The landmark rock documentary that shows a brief era of love going sour. At the end of the Rolling Stones’ 1969 tour of America, they decide to stage a free concert at the Altamont Speedway. It will be ‘a sort of microcosmic society which sets an example to the rest of America about how to behave in large gatherings’ says Jagger. It’s not. Things turn ugly early in the afternoon, when Hells Angels, who have been charged with maintaining order, start wielding pool cues. A member of Jefferson Airplane gets hit while singing. “Both sides are fucking up temporarily, let’s not keep fucking up” pleads Grace Slick. Then it gets dark, the crowd are restless, and the Stones start up with Sympathy for the Devil. The scuffles intensify and a man is killed on camera. “Can you roll back on that?”, says a pensive Jagger watching the footage in the Maysles’ editing room. Just five years before, the Maysles had filmed the innocent, hotel-room larking of John, Paul, George and Ringo in The Beatles First US Visit. It suddenly seems a very long way away.
As much a historical document as a music film, this unflinchingly records the Rolling Stones' disastrous December 1969 Altamont concert, during which a man was murdered on camera. You can see Mick Jagger's braggadocio visibly crumbling, symbolising the point when an entire decade of peace and love turned suddenly sour.
As famous for its exhilarating and explosive concert performances as it is for its harrowing and sobering climax, for many this paradox provides the framework for what is simply a landmark in rock documentaries, in which filmmakers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin perfectly captured the air of impending change.
Vampyr (Masters of Cinema)
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Gimme Shelter
