Absolutely Fantastic

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Two concerts were held at Madison Square Gardens in New York on the afternoon and evening of August 1, 1971 to raise money and awareness for the plight of war refugees in Bangladest as organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. 40,000 attended the two shows. The album of the event won the highly coveted Grammy Award Album of the Year for 1972. Eric Clapton would be on three album's of the year in his career, Bangladesh, his own Unplugged in 1992 and Santana's Supernatural in 1999. Clapton is on two of the only four live albums to win album of the year. He almost didn't make Bangladesh however due to his heroin problem. As a last minute replacement Taj Mahall guitarist Jesse Ed Davis was chosen but Clapton did show up and Davis remained in the stage lineup. Clapton is pretty much a sideman here and does no singing and only one guitar solo. Ravi Shankar starts out the concert with his band of Indian musicians, Ustad All Akbar Khan, Alla Rakah and Kamala Chak Ravarty in a long, long set. The concert also features Harrison's former Beatle band mate Ringo Starr. Fellow former Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney were invited to take part. McCartney declined but Lennon accepted and just two days before the concert when Harrison informed Lennon that it was he who was to perform and not Yoko Ono, Lennon dropped out. Also from the Beatles days, Billy Preston is here and Klaus Voorman. Apple recording stars Badfinger, are part of the ensemble stage band. Leon Russell and special guest Bob Dylan round out the big name stars. Also here are Jim Horn and The Hollywood Horns as well as Carl Radle, Jim Keltner, Don Preston, and backup singers Don Nix, Jo Green, Jeanie Greene, Marlin Grenne, Dolores Hall and Claudia Linnear. Saul Swimmer directed this documentary. He would go on to do the acclaimed Queen We Will Rock You documentary 10 years later. His attempts at directing feature films were forgettable. He was credited also as being a co-producer of the Beatle documentary Let It Be. Harrison was concerned that larger 32MM film cameras would be too imposing so he opted for the use of smaller 16MM film cameras. Richard E. Brooks and Fred Hoffman were the principal cinematographers of the eight man film crew that also included Sol Negrin and Tohru Nakamura. Brooks was like the Ed Wood of cinematography whose career consisted of filming low budget obscure bad feature films. When this film premiered in March of 1972 it was 140 minutes in length but somehow got chopped down by 45 minutes to a 95 minute run-time. I saw this during it's initial theatrical release and have seen it maybe one since and I have not seen it's new DVD version. It's a low budget film with no imaginative camera work and the Ravi Shankar segment is to long but it captures some great performances by a great cast of stars and recording and touring musicians. I would give this a 7.5 out of 10.

The first benefit rock concert and the greatest concert film ever.George Harrison is at his peak in this film. The only disappointment is the fact that Eric Clapton arrived late and did not have the chance to perform one of his own numbers. Still, the Dylan songs, the Leon Russell medley and Harrison's own tunes are more than enough to make this an all-time classic. The passion that is evident in Harrison's voice and on his face during the closing song still gives me goosebumps more than 30 years after I first saw this movie in the theater. This DVD is a must have for any rock music fan.

..yet this concert is nowhere to be found......Damn. Ok, I'm the only reviewer here who hasn't seen the rockumentary, but I can assure you that it's not like I haven't been trying. Just don't know where to find the friggin' thing...If anyone knows, please e-mail me at [email protected] anyone's curious as to why I am so interested and desperate to see it-well I'm Dylan's #1 fan and heard the live recording of "Mr Tambourine Man" -sung during this concert, and wow..just hearing it was an experience I'll never forget. RIP George!

As one who was watching this event unfold, if only from Australia, it's a great disappointment that this outstanding rock concert is no longer available on video. Bring on the DVD too! I have been to a cinema on my own to watch a movie only twice. The first time was to watch the Concert For BanglaDesh. I didn't regret it. I bought the triple album for $A17 . . . . it was a long time ago remember . . . . and just had to see it as well. It took an ex-Beatle to gather together so much rock muscle for this benefit concert. The names alone should be enough to sell this movie: George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Jim Keltner, Badfinger to name a few. Don't forget the Ravi Shankar warm-up either, just to get you in the mood. From the comfortable vantage point of 2001, it's rather pleasant to see a much younger George Harrison in his white suit and long hair playing for the benefit of those who suffered so much in BanglaDesh thirty years ago. Surely the anniversary is enough to warrant the concert's re-release on video and DVD?!