MONTEREY POP

MONTEREY POP

MONTERY POP A Leacock-Pennebaker Film by D.A. Pennebaker; edited by Nina Shulman; in color; with Otis Redding, The Jefferson Airplain, Simon and Garfunfcel, Ravi Shanker, and others.

Monterey Pop is somewhat a rarity among documentaries, one designed almost exclusively to entertain. There are one or two moments when the camera forgets about the performers who appeared at the Festival sponsored by John Phillips and concentrates on those gpeople who came to listen: the girl, from Champaign, Illinois, who thinks she’s lucky to be able to clean all the seats in the amphitheatre; the girl who feels the listeners had to put up with a lot of “bulls-t” from lesser groups in order to hear the top performers; the police chief who expects trobule from-the Hell’s Angles and wonders how the city is going to feed the expected crowd of 50 to 55 thousand.

Most of the time, though, the camera is turned on the stage as some of the most talented, as well as some of the most overrated, of the modem pop performers doing their thing. Along the way, the viewer is treated to some unforgettable sights, like Jimi Hendrix raping his guitar (and for one terrifying instant you think he’s urinating on it, until you realize that what he is holding is a can of lighter fluid, which he precedes to light), You can see the Who going berserk and literally breaking up the joint as burly guards rush onstage to save sound equipment. Xou can sit back and enjoy the happy sounds of Simon || and Garfunkel doing “The 59th Street Bridge Song.” There’s Country Joe MacDonald looking for all the world like a psychedelic construction worker. There’s Monkee Mickie Dolenz (honest!) leading the standing ovation for Ravi Shankar. There’s delightful Mama Cass, and you wonder why Pennebaker didn’t film Monterey Pop in Panavision.

Nina Shuliqan’s editing is precise and effective, especially when she alternates shots of the performers and the audience reacting to them. Her editing of Grace Slick singing “Today” is especially well-done, using just two camera angles (Pennebaker had about twenty photographers on the scene) to provide one of the most moving glimpses of a performer I’ve ever seen. I wish, though, Miss Shulman hadn’t followed the Jefferson Airplane with Big Brother and the Holdirig Company (even though that may have been the chronological order, but time can be altered in cinema). I’m just a little tired of comparsion/contrasts between Grace Slick and Janie Joplin.

The color is remarkable throughout, reminiscent of a well designed album cover.

All you could really flaw Pennebafcer on is his inclusion of the Canned. Heat in his record of the Festival. That group just struck me as amateurish, both musically and as performers.

There have been excellent documentaries pn Bach and Mozart, the Metropolitan Opera, and the modern Jazz Quartet. Now there’s one on rock music. Enjoy.