The film itself has excellent sound, although the picture leaves a little to be desired. On my copy, the picture is often washed out and it's sometimes difficult to discern what's going on when there's a strong light source or a lot of white within the picture. Scenes on the airplane suffer particularly badly at points. However, the footage on stage is always nicely viewable, and easy to make out what's what, who's who, and get the feel of what it was like to see the Stones at this stage of their game, on probably their best tour ever.
The extras are all of amazing quality, especially considering the age. Some of the interviews are in black and white, which seems to be a problem for some who purchase or review the DVD, but it wasn't a problem for me at all. When you realize the age of the source material and consider the amazing quality of the sound and picture, the fact that it's in black and white shouldn't (and to me, doesn't) matter.
The film is a document of the 1972 tour of the United States, sometimes referred to as the Stones Touring Party. The first sign we get of how wild the party was is in the opening scene when we're treated to footage of Keith Richards and Bobby Keys throwing a television out of their 10th floor hotel room window down into a swimming pool. As the footage occurs during daylight (although with no clues as to what time of day it was) I can't imagine how they were able to avoid hitting someone in the pool. It's an interesting and indelible image that sticks with you long after the movie's over. Due to the film's Cinéma Vérité style, and a seemingly endless supply of cameras and footage, we're given a first person view into the Stones' secret touring world at that time. There's scenes shot aboard the plane where Mick, Keith, and others drum in rhythm with a roadie servicing a naked and apparently willing groupie. There's various scenes of drug use, frank talk with ticket scalpers, and several scenes of the Stones with their guard down.
At the time of its original release, The Rolling Stones as a unit (allegedly mostly Mick, although the others agreed) that it would be harmful to the band for the world to see them without their tough and intense patina. I would also guess that they felt the scenes of heavy drug use (including scenes of Keith seemingly nodded out at several points in the film) and sex would hurt their chances of work visas in the future. This was probably quite a real fear after the trouble that they had already had with getting into the US due to the various drug busts and arrests that had befallen Mick and Keith, and that would continue into the future with Mick being banned from Japan on the 1973 tour (and forcing the cancellation of several shows at Tokyo's Budokan and the refunding of 55,000 tickets.) and one of the Stones, unnamed, being banned from Australia, but later allowed in on appeal. Rumors of decadence, violence, fan riots, and the assorted jet-set hangers on (including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Terry Southern, Princess Lee Radziwell, and her fiance the artist Peter Beard.) that accompanied them were already rife within the press, but were dismissed largely as rumors by The Rolling Stones themselves. This film however, confirms and expands on many of them.
One of the most legendary tales of the tour, that being the Chicago stop where the band was unable to find suitable lodging negotiated a stay at the original Playboy Mansion was not captured as Hugh Hefner refused to allow the cameras or crew into the mansion. This was an odd period for Hefner, who was rarely went out, and indeed, did not attend the Stones shows while they were his guests. Allegedly the reasoning for his reclusiveness was a Manson-phobia and deep-seated fear of being attacked. Whatever the reasoning, it's we the viewers and fans that miss out the most, although it's quite doubtful that the actual account of what occurred matches our imagination's depiction of the stay.
This film is quite rare, as mentioned above, the Rolling Stones didn't want it released for a variety of reasons, and sued to block it's release. Filmmaker Robert Frank counter-sued and the film is only able to shown if he, or an authorized agent on his behalf is present, by court order. It's a shame because this really is the Stones at their finest. Although there is no official live album from this tour (despite studio work being done to polish recordings and an album cover being designed and scrapped, allegedly due to a dispute with Allen Klein and ABKCO) there are recordings available out there if you look around. It's a shame that they're not readily available, because there would be a large audience for this work.
I would highly recommend this film to ANYONE who is interested in The Rolling Stones, vintage rock and roll documentaries, or the decadence and ebullience of the rock and roll movement of the early 1970's.
I have not seen any other copies of this film on DVD, although I have seen three different copies on VHS. This is by far the best of all of those. The sound is a million miles ahead of any of the VHS releases, and although the picture isn't great, it's still better than any VHS copy that I saw. Considering it's age and the fact that it's not an official release, it's in pretty good quality, especially compared to a lot of the DVDs that are out there.
I would easily give it a 5 out of 5.
Here is an image of the insert of my DVD. (again, as last time, this is not an actual image of the cover of my copy, rather it is an image that I found on the web and posted here.)
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