Gimme Shelter

N.p. N.p., Circa 1970. Vintage reference photograph from the landmark 1970 documentary, showing directors Albert Maysles and David Maysles with Mick Jagger. Mimeo snipe on the verso.

From the archive of film historian and author Joel Finler.

Directed by cinema verite pioneers Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin, the documentary follows the final weeks of The Rolling Stones' historic 1969 US tour, from performances at Madison Square Garden and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to the legendarily disastrous and extraordinarily violent Altamont Free Concert—later described by Rolling Stone magazine as "perhaps rock and roll's all-time worst day, December 6th, a day when everything went perfectly wrong." On the recommendation of the Grateful Dead, informal security for the Altamont show was provided by the Hells Angels, leading to a number of escalating conflicts between the unruly bikers and the increasingly drunk and drug-addled hippies in the audience. The violence culminated in the death by stabbing of an 18 year-old audience member, captured in its entirety on camera, along with the accidental deaths of three others at the show.

A film associated with the Direct Cinema movement of the 1950s and 1960s, but just as much with the beginning of a new style of "reactionary" documentary filmmaking, wherein the events being documented lead the film rather than the film being led by a preconceived idea. Considered by many to be the greatest rock documentary ever made, encapsulating the chaotic, bleak, and ultimately timely downfall of the peace and love era.

Shot on location in Alabama, New York, and California.

10 x 8 inches. Near Fine.

Criterion Collection 99.

[Book #158010]