Genre:
Music [nf]
Release Date: 11/12/2002
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD5.1/DD2/DTS
Run Time: 270 min
Distributor/Studio: Criterion
The Criterion Collection's
Complete Monterey Pop Festival set is one of the more prodigious archival live
rock releases to appear on DVD, dwarfing
Warner Bros.'
Woodstock in terms of both quality and musical significance. Indeed, the three-disc set, which consists of three separate DVD sleeves in a slipcase, dwarfs any other live 1960s
rock release on film that we're ever likely to see. The original 79-minute film
Monterey Pop, which was available for years on television in dark, indifferently transferred prints, and during the late '80s in a somewhat better laserdisc edition, has been given a major upgrade here. The most obvious improvements come from a high-definition digital transfer made under the supervision of director
D.A. Pennebaker that is so sharp that it's possible to read the medium-sized print on peoples' T-shirts in the wide shots, and see more detail than anyone who wasn't there ever saw before. The shorter features
Jimi Plays Monterey and
Shake! Otis at Monterey are also included, on disc two, and look significantly better than the Japanese laserdiscs of either film. The third disc is entitled "Monterey Pop: The Outtake Performances," and features two hours of songs and various performers that never made it into the original movie, ranging from
the Association and
Laura Nyro to
Tiny Tim.
There are numerous surprises here, however, beyond the image quality. For starters, the audio has been remixed by
Eddie Kramer from the original multi-track sources into Dolby Digital and DTS, which makes watching this release overall -- even the basic
Monterey Pop movie -- the equivalent of taking it all in for the first time. One can hear nuances in the singing and playing, and feel a bracing immediacy and impact that was lacking even in the
Rhino Records Monterey Pop Festival box from 1992. The revelations are to be found throughout these discs, and in some totally unexpected places --
the Byrds were one of the big disappointments at the original festival, for a lackluster set that had no real highlights, but viewed and heard here, their playing seems about as solid and impressive as any live gig of theirs that was ever recorded. Similarly,
the Blues Project -- who were on their last legs, in the midst of disintegration, at the festival -- is enjoyable here, though ex-member
Al Kooper, playing with a hastily assembled band, does play circles around them; and
Buffalo Springfield (sans
Neil Young, who was out of the lineup at the time), in their only extant live clip, show off some of the mixture of
garage-punk instrumental attack and folk-based harmony that made them one of the most exciting
rock acts in Los Angeles.
The outtake performance clips by
the Who and
Big Brother & the Holding Company have been remixed into Dolby 5.1 surround, and those are even better. But even the tracks on which high-grade audio materials haven't survived, such as
Hugh Masekela's section, are distinctly superior to their earlier incarnations. The original film and the
Jimi Hendrix and
Otis Redding features have been enhanced with multiple commentary tracks, by
rock historians
Peter Guralnick and
Charles Shaar Murray, festival producer
Lou Adler, and director
D.A. Pennebaker, and interviews with
Phil Walden (
Otis Redding's manager) and
John Phillips,
Derek Taylor,
Cass Elliot, and
David Crosby. Additionally, the set comes with a 60-page booklet filled with essays and production information on the festival and the film, which completes the picture on this total-immersion musical/cinematic experience. There are a few gaps, such as the absence of more of the
Simon & Garfunkel or
Jefferson Airplane sets, or of any
Moby Grape or
Paupers material, but this is still a bigger chunk of the festival than has ever been seen in one place since the actual event. Each disc opens to a well-delineated and easy-to-use menu, and runs circles around any other release from the festival.
~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
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