Gimme Shelter

Considered by many to be one of the best rock & roll documentaries of all time, Gimme Shelter released in 1970 is primarily made from the footage taken at a free concert the Rolling Stones - plus others - gave at the Altamont Speedway in December of 1969. Their intention was that the show was going to recreate the spirit of the recent Woodstock festival - meaning peace, love and dope. They only achieved the last one of those three.

While the first half of the movie consists of straight-forward scenes of the band playing songs - first at Madison Square Garden in New York and then later at Muscle Shoals in Alabama - that fans of the group would probably find interesting, it's the second half that really takes you by the throat. In those last 45 minutes, the viewer is shown a total breakdown of a society. An exact moment in time when all of the hopes and ideals of the hippie movement crashed in a nightmare of disillusionment and violence.

I know that is a sweeping statement and way to general to contain the whole truth. I, for one, appreciate the hippie movement and the ideals they were expounding. There are others like me as well so the movement is not dead although the Republican Party has been trying to make us forget it for the last 25 years. They want us to forget the ideas that is - civil disobedience, equal rights, and anti-militarism - but always remember the fear. Watching this film gives the audience an insight into the mindset of Nixon's "silent majority" that has carried over till this day. I guess what makes it fascinating is that, at that time, the bogeyman to middle class Americans were white kids as compared to the normal strawman which the establishment would waste no time getting back to pointing us at - black youths.

Let's face it, that concert, and the images produced by it, play as one long political commercial for Ronald Reagan. You have scenes of draw dropping incoherence, out-of-control irresponsibility, painful naivete, massive drug use and, of course, primal rage leading to murder. At that time, all Nixon, or any politician, would have had to have done is show this hedonistic decadent bunch to a "normal" middle class parent and then dismiss anything the reformers would have to say as ridiculous because "seeing is believing." And if that same politician wanted to kick it up a notch he could scare the Hell out of the general populace by linking such debauchery with the, also recent, Manson murders. It was a solid one-two punch that every politician with progressive ideas has had to fight against ever since.

Of course, the irony of it all is that the ones committing pretty much all of the violent acts that day were not on the psychedelics and marijuana which were the trademark recreationals of these "scary" hippies. Those acts were committed by the many Hell's Angels who were there and THEY were all hopped up on beer and liquor - the silent majority's drug of choice.

After watching the film, there is a strong argument to be made that 1960s "radicalism" was, in fact, insane. The image of Mick Jagger on stage leaning towards one of the Hell's Angels in full M.C. black leather worn under a cut denim jacket and topped off with some sort of Celtic/Teutonic animal-skin head gear is, simply, priceless. By the time we see that scene, the concert is completely out of control and Mick is getting some sort of advice from this medieval looking character. The shot only lasts a few seconds and if you look away you might miss it, but in that single visual the whole movie's theme can be summed up.

There is another prolonged shot of a bearded man who, for some reason, appears to be on the stage only a few feet from the band. They are playing "Under My Thumb" and with every line that is sung, this man wretches in pain. He clenches his fists and tightens his muscles. He moves his head from side to side looking intensely into nothing and, yet, is seeing - what? I have no idea. His facial expressions can be conservatively described as total anguish. There is no doubt he is on some kind of hallucingetic - and that he is tripping hard. After a little while the Hell's Angel, who is standing next to him, violently pushes him off the stage. And that is where the absurdity reaches its zenith. The Hell's Angels were hired to be the security!

"How much were they paid?" you might ask.

"All the beer they could drink."

And that is not a joke. The organizers of this "Love-In" (Who, by the way, come off as real assholes.) thought it was prudent to have a large gang of tough, violent bikers hanging around the stage and drinking beer all day - TO KEEP ORDER! And, believe me, they are HANGING AROUND. They are in practically every shot with beer cans, liquor bottles and pool cues in their hands. And, to be more blunt, judging by the icy stares and downright scary facial expressions on some of them, the whole "flower-power" idea was just not their scene.

There are other things I could mention but I will leave it that. This is the first time I watched it in probably 25 years and I could say if you haven't seen it in that long it is definitely worth another look. Like I said earlier, if you are not a Stones fan (And I can't say that I really am. I like a whole bunch of their songs but I think that their last piece of relevant music was the album Tattoo You which was released in 1981) the first part is sort of run-of-the-mill. But stick it out. You will see a document of a time when certain dreamers were confronted with a hardcore reality - A reality that was carrying cue sticks, chains and knives.

I also want to especially recommend watching this movie to younger viewers for whom these events are ancient history. My formative years were the 1980s when a clown by the name of Reagan put on a cowboy hat and proceeded to poison the well of progression and social evolution for the next 28 years. For my generation, when he was pulling out his vial and sprinkling the pain, the 60's ideals, those images and sounds, were already entrenched in our minds. Yes, many of my contemporaries dug Ron's thing, but there was an alternative vision that he needed to overcome…and he was successful. Why do you think Bill Clinton was so badly hammered - viciously, unmercifully…unfairly - for his two, genuinely elected, terms of office? Was it because he lied? If that is the case how do you explain the silence from that same crowd when the current gang has been caught lying - over and over again - lies that actually had real-world horrific consequences? No. It was because Clinton, at least for the Haliburton bunch, represented THAT America - The dope smoking, ungrateful, establishment questioning, scary long hairs.

So, for young people, most definitely to the ones who are gravitating toward Obama, the ones who are passionately getting involved for the first time, the ones whose political and cultural experience so far has been this ghastly administration, seeing Gimme Shelter would be most beneficial. I could easily recommend movies that show the other side of the coin. Where counter-culture ideals are shown in a positive, moving and an inspiring way (The documentary film Woodstock comes to mind) but I won't. Watch this one, where that culture - the one representing what I feel was the most important era of American social development - and I STILL believe in - is shown to be empty, ineffectual and ruinous. Because the moment you suggest something progressive, the people in power, the ones you will have to argue with, the ones you will have to convince - the older ones - will see YOU like the people documented in this film.

Be prepared.

Larry B