`Shelter' captures The Stones' highs and lows
By MATT NANIA
Scene Movie Editor
The Rolling Stones may or may not be the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band, but during the years 1968 to 1972, they could do no wrong. During that time they released four undeniable masterpieces: "Beggars Banquet," "Let It Bleed," "Sticky Fingers" and "Exile on Main Street." So even if "Gimme Shelter" were a mere document of a Rolling Stones concert, it would already be a great film. But "Gimme Shelter" is more. It's about a time when things began to get out of hand.
When the Rolling Stones decided to end its 1969 American tour with a free concert at Altamont Speedway near San Francisco, everyone thought it was going to be another Woodstock. People were prepared for a night of peace and love. The Hell's Angels were there to act as security. Tensions escalated. And a man named Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death.
Directed by brothers David and Albert Maysles along with Charlotte Zwerin, "Gimme Shelter" perfectly captures the might of the Rolling Stones and the tragedy of this moment and effortlessly combines them. The directors cleverly took an extra day to film the band members — Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman — watching the footage of the concert and the stabbing. The looks on their faces, especially Jagger's, are astonishing.
The movie begins with footage of the Stones playing in Madison Square Garden, in an uninterrupted concert, so that we get a blast of their music and a taste of the excitement for the Altamont show. We then see images of lawyer Melvin Belli attempting to settle the details of the concert — parking, toilet facilities, etc.
The documentary then focuses on the entire day of the Altamont concert, showing the growing crowd and their antics, covering some of the early acts such as the Flying Burrito Brothers and Jefferson Airplane.
The whole time there is a growing sense of dread, even in the stark daylight. It is hard to describe, but there is just something wrong. Although many of the spectators appear happy and excited, others seem paranoid and agitated.
"Gimme Shelter" seems to indicate that what is wrong is the presence of the Hell's Angels. The camera continually finds itself trained on the bikers, especially on their leather jackets with the Angel's insignia emblazoned on the back. Even when the Stones come on stage, the Angels' presence dominates; the camera loses Jagger over and over again only to focus on those leather jackets.
In one telling shot, the camera concentrates on the hard gaze of a Hell's Angel glaring at Jagger, who is singing, out-of-focus, in the immediate foreground. It is this biker's gaze, rather than Jagger's, that captures and holds the camera lens.
The Altamont concert eventually degenerates into violence between the Hell's Angels and the unruly members of the crowd. It starts early, during Jefferson Airplane's set, when the Angels start fighting with members of the crowd. Even lead singer Marty Balin gets caught up in the fight.
It all comes to a head, though, when the Stones come on stage.
Beginning with "Sympathy for the Devil," Jagger is unable to get through a single song without a scuffle breaking out in the front rows. He continually stops the music and implores to the crowd to "cool it." His peace-and-love rhetoric about being "brothers and sisters" is pathetically inadequate to deal with the situation that has been building for so long. The crowd, stretched out endlessly before the stage, which was so exhilarating at Madison Square Garden, has become ominous.
It all climaxes with the on-screen stabbing, captured on film completely by accident and almost unnoticeable unless one knows where to look. The camera catches only the first fleeting seconds of Hunter's death at the hands of the Angels, but it is enough. The moment is replayed twice in the documentary. As Mick Jagger watches it on the editing machine, co-director David Maysles slows down the scene so Jagger (and the viewer) can see exactly what happened.
It is a chilling moment in which a camera was in the right place at the right time, much like the Zapruder film of Kennedy's assassination or George Holliday's video of the Rodney King beating. Its existence on film serves to make it more real to us, which is all the more apparent when we realize that three other people died at Altamont the same night; yet it is Hunter's death, because it was forever captured on celluloid, that will always be associated with the concert.
When "Gimme Shelter" was first released theatrically, promoters tried to capitalize on its shocking nature, billing the film as "The music that thrilled the world … and the killing that stunned it!" But the documentary as a whole is about much more. It is a powerful cinematic experience precisely because, without narration or any other devices, it captures multiple aspects of its historical moment. There is both joy and terror, excitement and disillusionment. The Maysles brothers and Zwerin are smart enough to give everything to the viewer in a casual, observing journalistic style with no sentimentality or sensation.
All in all, "Gimme Shelter" is a film to reflect on and is a disturbing experience that is difficult to forget.
--video pick of the week
All Scene Stories for Thursday, April 19, 2001
