Monterey Pop [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

D.A. Pennebaker

Overview

The first concert film of the rock & roll era, Monterey Pop is an invaluable record of some of the major musical figures of the late 1960s. The organizers of the Monterey International Pop Festival, held June 16-18, 1967, wisely chose to record the proceedings on film for commercial distribution. Even if some of the festival's big acts -- the Byrds, the Grateful Dead, and Buffalo Springfield -- didn't make the final cut for various reasons, the roster of performers who did reads like a who's who of the era: Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin), Simon & Garfunkel, and the Mamas & the Papas (that group's leader, John Phillips, was one of the festival's principal organizers). The festival's "international" tag is well-earned by one performer in the film: Ravi Shankar, whose final-day performance was one of the festival's highlights and closes the movie on an exuberant note. Though the festival seemed to be anticipating nearby San Francisco's Summer of Love, the film chooses to concentrate on the musical performers, with only brief intimations of the burgeoning counterculture.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/12/2017
UPC:	0715515206617
Original Release:	1968
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Language:	English
Time:	1:19:00
Sales rank:	13,453

Special Features

New 16-bit 4k restoration supervised by Director D.A. Pennebaker, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack; Alternate soundtrack featuring a 5.1 surround mix by recording engineer Eddie Kramer, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio; Two hours of performances not included in Monterey Pop, from the Association, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Blues Project, Buffalo Springfield, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Byrds, Country Joe and the Fish, the Electric Flag, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Al Kooper, the Mamas and the Papas, the Steve Miller Blues Band, Moby Grape, Laura Nyro, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Simon and Garfunkel, Tiny Tim, and the Who; Audio Commentary from 2002 featuring Pennebaker and festival producer Lou Adler; New and archival interviews with Adler and Pennebaker; Chiefs (1968), a short film by Richard Leacock, which played alongside Monterey Pop in theaters; Audio Interviews with festival producer John Phillips, festival publicist Derek Taylor, and performers Cass Elliot and David Crosby; Photo essay by Elaine Mayes; Festival program; Trailers and radio spots; Plus: A booklet featuring essays by critics Michael Chaiken and Armond White

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

The Animals	Performer
Country Joe & the Fish	Performer
Roger Daltrey	Performer
John Entwistle	Performer
Art Garfunkel	Performer
Jimi Hendrix	Performer
Jefferson Airplane	Performer
Janis Joplin	Performer
Keith Moon	Performer
Otis Redding	Performer
Ravi Shankar	Performer
Paul Simon	Performer
Pete Townshend	Performer
The Who	Performer
The Mamas & the Papas	Performer
Canned Heat	Performer
Peter Albin	Performer
Big Brother & the Holding Company	Performer

Technical Credits

D.A. Pennebaker	Director
Lou Adler	Producer
John Phillips	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Any record of popular culture of the 1960s would be incomplete without at least a mention of Monterey Pop. Monterey Pop offers the rock version of two equally invaluable documentaries, Jazz on a Summer's Day and Festival, which respectively chronicled the jazz and folk festivals held every summer for many years in Newport, RI. Those films offered more coverage of their respective festivals' audience members, suggesting the almost tribal nature of outdoor music gatherings. Monterey Pop lets the music do the talking for a generation of increasingly disaffected young people. The festival provided coming-out parties for a number of influential performers: Jimi Hendrix, leaving audiences members slack-jawed after he sets fire to his guitar; Janis Joplin, having the same effect on fellow singer Cass Elliot; The Who, trying to one-up Hendrix by destroying a guitar and a drum kit; Otis Redding, an established star with the black community reaching out to what he calls "the love crowd" of white hippies; and Ravi Shankar, the Indian musician little-known to American audiences bringing down the house with a final-day display of furious virtuosity (Shankar almost left Monterey after seeing what Hendrix and The Who's Pete Townsend did to their instruments). Although Woodstock ultimately surpassed Monterey Pop for capturing a better sense of the entire experience of an outdoor music festival, Monterey's historical status is unassailable.

All Movie Guide - Tom Wiener