Rock Films and Gimme Shelter.

Rock documentaries or Rockumentaries as they are refereed to in the article On the Cutting Room Floor, have always appealed to me, as have rock biographies that have been made into feature length films as well. Reading about the chronological order in which they have evolved is a fascinating account. The article chronicles the birth of what essentially was a filmed concert known as the T.A.M.I.(Teenage Awards Music International) show in 1964 which featured an impressive array of talent. From the Rolling Stones to The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Leslie Gore, Chuck Berry, James Brown, and Bo Diddly to name a few. It wasn't so much a look into the private lives of the performers which would define the later rockumentaries but more in the  vain of being a spectator in a concert hall with the best seat in the house. Then came Monterey Pop the film which was documented by D.A. Pennebaker who had previously chronicled cinema verite style Bob Dylan in Dont Look Back. Whats interesting in the trajectory of rock films up till then was how they retained a cult status, whereas they were films seen by the hard core fans only rather than the mainstream. This of course changed with the release of Woodstock which was filmed and released by Warner Brothers in 1979. Woodstock functioned as an event film directed by Michael Wadleigh the film featured "visual effects, consisting of split screens, superimposition's, and double framing, as well as interviews with the crowd as well as the concert footage made this documentary something special." This concert film had a higher ticket price of $5.00 it was a documentary that transformed the subject according to "Cutting Room Floor" to cinematic art". The film was a huge financial success. If Woodstock set the mode for the future of rock films, then Gimme Shelter set the tone of cutting edge documentaries regardless of the subject matter. What began as a chronicle of the Rolling Stones by the Maysles brothers and their Madison Square Garden concert turned into something far more disturbing and revealing. After the Garden performance the Maysels followed the Stones to the Altamont Speedway in California. The Maysels like they did with the Beatles when they first visited the States, approached the film with a direct cinema approach whereas the audience is a fly on the wall. But similar to what would be seen in news documentaries they did play the footage back while Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts looked on giving it a film within a film experience. What sets Gimme Shelter apart is that it at first appears to be a straight forward look at the Stones performing and letting their guard down somewhat. The footage isn't a Hollywood production like Woodstock, or in other rock films made currently but a single camera view of a great band. But then things turn once they reach the speedway, and the Maysles were their to chronicle it as if they were journalists covering a war zone. From the beginning of the free concert the crowd begins to arrive en-mass, but the vibes and general ambiance of the crowd is off. It is almost a palpable feeling that something is going to happen and its going to be bad. Once the Hells Angels arrive, you new it wasn't going to end well. When it was over four were dead, and the summer of love was officially over. Whats amazing now is looking back at the reception Gimme Shelter received at the time of its release. Critics labeled it "one of the most unpleasant, bleak, depressing movies they've ever encountered." They obviously missed the point. Filming a concert doesn't constitute anything other than a representation of what you couldn't see on your own. The notion that these films are made to expose the artists with their guard down, is somewhat of a fallacy because they still know their  being filmed, regardless of what they lead you to believe. But what the Maysles brothers did was have enough foresight to turn their attention away from the concert and show the cultural disintegration that was happening right in front of them. It was a clash of cultures fueled by drugs and violence that shattered the Utopian reality of Woodstock a mere two months prior.