A mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage from the televised benefit concert to raise relief funds for victims of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Amir Bar-Lev
Starring: Jon Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, Roger Daltrey and others
This movie is a real mixed bag for me. I was totally into its first
half and was absolutely loving it for its creativity but the about half
way through the movie starts to become a totally different movie, the
moment Mick Jagger makes his appearance.
Thing that made me love its first half, was that it was being a very
British crime flick, focusing on criminals, that got shot and told
beautifully. Truly in an artistic manner, with some experimental
camera-work and editing, that all worked out well and captivating for
the movie.
I was so disappointed that not the whole movie was being like this. The
second half of the movie is far more psychedelic and doesn't really
seem all too concerned about telling its story. So disappointing, since
everything that got buildup in the first half of the movie was being
very promising and I was anxious to see what would happen next. But
it's almost as of halfway through the movie comes to a stop and after
that the movie hardly progresses any more story-wise. It becomes more a
movie about its characters, which was just all less interesting to
watch, in my opinion.
In a way you could say that Jagger ruined the movie for me but I don't
blame just him. It more was the story and the different approach of its
second half that it all less interesting to watch and caused his
character to work out as mostly an annoying one.
James Fox was definitely better. He is not a big name actor but chances
are you have already seen him in something. He doesn't always play
leading roles, as he does in this movie but he definitely is a more
than capable actor, that also has plenty of charisma to him.
I still rate the movie quite highly, simply because of the reason that
it's being a very original and creative movie, that also still works
out for most part as well.
So in short, it has a great and artistic first half and a less
impressive and more messy second one. But overall the movie remains a
more than good and original watch, though it's most definitely not a
movie for just everyone.
Without its unfortunate events and outcome, this would had been an
extremely mediocre documentary to watch, in all honesty.
I wouldn't even necessarily call this a documentary. It's more like a
registration of events but without any background- and insight
information given. No interviews, no voice over and no explanations or
whatsoever given. You might like this kind of approach but to me the
first half came across as a very mediocre registration of some The
Rolling Stones concerts.
But don't worry, things start to turn more interesting after a while.
First of all, it all starts to become more interesting the moment
things are starting to come together for the 'Altamont Free Concert',
which was supposed to be a sort of response to 'Woodstock' but things
are starting to become even more interesting when things are starting
to hit the fan, during the concert.
I think that everybody is already very familiar with all of the events
that went down but this documentary actually shows you how it all
happened and things started to go from bad to worse. It even shows you
the fatal stabbing and some of the other brutalities, committed by the
Hell Angel's, who were brought in by by the management of The Rolling
Stones, as security during the concert. Granted that they got
aggravated by a stoned crowd but things should not never gotten as far
as they did.
If this documentary is also one other thing, it's a great anti-drugs
film! Loads of people attending the concert obviously were high off of
something and no, I'm not even talking about Keith Richards. This
documentary is such a huge contrast with another documentary
"Woodstock", which was a registration of the Woodstock concert, held in
the same year, with the same sort of crowd attending. While Woodstock
was peaceful, Altamont Free Concert had a totally different atmosphere
to it. Violence and a constant sense of treat and danger, was very much
present and gets made sensible in this documentary, mostly due to the
drug use, which made some of the people do some very crazy and scary
stuff. In all of those regards, this documentary is also a great and
intriguing one to watch.
Otherwise, no this is not a great documentary by any means. It's not
that well shot and isn't being an insightful one in any way. Also
please don't watch this expecting to hear lots of great Stones music.
There is music present of course but it's really not being the thing
that this documentary is all about. Besides, the Stones aren't exactly
sounding at their best in this, to be very honest. And yes, I like
Stones music! This documentary just simply isn't really about them at
all, which is all due to it that there were simply bigger things
happening.
It's like a registration of music history, that shows one of the most
shocking and dreadful events to ever happen during a large concert. In
that regard this is perhaps also being somewhat of an essential
viewing!
