GIMME SHELTER (1970) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
On December 6, 1969, barely three months after Woodstock, the Rolling Stones wrapped up a North American tour with a free outdoor concert at a racetrack in Northern California. A good time was not had by all, and Altamont quickly became a cultural metaphor marking the end of the 1960s. People on various drugs freaked out. The Hell's Angels, hired to provide security around the stage, drank a lot of beer and beat people unconscious with pool cues. Finally, during the Stones' set, a black man in a green suit apparently pulled a gun and was stabbed to death by one of the Angels. Remarkably, this documentary captures it all on film, together with uneasy closeups of Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts self-consciously watching the replay and responding to it. (Keith Richards is around, too, but looks too zoned out to respond to anything.) Young George Lucas was one of the cameramen.
Albert Maysles
(1926-2015)
