Gimme Shelter

Gimme Shelter (Criterion #99).
1970 Maysles Films & Janus Films.
Featuring: The Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman)
Also Appearing: Ike and Tina Turner, Flying Burrito Brothers, Jerry Garcia, Jefferson Airplane, hundreds of thousands of concert attendees, and scores of Hells Angels
Directors: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
Buy Gimme Shelter at Amazon, and then, visit the official site.

The Maysles brothers (Albert & David) and Charlotte Zwerin directed this chronicle of the Rolling Stones' 1969 U.S. tour, which ended at the disastrous Altamont Free Concert on December 6th, 1969. We also see plenty of concert footage from the Stones' appearance at Madison Square Garden, which can also be heard on the Get Yer Ya-Yas Out record, and follow the band as they embark on a recording session down in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where they are working on "Wild Horses", "Brown Sugar" and "You Gotta Move", which would later appear on 1971's Sticky Fingers.

Most of Gimme Shelter focuses on the negotiations that took place to make the show at Altamont happen, and how the property owner was very adamant that his track not be damaged in anyway. Wishful thinking, dude. Altamont wasn't even the original site planned, as a San Francisco 49ers game made the original choice, Golden Gate Park, unavailable. Sears Point Raceway was the next choice, but a dispute with the owners saw everything moved over to Altamont Raceway just two nights before the show was to happen. The grounds were woefully inadequate for a show, with a serious lack of portable toliets and medical tents, and a four-foot high stage that required manned security. Enter the Hells Angels, led by Oakland chapter head Ralph "Sonny" Barger (who can be heard early on calling into a radio station and denying any wrongdoing that happened at the show). The Hells Angels were simply expected (and paid with $500 worth of beer!) to escort the Stones in, and keep fans away from the stage, although there has been quite a bit of debate over whether there were any expectations that they were to act as security for a concert with 300,000 plus people in the audience.

Over the course of the day, the mood got ugly as the crowd and the Hells Angels got more and more stoned. Fights broke out in the crowd, and Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin was knocked out cold by a Hells Angel after he jumped from the stage to try to end a skirmish. The Grateful Dead ultimately pulled out of the show at the last minute after hearing what happened to Balin. By nightful, when the Rolling Stones hit the stage, it was really tense. Mick Jagger had already been slugged by a concertgoer just after emerging from his helicopter, was visably intimidated, and two of their songs were stopped to plead with the crowd to calm down.

In the concert's most infamous moment, 18-year-old Meredith Hunter (in his bright green suit) came close to the stage, and drew a gun from his coat. As his girlfriend tried to restrain him, people began to scatter, and Alan Passaro from the Hells Angels went after Hunter with a knife, stabbing him five times. Hunter, who was very high, was reportedly jealous of his girlfriend's attraction to Jagger. There is also footage of Hunter's body being loaded into an ambulance as his girlfriend is in hysterics. The Stones themselves had no idea that Hunter had been killed, and continued their show. Barger claimed he pointed a gun at Keith Richards and ordered him and his mates to "keep playing".

Highly, highly, highly recommended, although it can be very uncomfortable to watch at times, especially when violence is breaking out in the enormous audience. Actually, I personally believe that just being in that sea of humanity would've been a nightmare for me.