***/**** Image A- Sound A- (DD)/A (DTS) Extras A
directed by D.A. Pennebaker
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover It's impossible for a certain generation to not feel wistful looking back at Monterey Pop. Those who only know a world with a DVD for every band might be blasé about an early concert doc with mere clips of soon-to-be foregone conclusions, but for those who can remember a time (or have endured the rantings of those who can remember) know that in the Summer of Love, a music festival wasn't just the names above the title. The film captures the relaxed atmosphere surrounding some fabulous furry freaks safe in the knowledge that they were about to take on the world; the music is but affirmation of the groundswell bubbling up in the milling crowds. D.A. Pennebaker's camera is deft enough to capture the mood in addition to the tunes, coming up with something more than a hippie variety act.
The subject is, of course, the Monterey International Pop Music Festival, the 1967 roster that included a few big names (The Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, The Who) as well as imminently big names (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding) whose careers this movie would help launch. Herein, the unspoken subtext of the music is that it was part and parcel of the hippie revolution sweeping a stunned Western world–and as such, Pennebaker is careful to show the faces and bodies of blissed-out concertgoers in all their shaggy glory. The film begins with Scott McKenzie's gentle "San Francisco" playing over shots of long-haired concertgoers, while an interview with one such breathless fan–"It's gonna be like Christmas and Easter and New Year's and your birthday all together!"–establishes the ecstatic dream that plays between the lines.
The opening and various crowd inserts are crucial to the power of Monterey Pop. Anybody could have strung together this solid line-up of talent and made a few bucks–especially with the now-essential images of The Who smashing their gear and Hendrix setting his guitar on fire. It's a credit to Pennebaker and his crew that he saw the project as an opportunity to make a documentary as opposed to a concert film. The sense of an event is palpable, as is the sense that the music is more than simply entertainment. They speak to a collective hippie ideal, these concertgoers, united in their appreciation of a form and a mentality. The warmth of that communal vision is reflected back onto the performers: everybody seems to be in harmonious accord–it's the being there rather than the hearing.
As music, only some of the performances are as epochal as their reputations suggest. I've already mentioned The Who and Hendrix; Redding's "Shake" and "I've Been Loving You Too Long" are also a whole lot of fun. But for the most part, the songs are merely good–even unstoppable Joplin, seen blowing away poor Cass Elliott, has been better, particularly in the more musically potent (but less cinematically interesting) Festival Express. It doesn't matter, though: the movie isn't really envisioned as a performance piece. And to any who understand what it meant for the utopian dream to die will find frisson to propel them past whatever the minor shortcomings of the various acts. One can't watch without a twinge of regret that Hunter Thompson's high water mark was reached, "where the wave broke, and rolled back."
Winnowing down their mammoth box set "The Complete Monterey Pop" to a single platter, The Criterion Collection's Monterey Pop DVD looks pretty good. Blown up from 16mm to 35, the ever-so-slightly pillarboxed fullscreen transfer is of course quite grainy but manages to exhibit a fairly miraculous amount of fine detail and vivid, if dated, colours. Original mono, DD 2.0 stereo, and two 5.1 listening options grace the disc, with the six-track remix (presented in DTS or Dolby Digital and prepared by "legendary recording engineer" Eddie Kramer) perhaps overcompensating for the spareness of the film's sound design. More harmonious and less localized than the Dolby alternative, the DTS track is superior, though both raise a question as to the aptness of rejiggering mono every time they redistribute the crowd noise, which now sounds glaringly artificial.
Extras begin with a feature-length commentary from Pennebaker and concert co-producer Lou Adler. They're all-business, giving you the lowdown on how Monterey Pop was scheduled, providing the order of the actual line-up (the film isn't in sequence), and imparting trivia/gossip pertaining to the care and feeding of the bands–such as the famous imbroglio over whether Hendrix or The Who would go on last. It's a remarkably fat-free yakker and well worth the listen. Better still is an interview with Adler and Pennebaker (29 mins.) that includes hilarious recountings of how the Hendrix footage scotched a deal with ABC while retracing Adler's origins in the industry, the conversation (on rock's musical poor-relation status) with Paul McCartney that sparked the idea for the festival, and the ensuing press orgy. It's thorough and completely lacking in the self-serving bull that marks so many special features.
Excerpted/segmented audio interviews come next, broadcast as part of a program for Radio Express. Among the subjects are The Mamas and the Papas' John Philips (also festival co-director) and Cass Elliott, David Crosby, and promoter Derek Taylor. Philips (10 segments) emphasizes the charity element of the festival, which established the good vibe and made everything seem like it was for the audience; Elliott (5 segments) enthuses about Janis and The Who and complains about Laura Nyro and The Mamas and the Papas themselves; Crosby (5 segments), a member of The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, praises the range of the festival but laments the silliness of The Who smashing their kit; and Taylor (16 segments) is especially interesting in revealing that his concept for the show was shanghaied by Philips and Adler. Monterey Pop's trailer plus five radio spots round out the disc. Liner notes by Armond White are notably less insane than his recent reviews and establish the film's social and aesthetic dimensions.
79 minutes; NR; 1.33:1; English DD 5.1, English DTS 5.1, English DD 2.0 (Stereo); DVD-9; Region One; Criterion
