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Directed by: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
Starring: The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman
Rated: GP [PG]
Watch the trailer
Plot
When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway, a death transformed a decade's dreams into disillusionment as immortalized in this film.
Verdict
This is less a narrative and more a historical artifact as we get to see Stones concerts in the '60s, capped with the unfortunate incident at Altamont. The documentary offers no commentary, just frenzied shots of concerts broken by managers making deals for this concert. This isn't trying to point out what went wrong with the planning of the concert, it just wants to capture the mood and events. It functions best as a doorway into this event that will spur you to perform more research.
It depends.
Review
The Altamont concert occurred just months after Woodstock. This captures the footage from various viewpoints, but it doesn't contain any interviews about the events. We see The Rolling Stones perform prior to this concert as well as the planning for this spontaneous event.
We get a preview of the events early as the Stones listen to Hell's Angel Sonny Barger calling into a radio talk show to provide his perspective on the events.
This documentary gives you the information, but the viewers have to reach conclusions. A few problems are immediately clear. It was a free concert with very little planning. With so many people at a rushed concert, problems were inevitable. Throw in the Hell's Angels with their reputation, and they're an easy scapegoat, not that they're blameless. A member did kill an attendee, granted a gun was pulled. With the crowd and lack of planning for the event, violence was a near certainty. We watch the Altamont concert focused not on the band, but the vast crowd pushing onto the stage. Warnings are frequently issued though it doesn't seem to help.
I'm probably too far removed from these events. The end of hippies and the counterculture that Altamont represent are a concept for me, not tangible.
The aftermath of a Rolling Stones concerts is that someone was killed. Before that we see their tour and songs, as well as their manager planning for the concert and looking for a venue. Altamont contains a jumble of performances as the crowd continually squeezes the stage.
It's intriguing to see the Stones essentially in the 70s. This is a view into the time period through the general chaos of this tour and concert. There's very little context as the documentary moves between songs and scenes. At Altamont there are so many cars and people rushing to get to this spur of the moment concert, and it feels like it.
Despite Barger's claims at the beginning, the Hell's Angels appear to be security, attacking patrons and even musicians. The aftermath is a Rolling Stones concert where someone was killed, contrasting with the spirit of the recent Woodstock.
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