Review of Gimme Shelter (2013) by John G — 14 Mar 2008

"I was born in a crossfire hurricane" - Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones.

[size=2][font=Arial Narrow][font=Arial]Watched this movie for the first time in over twenty years. You first see Mick Jagger viewing on a moviola the stabbing scene of a young black man, Meredith Hunter, by a Hell's Angel. He's face is ashen, he's shocked at what he sees and there seems to be a realization on his face that he may have been compliant in the events that unfolded during the concert. Of course, I'm not saying that Jagger or the other Stones stabbed Hunter. But how much of what happened that day, the bad vibes to use a sixties word, the eerie momentum that was building all day, the stoned fans, an out of control motorcycle gang, the Stones themselves not coming out on stage keeping the fans waiting until sundown, well over an hour from the time the previous act performed, contributed to what would happen? Jagger was an artist when it came to enticing fans to excitement bringing them to a high pitched frenzy and then pulling them back before he would lose control. Plainly said, he always had the fans eating out his hand. That is until [/font][font=Arial]Altamont[/font][font=Arial]. For many fans it all started the day before the free concert was to begin. Hard core fans who wanted to be up front got there early and were at Altamont more than 24 hours before the concert started. The Hell's Angels were hired for security to stop overly frantic and stoned fans from rushing up on the stage. [i]Tactfully[/i] the Angels tossed fans off the stage banging heads if needed. As the day went on and the beer flowed skirmishes between fans and Angels seemed to grow. You watch the Stones try to perform Sympathy for the Devil while the Angels and fans are fighting right in front of them. The band would stop playing and plead to all to stop fighting and ?let's just enjoy the music?. They would start playing again and would stop again. There was more fighting. For the first time Jagger had lost control of his audience. The Maylses Brothers capture all these moments and more on film creating a fascinating document of the times. Earlier in the film they show the Stones at [/font][font=Arial]Madison [/font][font=Arial]Square [/font][font=Arial]Garden[/font][font=Arial] days prior to [/font][font=Arial]Altamont[/font][font=Arial]. Watching this footage you remember how great and raw a band they were. This is a powerful movie with some great Rock and Roll by one of the great Rock and Roll bands. It also contains some of the worst nightmares that one could imagine happening at a free concert with hundreds of thousands of people. At [/font][font=Arial]Altamont[/font][font=Arial] the Love Generation, the Flower Children, the Woodstock Generation lost their innocents.[/font][/font][/size].

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[font=Arial]Rating B+[/font].