Concert documentary directed by
Albert and David Maysles and released in
1970. Depicts the events leading up to the
Rolling Stones'
free concert at
Altamount Speedway in
California in December,
1969. About
300,000 people attended, and the organizers made the
mistake of putting the
Hell's Angels in charge of
security. The Angels spent the concert
beating kids up, and are even caught on
camera stabbing a black kid to
death.
The film is less a
celebration of the Stones'
music and more a
grim,
frightening exploration of the
dark side of the
1960s, intercutting
music,
violence, and the attempts by
Mick Jagger and
Grace Slick (
Jefferson Airplane also performed that day) to get people to
calm down. If
Woodstock marked the
high point of the
Summer of Love,
Altamount was the
low point, indicating for some that the
ideals of the 1960s were finally
dead.