You know what? It's not that good...

songwarrior52

D.A. Pennebaker may have "captured the spirit of the '60s" and all that, but the fact is that the original "Monterey Pop" has big problems, which the passing years have not rectified. Now, one can buy a deluxe Criterion Collection DVD set that has extra discs that include all the outtakes from the original footage plus extras upon extras. But the film as originally released, for all its legendary status, all 79 minutes of it, is often a flat-out bore. The single- disc original version I checked out of the library today also has some extras, including a conversation with producer Lou Adler and filmmaker Pennebaker. That only seems to reveal that Pennebaker was somewhat clueless in his approach to putting the final cut together. This is especially true in the decision-making regarding which acts to include. I mean, the guy left out Laura Nyro, Buffalo Springfield and The Byrds from the original flick, choosing instead to include people like Country Joe and the Fish (boring), Hugh Masakela (meandering) and at least one group that didn't seem to be identified and whose music was mediocre. The filmmaker also seems to think he made a brilliant move leaving out the Paul Butterfield Blues Band from the final cut, but it's hard to trust him given who's onstage instead. Also according to Pennabaker, Mama Cass Elliott wanted him to cut the Ravi Shankar performance. It seems to rouse the audience here, and it's used as the climactic performance of the concert, but few people want to listen to extended rave-ups on a sitar. (I fast-forwarded through it, only to find that the film was now over.) There are other problems, for example, Janis Joplin is clearly performing at night, yet through her performance, the camera cuts to Elliott in the crowd, supposedly gushing about Joplin's talent, only—doh!—Elliott's in broad daylight, and it's obviously an insert from another part of the footage. Cheesy. And stupid. Did Pennebaker think no one would notice? Other bad things: A ton of boring footage of hippies being hip (a little goes a long way); camera work that focuses on Grace Slick mouthing the lyrics to "Today" while Mary Balin is singing the opening verse, which makes it look like his voice is coming out of Grace's mouth; and when we finally get the great Hendrix, what is he singing? The godawful "Wild Thing," which is about the last song anyone wants to see him play, even if he does set his guitar on fire and dry-hump the amps. Pennebaker supervised about 6 cameramen, plenty enough to get a lot of cool footage. Too bad the final results look ofttimes amateurish. Meanwhile, the synching and cutting are okay but not great. The Mamas and the Papas come off pretty good. Ditto The Who. And Joplin. Simon and Garfunkel sound good, but they're singing "Feelin' Groovy," not exactly cutting edge. Otis Redding is okay, but a mite tiresome. There's some saving grace with the film crew getting a lot of footage of California girls in all their hippie-dippy glory, but that gets tiresome too. "Monterey Pop," at this late date, looks mostly like a big experiment with lesser results. For maximum effect, keep your finger near the fast-forward button.

score /10

songwarrior52 22 April 2008

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1861867/