Product Details

• Actors: Jerry Garcia, Donna Godchaux, Keith Godchaux, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann
• Directors: Jerry Garcia, Leon Gast
• Format: Color, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Monterey Video
• DVD Release Date: November 9, 2004
• Run Time: 300 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002VETEK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,215 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Grateful Dead Movie" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The only Grateful Dead video to have received a theatrical release (in the mid-'70s), this film is a real time capsule. See Keith and Donna Godcheaux as integral parts of the band! See the Wall of Sound! See the trippy animation! See Jerry with all-black hair! The photography and sound are crude and not on par with those in some of the more recent Dead videos, notably Ticket to New Year's or Downhill from Here, but its earnestness, and its focus on an era in the Band's history with little other video documentation, more than make up for the lack of polish. There's some above-average music, too, especially "Eyes of the World" and the ever-irresistible "U.S. Blues." --Anne Hurley

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars David Lemieux Does It Again! July 17, 2005

By S. Weis

Format:DVD

David Lemieux is the Grateful Dead organization's current "keeper of The Vault", having taken over for the band's original archivist Dick Latvala, may he R.I.P.

Remastering The Grateful Dead Movie is his second major video project, the first being "The Closing of Winterland", which is also highly recommended.

Even though the Dead were at their creative peak in 1974 (my opinion, of course), the audio and video quality of the multitude of concert videos that have been released by and of this band arguably improves as we move forward in time, if for no other reason than technology. Simply stated, they were able to make a better recording in, say, 1990 than in 1974.

All that changed when when David Lemieux decided to go back to some of earlier masterpieces and painstakingly remaster them.

I own The Grateful Dead Movie on VHS and on LaserDisc. Yet they rarely get played due to lack of decent audio quality. There's simply so much more to enjoy from this band that's of so much better quality.

The remastered Grateful Dead movie on DVD is a treat for the eyes, ears, and spirit! If I'm not up off the couch dancing as if I were at a show, I'm sitting there mesmerized with an ear to ear grin, sort of like the dude in the front row of the show!

THE REAL TREAT, however, is the "second disc", which includes footage that never made it to the original movie. In my opinion, the second disc with its never-seen-before-footage is where you'll find the real nuggets of pure joy, pure Grateful Dead heaven, the band at their best! Wait, oh just you wait, until you experince The Other One > Spanish Jam > Mind Left Body Jam > The Other One! Yeeow!

I own every piece of commercially available Grateful Dead video, and some that are not commercially available and this magical "Second Disc" is the finest bit Grateful Dead video available. Period.

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars ILLUMINATING LOOK AT THE BAND, FANS & PA August 27, 2005

By Christopher Henrici

Format:DVD

The Grateful Dead movie came out in 1977 but consists of footage shot during an October 1974 series of concerts at the Winterland, the last to use the "wall of Sound" system, and the shows preceeded a break from touring but by the time it came out, they had already resumed performing. It is as much about the fans, the sound crew, the "wall of sound" PA, and promoter Bill Graham as about the band. When I saw it back when it came out and a couple times at local high school auditoriums over the next few years, I was always left with the feeling that it was a little short on uninterupted concert footage. The film tries to cover so much ground the music performances suffer. The other place I felt it was lacking was the sound mix. This new DVD release basically fixes my two main gripes about the original release. It has a second bonus disc of extra song performances, and it has been remixed- it now sounds alot better (but for those who want the original mix, you can play it that way too for the movie portion). There is also some extra interview footage. The transfer of the film has been well done. The dead always had good people working for them, whether it was Betty Cantor, Dan Healy, Steve Parish or Ron Wickersham- and now Jeffrey Norman and David Lemeieux, the keepers of the vault. They have done some excellent work with this release and "The Closing of Winterland" DVD....both come from a period many consider to be their best. Now we can have our own virtual Dead concert. If you like this DVD, I'd also recommend the 5 CD "Movie soundtrack" set which is one of the best audio releases.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars October 1974 Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA October 31, 2011

By Grateful Jerry VINE™ VOICE

Format:Blu-ray

Let me start off by pointing out that there's really nothing here that isn't already out on the standard dvd release and, while the movie is in blu ray, the bonus stuff isn't. By the early '70's, the Dead were playing bigger and bigger places requiring a bigger and bigger sound system eventually leading to The Wall Of Sound. The Dead had already started their record company the year before and now between having to deal with both Grateful Dead Records and their "new" expensive sound system, the band was becoming a little burned out. In October 1974, the Dead played what many people thought might be their last concerts at Winterland Arena in San Francisco starting on the 16th (Bob Weir's 27th birthday) to the 20th known as The Last One. the band had already decided to record the shows on multi track for an album and shortly before the run of shows, the band decided to hire a film crew as well. This movie became a passion for Jerry Garcia as he devoted a massive amount of time to it which would finally be released at the beginning of June 1977 nearly a year after the band had returned to active touring.

The Movie opens with fantastic animation done by Gary Gutierrez before dropping into U.S. Blues. Bill Graham introduces the crew before a rockin' One More Saturday Night. Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad fades in with shots of the band's equipment trucks rolling in across The Golden Gate Bridge with the roadies unloading a setting up the band's massive sound system. I should point out that in the movie itself, most of the songs aren't complete. If that's really important to you, you'll want Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack. the film itself mostly concentrates on the concert environment with the songs themselves being used as only part of the experience. There are some cool shots and behind the scenes footage as well as great interviews with many of the band members.The bonus disc consists of nearly a 100 minutes of unreleased performances recorded during this run as well as more "old" and new footage. There's also a nice making as well as the commercials for From The Mars Hotel. My only gripe with this blu ray version is that there's isn't any additional stuff that wasn't released on the standard dvd. Shortly after the standard release in 2004, vault archivist David did interviews for PBS saying that there was still enough left over stuff for a second movie. Too band they didn't give us that here.