human sacrifice : the destruction of a new kind of innocence.Often shocking and disturbing, sometimes dreadful, "Gimme shelter" brings to us not only the pictures of a riot. It makes us think about the difficulty for men to live as social animals when they're unable to repress their predator instincts. Let's finally mention the great musical first part of the film, and the quality of the direction.

I only recently acquired this on DVD from South America. Initially, bought it only out of curiosity. Now, I think it has taught me some truths. The content is historical/documentary and beyond any conventional rating. The music tracks in the film do have very good audio, though. Now to Dan Sims' question. I share the same view: IMHO, if someone points a gun at me, especially a high as a kite hippie, I'd deal with it in a way I see appropriate to the given situation. Square fact is, that 81 was hired to protect the bands and the audience. One could make a point that the Stones and a bunch of tree huggers owe their lives to the Big Red Machine, obviously the only men sober and sane enough to realize the danger and having the balls to deal with it. Given the chaotic circumstances, I find nothing wrong with the events in 1969. To my knowledge, so did a court of justice. Well, except parking your bike in front of the stage and getting all upset about it when someone stumbles over it. That is so silly. Cheers.