Gimme Shelter

What started out as a chronicle of the Stones’ triumphant return to the stage after three years of drug busts and the firing and death of founder Brian Jones turned into something ominous and cautionary. The Stones’ 1969 U.S. tour, their first with guitar virtuoso Mick Taylor, was in support of new album, Let it Bleed, and smash hit single “Honky Tonk Women.” Solid, momentum-building performances are captured, but it all goes to hell in the film’s final third when the Stones’ desire to throw a free concert (no doubt to rival Woodstock) at tour’s end in the San Francisco area falls victim to ego, naivete, the Hells Angels and very poor planning. The Maysles team deftly captures the confusion, fear and deadly stabbing of James Meredith on film, making Gimme Shelter less a tour chronicle than a knife through the heart of the love generation. — Doug Pullen