Today, we continue to celebrate the birthday of Martin Scorsese with a song that has appeared in countless Scorsese films! When Scorsese made his Rolling Stone documentary, nonetheless than Mick Jagger commented on how odd it was that this was the first Scorsese film to not feature Gimme Shelter.
From the Rolling Stones and Merry Clayton, here is today’s song of the day.
After you watch Woodstock, you owe it to yourself to watch another documentary from 1970. This one is called Gimme Shelter and it deals with the infamous Altamont Free Concert. Taking place a few months after Woodstock, Altamont was originally envisioned as being Woodstock West but, as Gimme Shelter illustrates in disturbing detail, it ultimately became something far different.
Here are a few images from both Gimme Shelter and the Altamont Free Concert:
This is Mick Jagger, the lead singer of The Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones were the final act to perform at the Altamont Free Concert and their performance was meant to be the conclusion of their 1969 American tour. Gimme Shelter was originally meant to be a documentary about the final days of the tour and clips of a confident and charismatic Jagger performing in Madison Square Garden are sprinkled throughout the first 40 minutes of the film. They provide a striking contrast to the chaos of the second half of the film, in which Jagger finds himself ineffectually trying to maintain order as fights break out in front of the stage.
This is Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones’s drummer. Though Gimme Shelter is usually referred to as being a documentary about the Rolling Stones, the film pretty much centers around Mick and Charlie. Gimme Shelter‘s framing device involves Mick and Charlie watching a rough cut of the documentary itself. While Mick always seems to maintain an air of deliberate detachment, Charlie seems to be visibly disturbed by what happened during their performance at Altamont.
(In another memorable scene, the group is shown listening to their latest recording. While this rest of the group plays up to the filmmakers, Charlie quietly takes in the music and appears to be surprised when he notices that he’s being filmed.)
This is the Melvin Belli. An attorney, Belli appears throughout the first half of Gimme Shelter, making the arrangements for the Altamont Free Concert and obviously having a great time showing off for the camera. At one point, Belli makes a comment about opening for the Stones. While Belli’s joking, it’s obvious from the tone of his voice that he’d love nothing more than to do so. In fact, Belli is so busy being entertaining that he really doesn’t seem to notice that, even during the planning stages, the Altamont Free Concert doesn’t sound like a good idea.
This is Sonny Barger, a founding member of the Hell’s Angels. He’s standing on the Altamont stage, watching Mick Jagger perform. Why is Barger on stage? He’s there because, for some reason, someone thought it would be a good idea to hire the Hell’s Angels to handle security at the concert. (Barger is heard, in the film, saying that he was told that he could sit on the stage and drink beer and all he had to do was keep anyone else from approaching the musicians.)
What is Barger thinking as he watches Jagger perform? This is a question that I think anyone who has ever watched Gimme Shelter has asked themselves. Is he annoyed with or menacing Jagger or is he just doing his job and making sure that no one rushes the singer? Perhaps it’s all of the above.
The man in green is Meredith Hunter. This shot is the first time that Hunter appears in the film. The second time is when he’s getting stabbed to death by a member of the Hell’s Angels security force. Watching the documentary, Jagger asks to rewatch the scene of Hunter’s murder. The filmmakers slow down the scene and show him both the knife being held by the Hell’s Angel and the gun being held by Hunter.
Even before Hunter’s death, Gimme Shelter has already shown us enough to convince us that the counter culture dream of Woodstock was the exception as opposed to the rule. The final hour of Gimme Shelter takes place at the Altamont Free Concert and almost every scene feels like an angry rebuke to the positivity of Woodstock. The crowds were angrier. The scenery was far less aesthetically pleasing. (Woodstock took place on a farm. Altamont took place on a cement race track.) Whereas Woodstock famously featured warnings about the “brown acid,” Gimme Shelter features one of the concert promoters reacting to concerns about the bad acid circulating in the crowd by saying, “Tough shit.” Even the naked people at Altamont were far less attractive than the naked people at Woodstock. Jefferson Airplane played at both festivals. At Woodstock, they apparently had sound issues but otherwise, there were no problems. At Altamont, as the cameras rolled, lead singer Marty Balin was knocked unconscious by a Hell’s Angel with a pool cue.
(“I’d like to mention that the Hell’s Angels just smashed Marty Balin in the face and knocked him out for a bit. I’d like to thank you for that,” one of the members of the band announced.)
