Gimme Shelter

(Maysles Bros, 1970)
IMDB

A supposedly “cinema verite” account of The Rolling Stones' 1969 performace at the free Altamont concert, this rockumentary documents an event, widely acknowledged in the music world as “The end of the 60's”.

The feature-length documentary starts with The Stones being introduced as “the greatest rock and roll band in the world” and in the lead up to the Altamont concert footage, this is what we're influenced to believe. Jagger shown, almost as a god, provocatively parading himself in front of the thousands of screaming fans, amongst which the camera is often placed. With lots of low shots from the crowd, showing Jagger towering over us, most importantly at this point- in total control of the crowd, something that later he certainly doesn't have.

The film, released in 1970, a year after the events at Altamont, is shown being played to the band, as if they are watching with us and trying to recount the events. We see them react to things that they have already experienced first hand, but their presence guides us through the film, manipulating us to kind of feel on their side, as opposed to the Hell's Angels, who were hired as security for the event and seemingly sparked most of the trouble there.

In my favourite scene, we are shown a heavily edited performance of “Love in vain”, in which Jagger is shown superimposed upon himself several times. The use of slow motion highlights his complete and utter power as the ultimate rock icon of the time. There are lots of indulgent shots of Jagger dancing and performing, throughout which the crowd remain totally transfixed.

The sequence is completely red too, a colour that emotes a lot of different possible meanings; those of lust, danger and even the devil. Appropriately too, during performances of “Sympathy for the devil”, Jagger throws red confetti. Ironically later at the concert, it is during this song that he makes an appeal to the crowd to behave and sit down, going completely against the attitudes and behaviour that the song is promoting.

The phrase “cinema verite”, literally translated means cinema truth. During the entirity of this film, we are manipulated into believing this perfect dramatic narrative so that, like a work of fiction, the tension builds bit by bit and then explodes into an exciting and dramatic finish. While the events that we see on screen did happen, the order in which they appear is altered for dramatic build-up.

The only cinema truth in this film, as far as I'm aware, is the scene in which the band and there entourage are draped around a room listening to the playback of “wild horses”. A moment in this sequence that, to me, screams true rockstar quality, is the shot of Keith Richard's worn snake skin boot tapping along to the music. There's something about that moment that I just love.