movie world

Just as the Monterey International Pop Music Festival marked a pivotal and definitive turning point (in this case, upward) in the cultural ferment of the 1960s, so too the film document of that event, D.A. Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop, initiated a new way of capturing music and its performance for posterity. The weekend-long Festival, featuring mostly West Coast hippie rock and folk combos, with a few international surprises tossed into the mix, was like a meteor that streaked across the sky of an emerging new civilization, illuminating the landscape, brightening the eyes of its witnesses, summoning a potent mix of emotions: joy, euphoria, ecstasy, bewilderment, even dread.

Criterion's "The Complete Monterey Pop Festival" contains director D.A. Pennebaker's legendary Monterey Pop as well as his Jimi Plays Monterey and Shake! Otis at Monterey. The three films capture a number of musicians as they perform at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 in front of an enthusiastic crowd. After the festival, some of them would go on to become superstars; others would give up music.

3xBD50 | 1080p AVC | 147 minutes | 112 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none

Monterey Pop is essentially a raw documentary -- it contains footage from unedited performances by The Who, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, The Mamas and The Papas, Hugh Maskela, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Scott McKenzie, Canned Heat, Simon & Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & The Holding, Eric Burdon & The Animals, Country Joe & The Fish, and Ravi Shankar. In between each of these performances, director Pennebaker also captures the reactions of the audience, many of which are just as fascinating to behold.

Jimi Plays Monterey (50 min) was assembled in 1986. The film offers a quick summation of the famous guitarist's life while at the same time shows additional footage (a total of nine songs) from his appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival. It is narrated by John Phillips from The Mamas and the Pappas. In 1987, Jimi Plays Monterey was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

Shake! Otis at Monterey (19 min) was assembled in 1989. The film offers the complete set of songs (a total of five) Otis Redding performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival. This proved to be one of his very last performances as the gifted singer was killed in a plane crash just a few months after he had dazzled the crowds with his incredible voice.

Extras:

*** DISC ONE - Monterey Pop ***

• Commentary - this audio commentary features Monterey Pop Festival producer Lou Adler and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker. It was recorded for the Criterion in 2002, and also appeared on the first Blu-ray release of Monterey Pop.

• Interviews - in addition to the vintage interviews from the previous release, there are two exclusive new interviews with Lou Adler and D.A. Pennebaker that were conducted in 2017.

1. NEW Interview - Lou Adler, producer of the Monterey International Pop Festival, discusses the 50th anniversary of the Monterey Festival and the special celebration event that was held on June 16, 17, and 18 2017. In English, not subtitled. (12 min, 1080p).

2. NEW Interviews - director D.A. Pennebaker discusses the conception and his personal experience of makingMonterey Pop fifty years earlier. The interviews were recorded in Bologna (Italy), Monterey, and New York City in 2017. In English, not subtitled. (15 min, 1080p).

3. Adler and Pennebaker - this video interview with festival producer Lou Adler and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker was conducted in the summer of 2001 in Los Angeles. (30 min, 1080i).

4. Audio Interviews - John Phillips, Cass Elliot, David Crosby, Derek Taylor

• Promotional Materials
1. Theatrical Trailer (3 min, 1080p).
2. Rerelease Trailer (3 min, 1080p).
3. Radio Spots

• Festival Ephemera
1. Elaine Mayes Photographs
2. Festival Program

• MIPFF - information about the mission of the Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation. In text-format.

• Chiefs - when Monterey Pop was introduced in theaters in 1968, it was accompanied by Chiefs, a short film directed by Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker's partner in Leacock-Pennebaker Productions. Chiefs is presented here in its entirety. In English, not subtitled. (20 min, 1080p).

*** DISC TWO - The Outtake performances ***

• Outtakes - more than two hours of performances not included in Monterey Pop, from the Association, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Blues Project, the Byrds, Country Joe and the Fish, the Electric Flag, Jefferson Airplane, Al Kooper, the Mamas and the Papas, Laura Nyro, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Simon and Garfunkel, Tiny Tim, and the Who. In English, not subtitled. (130 min, 1080p).

1. Friday, June 16 - performances by The Association ("Along Comes Mary") and Simon & Garfunkel ("Homeward Bound" and The Sounds of Silence").

2. Saturday, June 17 - performances by Country Joe & The Fish ("Not-so-sweet Martha Lorraine"), Al Kooper ("I Heard Her Say Wake Me, Shake Me"), The Paul Butterfield Blues Band ("Driftin' Blues" - video cut and full performance), Quicksilver Messenger Service ("All I ever Wanted To Do Was Love You"), The Electric Flag ("Drinkin' Wine"), The Byrds ("Chimes of Freedom", He Was a Friend of Mine", "Hey Joe"), Laura Nyro ("Wedding Bell Blues", Poverty Train"), and Jefferson Airplane ("Somebody to Love").

3. Sunday, June 18 - performances by The Blues Project ("The Flute Thing"), Big Brother and the Holding Company ("Combination of the Two", original and 5.1 mix), Buffalo Springfield ("For what it's worth"), The Who ("Substitute", "Summertime Blues", "A Quick One While He's Away", original and 5.1 mix) and The Mamas and the Papas.

4. The Hunt Club - Using only the illumination of a cigarette lighter, D. A. Pennebaker captured Tiny Tim performing a number of traditional songs at Monterey's Hunt Club, the official greenroom for the festival ("King for a Day", "Laugh, Clown, Laugh", "May God Be With Our Boys Tonight" and "My What a Funny Little World This Is").

5. Artist Index

*** DISC THREE ***

Jimi Plays Monterey:

• Commentary - an audio commentary with audio excerpts, featuring music critic and historian Charles Shaar Murray, recorded in London in the Spring of 2002. The additional audio excerpts provide further details on the music career of Jimi Hendrix.

• Interview - an interview with Pete Townshend conducted in London in 1987 and produced for VH1 by Tom Kaniewski. In this excerpt, he discusses his memory of the Monterey International Pop Festival. (5 min, 1080i).

• Trailer - (4 min, 1080i).

Shake! Otis at Monterey:

• Commentaries - two commentaries featuring music historian Peter Guralnick recorded in Boston in the winter of 2002. The first commentary is a song-by-song reading of the film. The second is a look at Otis's career, pre- and post-Monterey.

• Interview - an interview with Phil Walden, Otis Redding's manager from 1959 until Otis's death in 1967. The interview was recorded in Atlanta in the spring of 2002.