Documentaries that rock on

GET REEL:
Documentaries that rock on

http://www.dailynewstribune.com/lifestyle/columnists/x1349202011/GET-REEL-Documentaries-that-rock-on

By Bob Tremblay/Daily News staff
Aug 09, 2009

This Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of a concert that took place
on a 600-acre farm in upstate New York attended by around half a
million people. Billed as "An Aquarian Exposition," it's better known
as Woodstock.

In honor of the concert and the 1970 film that documented it, we're
dedicating this month's column to the 10 best rock documentaries - in
my humble opinion. Factors used to judge these films include the
quality of the music, their ability to capture an era and their skill
in depicting the performers in and sometimes out of their element.
Great music wedded with great stories you can't beat that combo with
a Stratocaster. Or in the case of The Who, maybe you can.

The films are listed in alphabetical order.

1. "CHUCK BERRY HAIL! HAIL! ROCK 'N' ROLL" (1987) If you only know
Chuck Berry through the reference in "Back to the Future," here's a
chance to see why he's one of the most important and talented
performers in the history of popular music. "If you tried to give
rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry," said John
Lennon, whose group from Liverpool their name escapes me recorded
Berry's "Roll Over, Beethoven."

Directed by Taylor Hackford of "Officer and a Gentleman" fame, the
film shows Berry performing in several settings, including his 60th
birthday concert in St. Louis. His fellow performers include Rolling
Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who also serves as concert producer,
Eric Clapton, Linda Ronstadt, Robert Cray, Etta James and Lennon's son, Julian.

While the film glosses over Berry's arrests and womanizing, it shows
him consistently bickering over money to the point where the film was
in jeopardy. His prickly personality gets displayed as well as he
verbally spars with Richards. The 4-DVD set includes long and I do
mean long interviews with such fellow legends as Little Richard, Bo
Diddley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers. Bruce
Springsteen even talks about the time he played backup for Berry.

My biggest quibble with the film is its lack of historic footage of
Berry performing during the prime of his career in the 1950s. Still,
anyone with an appreciation of rock's roots, guitar-playing
excellence and songwriting genius should see this documentary and
watch Berry be good.

2. "DON'T LOOK BACK" (1967) For more towering genius on display, we
submit this black-and-white film chronicling the 1965 concert tour of
England by one Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan. Performers going
along for the ride include Joan Baez, Donovan and Alan Price of Animals fame.

You not only get to hear Dylan sing such classics as "Don't Think
Twice, It's All Right," you get to hear him berate journalists.
What's not to love?

To the film's credit, this isn't a rock hagiography. If you think
Dylan walks on water, this film shows him acting like a mere mortal,
prone to petulance. What you witness up close and personal is an ego
blowin' in the wind. Kudos to director D.A. Pennebaker for capturing
the many sides of the minstrel from Minnesota in cinema-verite style.

For moviegoers who want to look back, check out Cate Blanchett's
performance as Dylan in "I'm Not There."

3. "GIMME SHELTER" (1970) Hiring Hells Angels to serve as concert
security is like inviting Jack the Ripper into a house of ill repute
and handing him a chainsaw. Unpleasant things might happen. The
Rolling Stones found this out the hard way during their free concert
at the Altamont Speedway in northern California when a member of
Hells Angels killed a concertgoer while Mick Jagger was singing
"Under My Thumb." All of this mayhem and more can be seen on this
captivating film directed by David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte
Zwerin. Think of it as the anti-Woodstock.

The movie isn't only about Altamont, however. It documents the
Stones' 1969 American tour including performances at Madison Square
Garden. We also see the Stones' recording "Brown Sugar" and "Wild
Horses" in Muscle Shoals, Ala. Fascinating stuff.

I suppose one shouldn't expect sunshine and lollipops from a group
that sang "Sympathy for the Devil."

4. "THE LAST WALTZ" (1978) This movie documents The Band's farewell
concert in San Francisco in 1976. My colleague Paul Crocetti explains
why the film is his favorite rock documentary. "The Band, Bob Dylan,
Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Ringo Starr,
Muddy Waters and Dr. John all perform," he writes. "Hey, even Neil
Diamond gets into the act. Throw in Martin Scorsese as a director and
interviewer and you have a film that literally made one of my friends
cry during a late-night viewing. The songs are amazing, the
performers are legends, the sound is great and the interviews are
honest and amusing."

Couldn't agree more, Paul. Nostalgia addicts could OD on this film.

Another reason "Waltz" should be on your dance card is the variety of
music on display. Not just rock and pop but blues, folk and country.
There's something for everybody up on Cripple Creek.

5. "MONTEREY POP" (1969) Considered the first major rock concert
film, this Pennebaker documentary of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival
in California rates as my favorite rock doc for the simple reason
that it showcases some of the most exciting performers in rock
history proving their legendary status wasn't built on hype but raw
and I do mean raw talent. We also see these future superstars early
in their careers so the audience must have been, like, totally
freaked out, man.

