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Bookmark this page50 greatest music films ever
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| 'Gimme Shelter' |
3 Gimme Shelter
(David Maysles/Albert Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)
Brothers
David and Albert Maysles couldn’t possibly have predicted the events
that would unfold as their cameras rolled on a chilly December day in
1969 during a free Rolling Stones gig at the Altamont Speedway, nor the
sociological significance the finished film would assume. The American
filmmakers were unaware of what they’d recorded until – with
co-director-editor Charlotte Zwerin – they watched their footage in the
cutting room.
The fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Meredith Hunter
by a Hells Angel stunned and horrified not only the filmmakers but the
‘stars’ of their film. It’s the reactions of the Stones that provide
the movie’s extraordinary emotional punch. In 1964, the Maysles made
‘What’s Happening! The Beatles in America’, depicting the arrival of
the Fab Four in the USA. Shot just five years later, ‘Gimme Shelter’
could hardly express a more radically different sensibility (fearful as
opposed to euphoric; premonitory rather than celebratory).
Everyone
now knows how – thanks to the Hells Angels, hired as security by the
Stones – Altamont went so very wrong, but seeing what was supposed to
be California’s laidback answer to Woodstock degenerate into chaos and
deadly violence before your eyes is something else again. ‘Gimme
Shelter’ opens high-spiritedly enough, with scenes of the Stones
goofing around in capes and top hats, with a donkey – the photoshoot
for what would become the cover of ‘Get Yer Ya-Yas Out’ – before
cutting to the band playing at Madison Square Garden. The camera then
pulls back to reveal that what we’re seeing is actually what the Stones
are watching, on a monitor in a hotel.
Their reaction shots are
the first of many in the movie and become more intense as it
progresses. As we move toward Altamont via NYC, LA and Muscle Shoals,
Alabama, the sense of impending danger builds like a storm cloud in the
distance. Realisation after the brutal fact floods every frame of
‘Gimme Shelter’. With hindsight, candid scenes – Hells Angels chatting
in the winter sun, one reveller, clearly out of his gourd, clawing
wildly at his face – appear like portents of disaster.
The
film’s ostensible focus, the Stones’ gig, becomes almost peripheral;
the narrative drive is toward that one chaotic scene in which Hunter
pulls a gun and is stabbed, while the Stones play ‘Under My Thumb’. We
can’t see this clearly until the film is later replayed, in slow motion
at Mick Jagger’s request, but the inexorable build to this disaster is
all the more harrowing because of the camera’s seemingly random and
impartial gaze.
Not that legendary US film critic Pauline Kael
was impressed; she denounced ‘Gimme Shelter’ as fraudulent. She never
explained why (something that still rankles with the surviving Maysles
brother, Albert), but presumably it’s because the pair’s idea of
documentary filmmaking went beyond just letting the cameras roll.
‘Gimme
Shelter’ is actually as much about process as anything else – the
process of making a record, of staging a free concert, the process of
filmmaking itself – and the action constantly shifts between back-room
negotiations and the ‘front line’ at Altamont, between ‘real time’ and
the recent past. The movie’s denouement comes where the latter overlap,
when we watch Jagger watching the slo-mo footage of the stabbing. It’s
this forward/backward, conceal/reveal dynamic that makes ‘Gimme
Shelter’ the most gripping of concert movies – and so very much more
besides. Sharon O’Connell
Greatest hit The money shot: the point at which we watch, with Jagger, the fatal stabbing in ghastly slow motion.
Top 50 index | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-6 | 5-1
Author: Dave Calhoun. Written by Derek Adams, Geoff Andrew, Dave Calhoun, Wally Hammond, Michael Hodges, Martin Horsfield, Martin Hoyle, David Jenkins, Trevor Johnston, Eddy Lawrence, Sharon O'Connell, Chris Parkin, Graeme Thomson, Peter Watts
User comments on this story
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- Tobbe said...
- What.. why arent The Blues Brothers on this list.. Shuld be at the top five... Posted on Nov 18 2011 18:25
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- Matty said...
- Might have been pit already but lets have nowhere boy on the list somewhere, and somewhere high up because its a keeper Posted on Oct 17 2011 01:27
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- nick said...
-
Let's Get Lost,about Chet Baker,should be on the list.
Bird,about Charlie Parker,should not. Posted on Apr 18 2011 16:07 - Report as inappropriate
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- Declan said...
- Titanic?? "She moved through the fair" in Micheal Collins?? Gladiator song?? Jurasic Park?? these should all be included Posted on Apr 14 2011 20:47
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- Gary Handman said...
- Hello. I think it's totally misguided and non-useful to lump fictional films about music and musicians togehter with documentaries. The language, intent, and cinematic strategies of these two kinds of film are often world's apart. For a more sensible listing of movies about music, see UC Berkeley's web page: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/musicmovies.html and UCB's Music Documentary page: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/music.html Posted on Mar 08 2011 20:20
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- Bop City said...
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MC5 - A True Testimonial poll:
http://tinyurl.com/MC5-ATT-poll
“It’s a great document of the band, it’s a great document of life, and it’s a great document of things ... far and beyond the band.” - Jackson Smith, Detroit-based musician son of Fred & Patti Smith
"Music so extraordinary that it transformed the lives of all who experienced it demands the release of a documentary that does the MC5 justice. Few bands have ever seen so much go so wrong so quickly and have been so misunderstood in the process. A True Testimonial represents a belated opportunity to set things straight, put things right. The fans deserve it. So does the band. And so does the music." - Don McLeese, author of Kick Out The Jams (Continuum 33 1/3 series) Posted on Feb 05 2011 22:21 - Report as inappropriate
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- andy said...
- what about Human Traffic or High Fidelity? Posted on Jan 06 2011 13:12
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- shar said...
- Loved the Last Waltz Too Jim... But more as a sound track than a Movie. Ray, Cadillic Records, The Contenders and even Walk the Line had a great story line . Some are good for CD/Sondtract, but lose it as a film. Posted on Aug 20 2010 21:01
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- Bill said...
- Wayne's World is number 1! Posted on Aug 20 2010 19:35
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- GONIC said...
- i think 'August Rush' is the one of best music films. the way you feel the muzic. and how we can belive in it. the power of music. and every thing Posted on Aug 18 2010 06:22
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- shar said...
- Cadillic Records and The Contenders Best ever Films and Great Sound Track Posted on Aug 09 2010 02:19
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- shar said...
- Cadillic Records and The Contenders Best ever Films and Great Sound Track Posted on Aug 09 2010 02:18
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- shar said...
- Cadillic Records and The Contenders Best ever Films and Great Sound Track Posted on Aug 09 2010 02:18
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- Jim said...
- Um, I'm not gonna try to reason with you, but let's just say you left out Woodstock and The Last Waltz. End of story. Also, Scott Walker is a godly artist (actually my favorite) but 30th Century Man is a terrible doc. Just a bunch of pretentious idiots and mediocre directing and editing. And if you're going to include movies about music, I would add Satyajit Ray's The Music Room. Posted on Jul 24 2010 02:13
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- Bill said...
- Wayne's World is number one Posted on Jul 11 2010 09:45
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