Gimme Shelter
After the near overwhelming success of the original Woodstock concert in 1969, a number of other festivals were held in an attempt to (if nothing else) recreate the positive vibes of the era that the granddaddy event had brought to the table and none was planned to be any bigger than the Altamont Speedway Free Festival held in Northern California on December 6, 1969 with what would turn out to be an estimated crowd of 300,000 strong, an event documented in this 1970 documentary by The Maysles Brothers (long considered the all time leading pioneers in their field). At only 90 minutes long, the first question is why didnāt this film get the lush 4+ hour treatment that the Woodstock movie did? The answer comes in the form of a now infamous invasion of the show by The Hells Angels whom along with other biker gangs just like them remain a stain on the American landscape to this day, a motley collection of White Supremacist perpetrators in organized crime activity within this country who mockingly justify their existence through repeated claims of false patriotism and for simply having a mere love of motorcycles as opposed to distributing drugs or human and child sex trafficking. Altamont of course, was headlined by The Rolling Stones in their seemingly neverending prime, being the last show of their American tour at that time and expected to be the biggest. And The Maysles certainly had their full cooperation for this film, using as a framing device having Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts sitting with them in the editing room making occasional comments on the various bits of footage that weāre watching along with them. It starts out showing The Stones in happier times as we witness portions of their prior concert in Madison Square Garden, see them recording at the Muscle Shoalās studio in Alabama and then clearing a path for sunny California and Altamont, a show originally scheduled for San Francisco but moved due to crowd concerns to the (much) more remote Altamont Speedway (reportedly on 24 hours notice!) where the flower children came flocking in and even Michael Lang (the producer of Woodstock who was featured prominently in that movie) appearing here also producing this show. But something much darker also comes into play: The Hells Angels come riding onto the scene eyeing the young, idealistic hippies like so many pieces of meat. Then, in an even more bizarre turn of events, these vicious animals were somehow offered positions of being security guards at the event, although the movie makes it very unclear as to WHO was actually dumb enough to hire them (itās been said that The Stones themselves did so, but most likely it was somebody on either their management team or one of the other coordinators of the event who feared that there would be a shortage of security at the show so they were hired on the spot). Thus, The Hells Angels surround the stage loaded with booze, weapons and possibly even some LSD in them and so now the bullying, threatening and intimidation tactics on the music loving kids in the crowd can begin proper. First act up (or at least shown) is Ike and Tina Turner which seems to go off without a hitch. Next up is The Flying Burrito Brothers (led by Gram Parsons) who play a little bit but eventually have to stop and look on in disgusted awe at what was going on. From the cameraās point of view on stage looking out over the crowd, The Hells Angels were already savagely attacking and beating on anyone that not only came near the stage, but also their own personal boundaries as well, going so far as to actually use pool sticks to beat down on several concertgoers who carried no weapons of their own. But it would get worse. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (although not shown in the movie) would go on next and Stephen Stills was allegedly stabbed several times in the leg by a Hells Angel during their performance. Then came the incredibly horrific incident involving Jefferson Airplane which is shown in the movie. Male lead singer Marty Balin upon seeing several of The Hells Angels taking liberties with crowd members right in front of him, attempted to intervene and get them to back off only for the fuckin bastards to turn on him (an actual performer!) and beat him into a state of unconsciousness! This prompts Grace Slick to plead for peace and for Paul Kantner to call out The Hells Angels bravely and defiantly onstage for the outrageousness of their actions, only for one of those scumbags to openly threaten him as well on the microphone! Jerry Garcia is shown arriving backstage with The Grateful Dead to perform, only to immediately turn around and leave upon hearing of the actions of these walking pieces of garbage. At this point, nobody would have blamed The Stones either if they had chosen not to take the stage although as they were the top billed act on the show, they obviously felt an obligation to their good and decent fans who had come to see them. But they would have been better off ditching the gig given what was to come. The performance turns into Jagger and the others constantly starting and stopping songs so that Mick can plead for everybody to please get along as well as the occasional request for a doctor to come help some of the injured kids in the audience who by this point were being mercilessly pummeled constantly by the evil sons of bitches who should have never been allowed to enter the grounds of the speedway much less been given any semblance of authority. At one point even Keith Richards gets on the microphone, threatening to end the performance and walk off if this shit continues to which (not shown on camera) a Hells Angel who would brag about doing this in later years allegedly put a gun to Keithās side at that point and bluntly told him that if he didnāt keep playing, then he was dead. Finally, the coup de grace: during the performance of Under My Thumb, an 18 year old African American kid in a snazzy green suit named Meredith Hunter who had been getting bullied and harassed the entire show by The Hells Angels (probably due to his incorrect skin color) brandished what APPEARED to be a gun (the footage is rather blurry and inconclusive) and was attacked and stabbed several times by the bikers (something that they must have relished) with the young man being airlifted and dying from his injuries en route to the hospital while The Hells Angels (who actually presented the young manās alleged firearm to the authorities and were somehow believed by them) were found not guilty by means of āself defenseā. All of this is shown being watched in the editing room by Watts and Jagger and as while Watts appears to be quite emotional and distraught over the whole thing, Jagger seems a bit more reserved, though admitting that it was a horrible thing and even flinching when he hears a recorded phone call on a radio show of one of their members singling Jagger out as being the one truly responsible for the debacle. But alas for them, Mick Jagger was not the one beating down music loving kids with pool cues and resorting to excessive violence every time someone tried to reach out and touch him even as The Hells Angels have continued to boast and brag about their actions that day like the lowlife pieces of shit that they are. But they do continue to pass the buck and deflect the deserved blame off of themselves in the classic way that cowards are known to do. A lot of talk has been made about Altamont being the end of the counterculture generation and the hippie movement (although The Manson Family who truthfully only masqueraded as hippies probably had more to do with that), but really it was more of a painful wake up call, a symbolic one time event and isolated incident that showed them that no matter how many good people there are who appreciated the intentions which the hippies wished to embody through their movement, pure, unadulterated (not to mention unchecked and undeserving) evil was still going to exist in normal human form and that they needed to steel themselves better when the time came to face it, a prospect that in many ways led to changes in their own demeanor when it came to toughening up, but more importantly helping them to understand that remaking the world to be the way that they wanted it to be would require a little bit more than just being naĆÆveā¦
8/10