Gimme Shelter
Directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin
1970/USA
Maysles Films/Penforta
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck
Sonny Barger: I didn’t go there to police nuthin’, man! I ain’t no cop! I ain’t never pretended to be a cop and this Mick Jagger, like, put it all on the Angels, man. Like, he used us for dupes, man. And as far as I’m concerned, we were the biggest suckers for that idiot that I can ever see. And, you know what, they told me, if I could sit on the edge of the stage so nobody climbed over me, you know, I could drink beer until the show was over. And that’s what I went there to do.
I love the Maysles Brothers documentaries. This is a great one.
The film makers chronicle the Rolling Stones’ 1969 tour of the U.S. That tour culminated in a free concert to be held near San Francisco – sort of a West Coast answer to Woodstock, which had been held the same year. We see footage from various dates on the tour and the planning process for the free concert. A couple of different plans fell through and set up could not begin until the day of the event. But the nail in the coffin of the event was the decision to hire the Hells Angels motorcycle club for “security”. The Stones teams experience with bikers extended only to those in the UK. Anyone in California could have told them that Angles = Trouble. The film concludes with the concert and all its attendant violence.
This documentary has everything – great music, high drama, and fantastic cinematography and editing that evokes the place and time perfectly. Highly recommended.
A word on FilmStruck. Not only was I able to watch the film but also a commentary by the directors and the complete radio interview with Hells Angel Sunny Barger, explaining the Angel’s side of things. Which is basically that the 300,000 stoned concert goers should have known that anyone that touches an Angel or his bike will get hurt. I can’t stand that we are losing the ability to get these extras without buying or renting the physical DVD!