Highlights include Janis Joplin belting out "Ball and Chain," Jimi
Hendrix turning "Wild Thing" into a real wild thing complete with
guitar pyrotechnics, Otis Redding demonstrating a heart full of soul
and The Who doing a smash-up job literally on a set that included "My
Generation."

Sadly, many of the performers followed Peter Townshend's "hope" and
died before they got old.

6. "METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER" (2004) I'm not particularly fond
of most heavy metal bands and I don't own any Metallica music, but I
found this movie to be one of the most compelling docs ever made
because of its dysfunctional drama.

For reasons that defy common sense, the band let filmmakers Joe
Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky document the making of an "improv" album
that would become known as "St. Anger." An appropriate title as we
see the band members turn bickering into an art form. Lead singer
James Hetfield even goes into rehab during the filming. He later
returns. A therapist actually enters the fray to try to give peace a
chance - fat chance.

You might not want your daughter to marry any of these fine
gentlemen, but you have to give them credit for opening themselves up
to such brutal honesty. Some kind of monster, indeed.

7. "NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD" (2006) Another cinematic marriage of a
great artist with a great director. This time it's Neil Young and
Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme ("The Silence of the Lambs") making a
movie filled with memorable music. For a bonus, there's poignancy as
Young wrote his new ditties after he learned he had a brain aneurysm.
Successful surgery kept Lynyrd Skynyrd's least-favorite Canadian
rocker alive and well.

The film documents Young's two performances in 2005 at Ryman
Auditorium in Nashville. As with most of these films, "Heart of Gold"
gives baby boomers a chance to reminisce in between swigs of Geritol.
The good news is, unlike far too many ancient acts, Young hasn't let
his creative juices dry up, as this doc demonstrates.

8. "STOP MAKING SENSE" (1984) Yet another union made in musical
heaven. This time Demme teams up with Talking Heads to deliver a
mesmerizing piece of filmmaking. Considerable credit needs to go to
Talking Heads' frontman David Byrne, who demonstrates here that his
imagination knows no bounds. Viewers may also wonder if he's one
rocker who's off his.

The opening scene has Byrne appear on an empty stage accompanied only
by a guitar and a boom box. He then breaks into "Psycho Killer." You
might rightly ask, "Qu'est-ce que c'est?" Eventually, the other band
members join him on subsequent songs.

The film shows Talking Heads performing over three nights at the
Pantages Theater in Hollywood in 1983. The movie's title comes from a
lyric in the song "Girlfriend Is Better."

The film gives New Wave a tsunami-like jolt.

9. "THIS IS SPINAL TAP" (1984) This rock mockumentary must be
included for no other reason than it's a comic masterpiece. One of
the funniest satires ever filmed, the movie documents the disastrous
American tour of Spinal Tap, a fictitious British hard rock group
with more hair strands than talent.

Director Rob Reiner records the proceedings as the fictional Marty
DiBergi, who turns his camera on the trio as they perform, talk and
wax bombastic. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer
play the threesome with clueless abandon.

Supporting roles and cameos from the likes of Billy Crystal, Anjelica
Huston and Paul Schaffer add to the wicked merriment.

Turn the laughter up to 11.

10. "WOODSTOCK" (1970) Last but certainly not least is this film,
which won the Oscar as Best Documentary. Directed by Michael
Wadleigh, the movie is worth seeing not just for the music but for
the aura surrounding the music. If there was ever a happening in
America, this was it. The movie offers viewers a chance to see the
decade of the '60s encapsulated in all its musical glory and cultural
chaos complete with anti-Vietnam sentiment. It's sex and drugs and
rock 'n' roll in the mud.

The movie transports the viewer with a "you were there" intimacy,
using the split screen more effectively than most films of this era.

The musical lineup reads like a membership list at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame Baez; Hendrix; The Who; Crosby, Stills and Nash;
Santana; Sly and the Family Stone.

It's fashionable these days to mock the hippie generation as doped-up
dreamers. Perhaps, but in "Woodstock," we see a concert and a crowd
as one. For a few days in August, they were stardust, they were golden.

ADDENDUM: Astute readers will probably figure out based on the above
choices that I'm old. For a younger reader's respective, I'll turn to
one of my colleagues who was born well after Woodstock. Here are two
of colleague Aaron Wasserman's favorite rock documentaries:

"I Am Trying To Break Your Heart," directed by Sam Jones, which
chronicles the making of the excellent Wilco album of the same name.
It offers a nice look at one of the best American bands today and has
a happy Hollywood ending, as an originally unloved record finds
critical and commercial success.

"Meeting People Is Easy," directed by Grant Gee, which follows
Radiohead after the release of its record "OK Computer" in 1997, when
the group was at its pinnacle of loathing the late-20th century. The
movie is much more depressing and impenetrable than the typical rock
documentary. You follow the band members around on tour, but rarely
see them play a song. Overall, it dispels the myth that being in a
world-famous band is always fun and cool.

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