One Paragraph Movie Review: Gimme Shelter

One hundred and eightieth film: Gimme Shelter, a 1970 documentary about the Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour, focussing on their massive free concert at Altamont, and my absolute nightmare. You know those dreams you have where you invite people to a party and then find you can’t control them? This is a party with three hundred thousand people, a woman giving birth, a dog wandering across the stage, security provided by incredibly drunk Hells Angels, and four deaths, including one murder. That’s too many murders. This is a harrowing, stressful, bizarre film, and one of the few rock documentaries that doesn’t glorify the band, and makes you whisper “stop it, you guys” while you try to manage the cold, heavy knot in your stomach. It’s remarkable. And awful. Three and a quarter determined nude stage-invaders out of five.