A few more images from Altamont:
Before the concert starts, this man cheerfully yelled “LSD! Mescaline!” at everyone walking by. I’m not sure if that was his dog or not. But speaking of dogs…
…this dog casually wandered across the stage during the Rolling Stones’s performance. It’s never clear where he came from or where he went after he left the stage.
Even with the Hell’s Angels beating up everyone in sight, a few people still enjoyed the concert. This is who I relate to in the film because she was determined to enjoy herself no matter how weird things got.
But then there’s this guy, who was standing only a few feet away from Jagger when he started to freak out:
If Woodstock is ultimately all about peace and life, Gimme Shelter is a film that is suffused with conflict and death. If you’re going to watch one, you owe it to yourself to watch the other. In the end, the two documentaries together provide us with a view of a counterculture that had so much potential but which couldn’t escape the darkness that hid behind the light.
(Interestingly enough, future director George Lucas was one of the cameramen at Altamont that day. Just as how Altamont was often cited as the end of the 60s, the blockbuster success of Lucas’s Star Wars would often be cited as the beginning of the 80s.)
I’ll end this review with a quote from Grace Slick, one that is still relevant today. As she said as she watched Altamont descend into chaos: “You don’t hassle with anybody in particular. You gotta keep your bodies off each other unless you intend love. People get weird, and you need people like the Angels to keep people in line. But the Angels also – you know, you don’t bust people in the head – for nothing. So both sides are fucking up temporarily; let’s not keep FUCKING UP!”
Let’s continue to get caught up with 6 more reviews of 6 more films that I saw in 2014!
At Middleton (dir by Adam Rodgers)
“Charming, but slight.” I’ve always liked that term and I think it’s the perfect description for At Middleton, a dramedy that came out in January and did not really get that much attention. Vera Farmiga is a businesswoman who is touring colleges with her daughter (Taissa Farmiga, who is actually Vera’s younger sister). Andy Garcia is a surgeon who is doing the same thing with his son. All four of them end up touring Middleton College at the same time. While their respective children tour the school, Vera and Andy end up walking around the campus and talking. And that’s pretty much the entire film!
But you know what? Vera Farmiga and Andy Garcia are both such good performers and have such a strong chemistry that it doesn’t matter that not much happens. Or, at the very least, it doesn’t matter was much as you might think it would.
Hence, charming but slight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-b_mPVuNOI
Barefoot (dir by Andrew Fleming)
Well, fuck it.
Sorry, I know that’s not the best way to start a review but Barefoot really bothered me. In Barefoot, Scott Speedman plays a guy who invites Evan Rachel Wood to his brother’s wedding. The twist is that Wood has spent most of her life in a mental institution. Originally, Speedman only invites her so that he can trick his father (Treat Williams) into believing that Speedman has finally become a responsible adult. But, of course, he ends up falling in love with her and Wood’s simple, mentally unbalanced charm brings delight to everyone who meets her. I wanted to like this film because I love both Scott Speedman and Evan Rachel Wood but, ultimately, it’s all rather condescending and insulting. Yes, the film may be saying, mental illness is difficult but at least it helped Scott Speedman find love…
On the plus side, the always great J.K. Simmons shows up, playing a psychiatrist. At no point does he say, “Not my tempo” but he was probably thinking it.
Divergent (dir by Neil Burger)
There’s a lot of good things that can be said about Divergent. Shailene Woodley is a likable heroine. The film’s depiction of a dystopian future is well-done. Kate Winslet has fun playing a villain. Miles Teller and Ansel Elgort are well-cast. But, ultimately, Divergent suffers from the same problem as The Maze Runner and countless other YA adaptations. The film never escapes from the shadow of the far superior Hunger Games franchise. Perhaps, if Divergent had been released first, we’d be referring to the Hunger Games as being a Divergent rip-off.
However, I kind of doubt it. The Hunger Games works on so many levels. Divergent is an entertaining adventure film that features a good performance from Shailene Woodley but it’s never anything more than that. Considering that director Neil Burger previously gave us Interview with the Assassin and Limitless, it’s hard not to be disappointed that there’s not more to Divergent.
Gimme Shelter (dir by Ron Krauss)
Gimme Shelter, which is apparently based on a true story, is about a teenage girl named Apple (Vanessa Hudgens) who flees her abusive, drug addicted mother (Rosario Dawson). She eventually tracks down her wealthy father (Brendan Fraser), who at first takes Apple in. However, when he discovers that she’s pregnant, he demands that she get an abortion. When Apple refuses, he kicks her out of the house. Apple eventually meets a kindly priest (James Earl Jones) and moves into a shelter that’s run by the tough Kathy (Ann Dowd).
