Big Screen Classics: GIMME SHELTER

Called the greatest rock film ever made, this landmark documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their notorious 1969 U.S. tour.

In retrospect, having three hundred thousand Love Children descend on San Francisco's Altamont Speedway for a free concert by the Rolling Stones was probably not the best idea. Combine that with security being handled by none other than the local chapter of the Hells Angels, and you have the setting of one of the most ill thought out decisions in entertainment history. In the span it took for the Rolling Stones to sing "Sympathy for the Devil", the youth of an entire generation lost its innocence.

With the cameras of Direct Cinema pioneers David and Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin having been given unprecedented all-access to the Stones, we not only have the immortalized moments on film of the clash between two opposing members of these outsider groups, but also the haunted words of Mick Jagger that ultimately shattered the illusion of Rock and Roll as the greatest ride of all time.