AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The_Film_Cricket Eternally ebbing just around the edges of cinema lore there exists a handful of films that, for one reason or another, you were never allowed to see. Whether legal or personal, the reasons behind such a decision more or less guarantee that someone, somewhere it going to doggedly pursue the film until a copy is unearthed. Take, for example, The Rolling Stones 1972 backstage documentary "Cocksucker Blues", a film that so dissatisfied the band that they got a court order to keep it out of distribution.The story goes that in 1972, legendary still photographer Robert Frank was involved in a documentary that would capture the Stones – for better and for worse – during their North American tour to promote their album "Exile on Main St." The result was "Cocksucker Blues", a film with a very simple approach, the band is filmed cinéma vérité, warts and all, with several cameras lying around back stage so anyone could pick one up and start filming. This means that any and all backstage bits of debauchery and excess could and would be captured on film, everything from wild sex parties to rampant drug use. What you see in the film is not exactly surprising. The Stones were not happy with the results. They were concerned about their image as it was portrayed in the film (but more likely because some of the things they are doing on film could land them in jail.) For years, "Cocksucker Blues" (which Mick wrote to irritate the record label) remained hidden and was only screened on the provision that it was allowed to be shown a few times a year with the director present. Meanwhile, for the public, it became a bootleg legend. Bad copies were available from indie video stores and later some bad looking prints began showing up around the internet. Today, more people have probably seen the film than any decade past, and for the hard-lined movie obsessed, the film is something of a lost legend.Now, let's get to the million dollar question. Is the movie any good? Well, that depends on you. The movie isn't exactly insightful, what is contained in this film (and what stays in your memory) are the moments of sex, drugs and rock and roll. The band and nearly every member of their entourage do drugs freely. Keith and Mick do drugs only in fleeting glances. Look fast and you can see Mick snorting cocaine off a knife. A glance captures Keith rolling up a dollar bill before shooing away the cameraman. Others are not so careful. One disturbing scene has a couple shooting heroine in their hotel room and, as they talk to the camera, you can slowly see the drug taking effect. The sex is just as frequent. Lots of naked people (mostly women), lots of sex, especially during a wild party on an airplane that culminates in the most bizarre display of cunnilingus you're ever likely to experience.Those moments happen frequently but in between are quite moments when we get a look at the band during downtime. This was 1972, the 60s were over, and the band was obviously tired. We can see that they are exhausted, possibly by the lifestyle, possibly by each other. Mick Jagger in particular has moments when he is in serious need of a good night's sleep. Maybe it was the times; this was the band's first North American tour since four people were killed at their free concert at Altamont four years earlier. The free love generation was on its way out, 60s anger was about to give way to 70s indifference and there are moments – fleeing moments – when you can see that the members of the band would rather be somewhere else. Then they hit the stage and their lethargy all but disappears. The Rolling Stones have always occupied the stage with fire and energy and none of that is lost here. The best moment – in fact the best moment in the entire movie – occurs when the Stone are on stage singing a medley with Stevie Wonder. That moment was magic. I could have watched an hour of that material.What are not so magical are the moments when the film grinds into tedium when the band and their entourage are backstage or in their hotel room just doing nothing. The camera is on, it captures some people talking or just laying around and those scenes go on and on. Those moments I could do without. "Cocksucker Blues" is not a great movie; it's more of a curiosity that captures a legendary band at a crucial moment in their history, if not on their best behavior.*** (of four)

eddiez61 It's gritty, grimy, meandering, raw, crass, dark, dreary, miserable and spectacular - just what life on the road with the World's Greatest Rock Band should be. This seemingly uninhibited peek behind the curtain of Pop celebrity is not always pretty, not always inspiring, but it is nearly always absolutely fascinating.There are few people in the world that can comprehend exactly what it means - what it feels like - to be at the center of the whirling cyclone of attention directed towards international mega stars, and Robert Frank does his best to give us a meager glimpse of the insatiable monster. The few moments of near still quiet that occur between Mick and Bianca are so oddly surreal, partly because of the quaintly eerie sound from the music box that Bianca is playing with, but largely because such mundane moments of domestic interaction are in such outrageous contrast to the non stop vortex of madness surrounding them. Business plans and arrangements are somehow accomplished in fractured, hectic, incomprehensible shouts and whispers among the din of their party life. Society's sophisticates, like Truman Capote and Lee "Princess" Radziwill rub sweaty elbows with the likes of "Snatch Girl", "Junky Soundman" and other lowly denizens of the underground conduit. Girls are witnessed fulfilling every promise that is implied by their status as Groupies. And even other celebrities at times seem bewildered and stunned by the carnivalesque proceedings, like Tina Turner's moment in the dressing room where she is every bit a deer in the headlights of the Stones' thundering locomotive. Maybe she always looked that way back then, battered as she was by Ike, but her expression is so perfectly matched to my own feelings of shock and awe.The few live musical moments are thrilling in their intimacy, their proximity to that entity that is the Band at work. On and back stage the camera functions as a trusted band mate. It's the eyes and ears and heart of an active, invaluable member of the group - the audience. And as valuable and irreplaceable as that role is, we, the fans, are still left behind when the camera closes in on the face of an enraptured (possibly tripping) Keith as he unleashes a flesh tearing solo. No one but the boys themselves will ever know just exactly what wonderful, magical, mysterious stuff it was to be at the center of their mad, beautiful world, but now I have a fair clue, and it's awesome.

Bear90039 The entire film is miserable. It is the Rolling Stones at their absolute lowest point. The footage is almost unwatchable and for the most part, the band was too toxic to perform. They sound bad, very bad. I have nothing good to say about this movie. I am a huge Stones Fan if that shocks anyone. If you're a true fan, pass this one up like a bad dose of heroin. Yes it does show the cooking, drawing and shooting of smack. Then an immature Keith throws a television out of the hotel window, while being egged on by his professional entourage. Let's don't even talk about their skanky choice of women. If you own a copy of this do the stones a favor and destroy it.

Brett Scieszka I used to think that 'Gimme Shelter' was the end all, be all of Rolling Stones documentaries. The Maysles' film is undeniably heroic, but its shine and polish, its squeaky clean view of the Stones as consummate professionals utterly belies the fact that road life with the skinny brits did involve a good deal of sex, drugs, and a bit of rock and roll too. Filmed during a tour to promote my personal favorite Stones record, 'Exile on Main St,' 'Cocksucker Blues' is a grimy, sordid foray in the behind the scenes workings of the Rolling Stones machine. Gloriously filmed in both color and black and white super 8, and artfully presented with a strong focus on non-diagetic audio tracks, 'Cocksucker Blues' is no simple document of events, but a solid work of art in its own right. The haphazard filming style during performances is more kinetic and subjective than the Maysles' lens and suits the jarring, hell-bent nature of the music. The craziness of tour life is captured in some particularly amazing and unforgettable scenes. The kook, nearly suicidal fan, whose baby's been taken away due to mom's acid habit, the primitive and forceful disrobing of women on the plane while the band cooks up a beat to go with it, and the junky sound man all create a subterrainian truthful texture to the Stones experience that was most likely not available to the Maysles brothers.