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The 10 Greatest Rockumentaries of All-Time
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Monterey Pop (1968)
Director: D.A. Pennebaker
Criterion Collection, $29.95 ($79.95 for box set)
With the exception of Scorsese, most directors are lucky to manage even one notable rockumentary, let alone multiple entries in the category. Pennebaker’s astonishing one-two punch is one for the record books. The director virtually established the music documentary as an exciting new medium with Don’t Look Back, then—just one year later—he defined the rock festival film with the equally innovative Monterey Pop, a documentary on the 1967 music fest of the same name.
Pennebaker’s film perfectly captures the genuinely hopeful and exuberant mood of the era’s counterculture youth, moving from footage of the concert’s preparation as a labor of love to interviews with excited attendees. Of course, the music is unbeatable, featuring career-best performances from the likes of Janis Joplin, The Who, Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix (the last two historic sets were also released in full as Shake! Otis at Monterey and Jimi Plays Monterey, both of which are included in the Criterion Collection’s essential DVD box set). A beautiful performance by Ravi Shankar, met with a refreshingly appreciative audience response, is the culmination of a film that could quite possibly be the greatest rockumentary ever made.
Woodstock (1970)
Director: Michael Wadleigh
Warner Home Video, $19.98
It may be heresy among rockumentary devotees to make such a proclamation, but it must be stated anyway: Woodstock is not a very good film. While probably the best-known example of the genre—the event itself is a single-word shorthand used to describe an entire generation’s sociopolitical concerns—Michael Wadleigh’s epic film about the three-day 1969 rock fest pales in comparison to Monterey Pop. The self-absorbed interviews and gimmicky techniques (a bouncing ball over the lyrics, the use of split screen, etc.) seem painfully dated, and even the music doesn’t compare to the superior performances in Pennebaker’s film. Yes, there are noteworthy sets (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Hendrix), but there’s also a lot of painful filler (Sha Na Na, anyone?). Still, the film is of undeniable historical importance, not only for the event itself, but also for giving Scorsese his roots in the rockumentary field as an assistant director and co-editor on the film (working with his now longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, in both capacities). The DVD of the film may actually be out-of-print by the time you read this, as Warner Bros. plans on temporarily removing the title from circulation in preparation for a remastered special-edition DVD to be released next year.
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Directors: Albert and David Maysles
Criterion Collection, $39.95
This masterpiece from veteran documentarians Albert and David Maysles (in collaboration with Charlotte Zwerin) is like the angry, dangerous black sheep of the rock festival family. While Monterey Pop is perhaps the best study of the actual music of the era, the Maysles’ spellbinding movie is the defining cinematic analysis of the period. The Maysles brothers began by chronicling the preparations for the Rolling Stones’ free concert at California’s Altamont Speedway in 1969 (and the recording sessions for what would ultimately become their album “Sticky Fingers”), but stumbled into a violent maelstrom that encapsulated the dark side of the peace and love generation in a drug-addled, Manson-era freefall. Chaotic and disorganized at best, the Altamont concert descended into mayhem when the Hells Angels, who were unwisely hired as show security, fatally stabbed an audience member during a fight. Gimme Shelter is every bit as contemporary today as it was 38 years ago. It’s a grim and unsettling exploration of cultural upheaval, violent crime and the perils of fame—and an astounding concert film as well. In addition to the Stones, Gimme Shelter features performances by Jefferson Airplane and Tina Turner, among others. Criterion’s DVD is among the company’s best offerings, with a bounty of special features that expertly contextualize the film.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Oliver Summers on 4/14/08 at 6:12 pm
Wow, this is a really daring list you got here. Way to go out on a limb and list some movies that maybe, oh, not everyone in the world has already seen. And you got paid to write this. What, did you enter “rock docs” into Google and copy the first list you came across? “Derivative” would be too kind a word to use for this list. How about “unnecessary.”
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This story was published in the Spring 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Shining a Light on 10 Great Rockumentaries
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