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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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- Mark said...
- Karen Carpenter the world's worst singer? Congratulations to Vince for the stupidest and most-innacurate post ever committed to the internet Posted on Jul 12 2009 00:50
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- Eddie Carnihan said...
- "STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN" about the legendary Motown house band THE FUNK BROTHERS. Not in the top 50. you're having a laugh. Posted on Jun 12 2008 14:26
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- Harry said...
- The Chuck Berry film Hail Hail Rock'n'Roll is a great documentary about the contrary genius. And your admiration for Keith Richards can only increase - he displays inifinite patience when Chuck corrects his playing. Posted on Mar 29 2008 20:49
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- A Sad Man said...
- What about the Monkees film "Head" its a surrealist, psychadelic classic. And Velvet Goldmine too. Posted on Jan 31 2008 15:22
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- Holly said...
- Nice...personally, i like "Raise your voice!", "Confessions of a teenage drama queen"...something more modern :D:D Posted on Jan 31 2008 14:22
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- KevinT said...
- I would have to include the documentary 'A Great Day In Harlem' - one of the best films about jazz musicians. Posted on Oct 17 2007 17:20
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- Brendan Thorpe said...
- How about "Born to Boogie"? Marc Bolan at the height of TRextasy - the arty bit may not be great, but the concert stuff is excellent! Posted on Oct 16 2007 15:37
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- J said...
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Taste is subjective, so we'll cut you some slack... But how could you snub "Ray" or the Cash film "Walk the Line?" "Rockers" was pretty amazing. "The Wall..." and the new release of "The Grateful Dead Movie" is hot. The bonus features (esp. the performances uncut) kick ass. AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock" & come on... "Yellow Submarine."
Personally I think "Spinal Tap" & "Hedwig & The Angry Inch" should be included. The bands may have been born out of the movies (the original play in Hedwig's case), but they are rocking bands nonetheless. Posted on Oct 14 2007 12:52 - Report as inappropriate
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- Alex Murillo said...
- Just to correct a common mistake..."This Is Spinal Tap" is not "Christopher Guest's mockumentary", as you said...it was directed by Rob Reiner. Guest was indeed a co-writer, and of course the film bares a resemblance to Guest's later films, but I think it's unfair to both Reiner and the other members of Spinal Tap (McKean, Shearer) to label the film as Guest's alone. Posted on Oct 11 2007 02:49
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- alex said...
- Actually I'm positive Spinal Tap did a few novelty shows back in the L80's/E90's (8 in all I believe) one at the lamented CBGB/OMFUG in NYC. Even one novelty show brings a band into the plane of existence as anyone knows who has ever been in bands. I've been in a lot, some did only one show, and they ALL existed even if no one but the three of us knew it. So Spinal Tap existed. QED. Posted on Oct 10 2007 16:23
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- Graz said...
- I also forgot to metion the Rock n' Roll, Australian Japanese Surfing Road Movie " Bondi Tsunami". 2004. Check it out. Posted on Oct 10 2007 04:32
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- Graz said...
- What about B.Middler in t"The Rose". Garland and Striesand in thier versions of " A Star is Born" . The briilant "Hair" and now also "Hairspray". But absoutley " Once" is brillant. Who compiled this list? Posted on Oct 10 2007 03:28
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- kay said...
- where the hell is PURPLE RAIN?!?!?! this surely has to be in the list?! Posted on Oct 08 2007 14:58
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- Don said...
- You've missed some of the truly great performances by real bands while playing up other performers imitating the stars. And some are as much fantasy as reality based on someone's interpretation of what happened. That is not a true documentary, just fiction passed off as one. Posted on Oct 08 2007 13:42
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- kanna77 said...
- this is great ! Posted on Oct 08 2007 03:47
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