Review of Monterey Pop (1968) by Mjs M — 22 Aug 2009

This film documents the titular music festival that was said to be a precursor to Woodstock. Such claims of inspiration seem a bit dubious as this was clearly a much more modest endeavor than that legendary 1969 concert.

This festival was not done on a giant stage in front of millions of mud covered hippies. Rather, this seemed to have occurred in a variety of indoor venues over a couple of days. Similarly, the documentary of this isn?t nearly as wide in scope as the Woodstock documentary.

There is not much documentation of the crowds or the scene, this is strictly interested in filming musical performances, what?s more, each act only gets one song for the most part. So basically we get a handful of high energy performances by some great musicians, but as a film it?s not all that special.