- Actors: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman
- Directors: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
- Producers: Porter Bibb, Ronald Schneider
- Format: Color, NTSC, Import
- Language: English
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Paradox
- Release Date: Dec 1 2009
- Run Time: 91 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B002P8O29K
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Product Description
Additional Features
The first 10,000 VHS copies of Gimme Shelter will include a 20-page booklet entitled The Rolling Stones, Altamont & "Gimme Shelter", which includes essays by Amy Taubin, Stanley Booth, Georgia Bergman, Michael Lydon, Sonny Barger, and Godfrey Cheshire.
Amazon.com Essential Video
To cite Gimme Shelter as the greatest rock documentary ever filmed is to damn it with faint praise. This 1970 release benefits from a horrifying serendipity in the timing of the shoot, which brought filmmakers Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin aboard as the Rolling Stones' tumultuous 1969 American tour neared its end. By following the band to the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco for a fatally mismanaged free concert, the Maysles and Zwerin wound up shooting what's been accurately dubbed rock's equivalent to the Zapruder film. The cameras caught the ominous undercurrents of violence palpable even before the first chords were strummed, and were still rolling when a concertgoer was stabbed to death by the Hell's Angels that served as the festival's pool cue-wielding security force.
By the time Gimme Shelter reached theater screens, Altamont was a fixed symbol for the death of the 1960s' spirit of optimism. The Maysles and Zwerin used that knowledge to shape their film: their chronicle begins in the editing room as they cut footage of the Stones' Madison Square Garden performance of "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and from there moves toward Altamont with a kind of dreadful grace. The songs become prophecies and laments for broken faith ("Wild Horses"), misplaced devotion ("Love in Vain"), and social collapse ("Street Fighting Man" and, of course, "Sympathy for the Devil"). Along the way, we glimpse the folly of the machinations behind the festival, the insularity of life on the concert trail, and the superstars' own shell-shocked loss of innocence.
Gimme Shelter looks into an abyss, partly self-created, from which the Rolling Stones would retreat--but unlike its subject, the filmmakers don't blink. --Sam Sutherland
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Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a strong film with many bonus features,
By Ted "Ted" (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gimme Shelter (DVD)
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.Gimme Shelter is regarded by many as the most important rock film of all time. It follows the Rolling Stones on their infamous 1969 US tour. It covers the Madison Square Garden concert and the near-disastrous Altamont Speedway concert, along with actuality footage of the band in meetings with their lawyer, Melvin Belli (also known for defending Jack Ruby and for a guest appearance in a Star Trek episode) It remains one of the most popular rock films ever made and is as thought-provoking today as it was 35 years ago. An actual now-famous homicide was caught on tape and is featured in this film (as well as nudity), making it inappropriate for children. The Criterion DVD includes many special features also. There is a theatrical trailer and a re-release trailer for the film as well as the films, "Salesmen" and "Grey Gardens" also directed by the Maysles brothers. There is film restoration deomonstration, several deleted scenes and outtakes, audio commentary by the directors and collaborator, Stanley Goldstein. There are also 80 minutes of excerpts from the 4 hour call-in radio show done after the Altamont concert and a photo gallery of the Altamont concert. As an added bonus the accompanying booklet is many times larger than normal (this one is 44 pages) and contains several essays by many different people. This DVD is a MUST for Rolling Stones fans as well as Criterion Collection DVD fans alike.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the late 1960s, without the rosy spectacles,
By Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)
This review is from: Gimmi Shelter (VHS Tape)
Despite the bad sound and grainy film quality, this is a riveting, brutal documentary that focuses on the 1969 free concert at Altamont Speedway that was envisioned by the Rolling Stones as a fun time for everyone to "get it on", and ended with chaos and someone being killed, which is shown in the film. With the Hell's Angels in charge of security, and a vast crowd in a senseless and often aggressive drug induced stupor, watching this evolve is like looking into the abyss of the damned. The mid and late '60s were not the flower-power love generation years some remember through rose-tinted lenses, they were very often violent and hateful, as anyone who saw the rabble "express themselves" at the 1968 Democratic Convention can attest. There are people who blame the outcome of this concert on the Hell's Angels, but this film proves that they were only a part of the problem.There is also much pretension: Guys in suits trying to be hip and cool, and Melvin Belli, the celebrity attorney of his day, making sure he gets his 15 minutes of camera time. The Rolling Stones (at this point Mick Taylor had replaced Brian Jones, who had died in July of that year) seem to be out of place in dealing with their fame, and trying to "act the part", as well as being in a fog of substance abuse. Mick Jagger is the one that appears to be the most "in control", and he tries his best to bring calm and order to the concert crowd, to no avail. All or in part, the songs performed by the Stones are:
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb look at The Rolling Stones' ill-fated 1969 tour,
By Terrence J. Reardon (South Carolina and Mass., USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gimme Shelter (DVD)
Gimmie Shelter is The Rolling Stones' documentary on the band's ill-fated 1969 North American tour in support of the album Let it Bleed. We see the band performing at Madison Square Garden playing songs like Jumping Jack Flash and Love in Vain among others, which was also released on the classic 1970 live album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. We also get to see the band record Brown Sugar and Wild Horses from their 1971 album Sticky Fingers at the legendary Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama. However, the most famous bit from this classic movie was the ill-fated performance in Altamont in December of 1969 which was toted as a West Coast Woodstock but turned out to be anything but when a fan was killed by The Hell's Angels and rioting by the crowd caused the band to stop performing a few times. Musically, this film has great versions of Sympathy For the Devil, Under My Thumb, Jumping Jack Flash, Love in Vain and many other great Stones classics. I first saw this movie when I was 9 in 1985 and enjoy this film seeing as my mom is a huge Stones fan. Highly recommended!
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