Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Impressions From When I Was Ten
Here's a review I posted on IMDB yesterday of the 1970 movie GIMME SHELTER, which documents the Stones concert at Altamont:
I saw this movie in its first run in 1970. I was ten years old. I'll rent the DVD someday, but I think I can comment on the impression it made on me then. I remember being intrigued when Mick Jagger is in the editing room being shown footage of the stabbing. What stayed in my brain was that this person (Mick Jagger) was just as horrified by what happened at his concert as anybody else. As a kid, I equated celebrities with authorities, and seeing Jagger's expression of astonishment as he watched the footage was, as it were, an eye-opening experience. I went with two friends who were about eleven. When the mother of one of them picked us up afterwards (this being an era when an adult wouldn't have a second thought about leaving a group of children at a suburban movie theatre for a few hours) my friends described the movie in detail. They gave her minute details about the chaos, the murder and the ugliness. When I piped in to say I liked the part with the naked girls the car got quiet. My friends looked at me as if I'd stabbed the audience-member myself. Even at eleven years old, they got the message and knew the talking points. I was still in my Woodstock mindset. They were already children of Altamont. At the time I didn't much like the music. I'd still rather hear Gram Parsons sing "Wild Horses" than the Stones, even though they wrote it. I'm going to rent this and look for ol' Gram Parsons. He's listed in the credits.
I saw this movie in its first run in 1970. I was ten years old. I'll rent the DVD someday, but I think I can comment on the impression it made on me then. I remember being intrigued when Mick Jagger is in the editing room being shown footage of the stabbing. What stayed in my brain was that this person (Mick Jagger) was just as horrified by what happened at his concert as anybody else. As a kid, I equated celebrities with authorities, and seeing Jagger's expression of astonishment as he watched the footage was, as it were, an eye-opening experience. I went with two friends who were about eleven. When the mother of one of them picked us up afterwards (this being an era when an adult wouldn't have a second thought about leaving a group of children at a suburban movie theatre for a few hours) my friends described the movie in detail. They gave her minute details about the chaos, the murder and the ugliness. When I piped in to say I liked the part with the naked girls the car got quiet. My friends looked at me as if I'd stabbed the audience-member myself. Even at eleven years old, they got the message and knew the talking points. I was still in my Woodstock mindset. They were already children of Altamont. At the time I didn't much like the music. I'd still rather hear Gram Parsons sing "Wild Horses" than the Stones, even though they wrote it. I'm going to rent this and look for ol' Gram Parsons. He's listed in the credits.
# posted by Fredwemyss @ 4:16 AM 
