Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

SnoopyStyle It's 1969 four months after Woodstock. The Rolling Stones are giving a free concert at the Altamont Speedway with Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, CSN&Y as well as others in northern California. Hell's Angels are put in charge of security around the stage. The details are all in dispute but the violence gets out of control.It's amazing to see the Stones react to the footage afterward. Mick looks high and almost gitty at times. At other times, he looks concern which is the demeanor of everybody. There is a feeling of dread running throughout this documentary. Each problem in the planning and execution of the concert is magnified by the knowledge of what's to come. The style is observational which is so amazing in this. It doesn't take a direct stand in that the filmmakers aren't making any comments. From the footage, the Hell's Angels and drugs are made out to be the bad guys in this movie. It also shows how unprepared the concert planning was. It is one of the most compelling concert movie ever.

classicsoncall If anything, Altamont proved that you can't reproduce or manufacture a phenomenon. Superficially billed as 'Woodstock West', the concert turned destructive and violent with the presence of the Hells Angels purportedly providing security for the event. The flower power of the Sixties turned into a convoluted mix of dope, rock and roll and stoned out hippies tripping to the music of the Rolling Stones while all hell was breaking loose in front of the stage where a man was murdered and no one seemed capable of stopping it. The legacy of Altamont closed out a decade that had started out promising enough with the British Invasion, Motown, the surf sound and assorted other musical styles. The Rolling Stones were a big part of that era, and knowing of their antics back in the day, one wonders how they managed to stay in shape to be playing right up to the present. As a chronicle of the Altamont concert, "Gimme Shelter" is capable but largely unexceptional. There's not a Stones song you won't recognize if you're a fan, some done better than others, and a handful presented merely as background music for a contemplative Jagger and Charlie Watts as they review the events captured on film prior to this picture's release. Credit goes to Jagger and Grace Slick for trying to gain some control when things started to heat up with the crowd and the Hells Angels, but ultimately Jagger doesn't appear too shaken by what happened. He seems to show more surprise at the remarks of Sonny Barger dumping on the band and admonishing the concert goers - "When they jumped on an Angel, they got hurt".

timmyj3 First, this film is not a concert. It is a true life story and saga. The significance of this film is that you catch the rise of the greatest rock and roll band in the world, and the absolute end of the 60's spirit.The film centers around the free concert that the Rolling Stones want to put on at the end of their 1969 US tour. They want to do a mini Woodstock and include other acts such as Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Flying Burrito Brothers, etc...But, putting on a free concert isn't that easy. The crowd estimate is starting to get out of hand. The Stones are in New York finishing up their historic Madison Square Garden Concerts which would become the famous album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. We flash back and forth between the concert footage and the troops on the ground in San Francisco trying to get this free concert set.The drama tightens as time is running out for securing a venue for the free show. Golden Gate Park backs out, Laguna Seca Speedway wants no part of it. Finally the Stones lawyer, Melvin Belli secures a spot. The Altamont Speedway. West of San Francisco. The Maysles Brothers capture the drama very well with the hand held cameras. This movie was years ahead of its time. You know there is going to be trouble when the promoter has really no clue what to do with 200,000 cars that are expected.We are treated to the Stones stopping off in Muscle Shoals, Alabama to work on future album "Sticky Fingers". We hear a raw version of Wild Horses some 2 years before it was released. But, the Stones are coming to Frisco and what is ahead is not good.We are finally set for the big free show. December 6th, 1969. Altamont Speedway. The violence starts right away. The crowd is dotted with Hell's Angels. Motorcycles plow through the massive crowd. Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane gets punched out. Mick Jagger walking away from the helicopter is attacked and hit. The mood is bad. The film feels the darkness.Finally, as darkness is set the Rolling Stones take the stage. The stage is cramped with mean looking Hell's Angels and just totally stoned out people. It is literally a sea of humanity. 250,000+. The Stones can hardly make it through one song without trouble. Finally the worst happens. Meredith Hunter, a black man in the crowd pulls a gun. He is stabbed to death in front of the stage by Hell's Angels. It is a dark frightening scene. The Rolling Stones finish up the show and are shown taking off in over crowded helicopters. A surreal scene. There were 4 deaths and 4 births at Altamont. Rock and Roll is forever changed.That the Maysles caught all this is truly amazing. The construction of the film is very good. Jagger is in the studio watching the film being put together. You aren't shaken by the past/present thing though.The free love, we love everybody 60's has ended on a dark note. The happy love-ins, bubble gum pop, no consequence drug use is over. The mistake everyone made here is that the Rolling Stones were a very dark band at this point and unwittingly cultivated this dark mood and nasty people. The Rolling Stones were bad ass as they came at that point in time. They are also at their creative zenith and were inventing the large stage act (it is only in its infancy here). The Stones would survive this and lighten up as the 70's went along.December 6th, 1969 was the days of sympathy for the devil and the midnight rambler. RIP 1960's.

Ali Catterall It wasn't one of the Rolling Stones' smarter ideas to hire the Hells Angels as security for their Woodstock cash-in at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969. Oh, and how do we pay them for services rendered? Hmm, let's see - $500 in beer ought to do it.David and Albert Maysles' notorious documentary-cum-snuff movie captures the madness - and murder - that ensued, as a young, black Meredith Hunter is stabbed to death by the Angels live on camera, while the Stones' frontman whimpers from the stage: "Who's fighting and what for? Everybody be cool now." Memo to Jagger: You're not some conduit for Satan, you're a mincing, top-hatted, former drop-out from the London School of Economics, and you're completely out of your depth.