Gimme Shelter came out in January and it was briefly controversial because a lot of critics felt that, by celebrating Apple’s decision not to abort her baby, the movie was pushing an overly pro-life message. Interestingly enough, a lot of those outraged critics were men and, as I read their angry reviews, it was hard not to feel that they were more concerned with showing off their political bona fides than with reviewing the actual film. Yes, the film does celebrate Apple’s decision to keep her baby but the film also emphasizes that it was Apple’s decision to make, just as surely as it would have been her decision to make if she had chosen to have an abortion.
To be honest, the worst thing about Gimme Shelter is that it doesn’t take advantage of the fact that it shares its name with a great song by the Rolling Stones. Otherwise, it’s a well-done (if rather uneven) look at life on the margins. Yes, the script and the direction are heavy-handed but the film is redeemed by a strong performance from Vanessa Hudgens, who deserves to be known for more than just being “that girl from High School Musical.”
Heaven is For Real (dir by Randall Wallace)
You can tell that Heaven is For Real is supposed to be based on a true story by the fact that the main character is named Todd Burpo. Todd Burpo is one of those names that’s just so ripe for ridicule that you know he has to be a real person.
Anyway, Heaven Is For Real is based on a book of the same name. Todd Burpo (Greg Kinnear) is the pastor of a small church in Nebraska. After Todd’s son, Colton, has a near death experience, he claims to have visited Heaven where he not only met a sister who died before he was born but also had a conversation with Jesus. As Colton’s story starts to get national attention, Todd struggles to determine whether Colton actually went to Heaven or if he was just having a hallucination.
You can probably guess which side the movie comes down on.
Usually, as a self-described heathen, I watch about zero faith-based movies a year. For some reason, I ended up watching three over the course of 2014: Left Behind, Rumors of War, and this one. Heaven is For Real is not as preachy (or terrible) as Left Behind but it’s also not as much fun as Rumors of War. (Rumors of War, after all, featured Eric Roberts.) Instead, Heaven Is For Real is probably as close to mainstream as a faith-based movie can get. I doubt that the film changed anyone’s opinion regarding whether or not heaven is for real but it’s still well-done in a made-for-TV sort of way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcaZ3StTfI
The Other Woman (dir by Nick Cassavetes)
According to my BFF Evelyn, we really liked The Other Woman when we saw it earlier this year. And, despite how bored I was with the film when I recently tired to rewatch it, we probably did enjoy it that first time. It’s a girlfriend film, the type of movie that’s enjoyable as long as you’re seeing it for the first time and you’re seeing it with your best girlfriends. It’s a lot of fun the first time you see it but since the entire film is on the surface, there’s nothing left to discover on repeat viewings. Instead, you just find yourself very aware of the fact that the film often substitutes easy shock for genuine comedy. (To be honest, I think that — even with the recent missteps of Labor Day and Men, Women, and Children — Jason Reitman could have done wonders with this material. Nick Cassavetes however…) Leslie Mann gives a good performance and the scenes where she bonds with Cameron Diaz are a lot of fun but otherwise, it’s the type of film that you enjoy when you see it and then you forget about it.
This film, which features Vanessa Hudgens in a change-of-pace role, looks good and life-affirming. However, there are two reasons for concern.
First off, the movie is being released in January, which is traditionally the time of year that all of the really bad movies are released.
Secondly, the trailer features three quotes praising the film but they’re all from the same review.
Hopefully, Gimme Shelter will beat the odds.
Today is November 9th. I’m 25 years old today and I don’t want to talk about it. Bleh. Instead, let’s just play one of the greatest songs ever written, Gimme Shelter.
Gimme Shelter is one of those songs that seems to turn up in every fourth movie that I watch and it’s easy to tell why. It’s a great song. Despite the apocalyptic subject matter, this is an undeniably exhilirating song. This is a song that makes my heart beat faster every time I hear it. If I ever happen to total my car again, it’ll probably be because I was listening to this song while driving. If I ever make out my list of top ten songs to fuck make love fuck to, Gimme Shelter will be at the top of the list along with Blondie’s Atomic, Siouxsie and the Banshee’s Kiss Them For Me, and every song on Moby’s Play CD.
Is it possible that Gimme Shelter is the greatest song of all time?
Yes.
Through the Shattered Lens 