Product Details

• Actors: Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Ravi Shankar, Country Joe McDonald, Pete Townshend
• Directors: D.A. Pennebaker
• Producers: John Phillips, Lou Adler
• Format: Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS 5.1)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Criterion
• DVD Release Date: June 13, 2006
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000E5LEWE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,538 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Monterey Pop (The Criterion Collection)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A special message from Lou Adler, an original promoter/producer for the Monterey International Pop Festival:

It was the first major Rock ‘n’ Roll Festival. No prerequisite…no precedents. We had no idea what to expect. The question of would people come was answered by mid-week prior to the start of the festival. They came and kept on coming. A major surprise was the extent of mainstream media coverage. When John Phillips and I arrived at the fairgrounds on the morning of the first day there were camera crews, photographers and journalists from all over the world. Add to that the advent of FM radio; and the following year Rolling Stone Magazine…Rock ‘n’ Roll was here to stay. Monterey gave birth to the first rock charity Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation, which continues to fund worthwhile causes in the names of the artists who appeared at Monterey. Precedents and prerequisites would be set for future concerts and festivals, including the overall treatment of the artist…Derek Taylor’s handling of the press…Chip Monks’ sound and lights…Pennebaker’s groundbreaking movie “Monterey Pop. The true legacy of The Monterey International Pop Festival is not the crowd size…not the weather…not a violent incident…it is the music. The groundbreaking artists who were introduced (Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and The Who) and the “rock royalty” (Simon & Garfunkel, Otis Redding and The Mamas & The Papas) that performed there continue to be revered and continue to impact to this day the music and musicians who came after it happened in Monterey on June 16, 17, and 18, 1967.

Product Description

On a beautiful June weekend in 1967, at the height of the Summer of Love, the first and only Monterey International Pop Festival roared forward, capturing a decade’s spirit and ushering in a new era of rock and roll. Monterey would launch the careers of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding, but they were just a few among a wildly diverse cast that included Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas and the Papas, the Who, Hugh Masekela, and the extraordinary Ravi Shankar. With his characteristic vérité style, D. A. Pennebaker got it all, immortalizing moments that have become legend: Pete Townshend destroying his guitar, Jimi Hendrix burning his. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this timeless document of a landmark event.

Stills from Monterey Pop Festival (Click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was there, now you can be, too., March 6, 2001

By 

Stan Delk (Folsom, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monterey Pop [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Oh boy, Monterey Pop 1967. I was there and I loved every minute.

2 years before Woodstock, over 200,000 young people descended upon a sleepy California fishing village for a 3 day celebration of music, peace, flowers, and love that heralded the beginning of "The Summer of Love".

If you're goin'... wear some flowers in your hair.

When I found this film, I knew I had to have it. And, I have not been disappointed. It's great. D.A. Pennebraker captured the reality of The First Annual International Monterey Pop Music Festival. (Unfortunately, it was also the last annual.) This documentary is raw, gritty, and filled with sights and sounds you won't find in any Hollywood portrayal of the "hippie movement". Every time I watch it, it takes me back to that wonderfully magic moment in time.

You will enjoy the live performances of Janis Joplin (the weekend she signed a recording contract), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (their USA debut), Canned Heat, The Mamas and The Papas, Hugh Masakela, Jefferson Airplane, County Joe and the Fish, Ravi Shankar, Otis Redding, The Who, and many many others.

You will also get to see some the effect it can have upon a small town when it expands to 8 times its normal size for 3 days with not 1 arrest being made.

This weekend might have set the tone for the Summer of Love, but the music defined a whole new generation, and this film captures both.

Five Stars, for sure, I'd like to give it six.

Stan

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is what it is like when someone "steals" a show., January 25, 2000

By 

gene blue (Chicago's North Side (Edgewater)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monterey Pop [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Janis Joplin blew this crowd away. It is spectacular to watch the reaction from Mama Cass as her mouth literally drops open and to hear the screams from this audience when Janis sings Ball and Chain. By the way this performance is on the 3-CD boxed set released in 1993 called Janis. And to be sure Janis wasn't the only reason to watch Monterey, a haunting set from Otis (a god) and a little heard of guitarist named Jimi Hendrix (a god). This was not my generation having only recently graduated high school, but why oh why can't concerts be this beautiful with so little aggression any more?

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Monterey Pop": A REAL Hippie Music Experience, December 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Monterey Pop [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Monterey Pop" captures the real essense of a "Hippie" music festival preceding slick commercial "pseudo-Hippie" productions

With often-jerky hand-held cameras, D. A. Pennepaker brings together color, clothing and culture of the Hippie period supported by its musical boundaries.

Present are mainstream Simon & Garfunkel, R&B's Otis Redding, and exotic Hugh Masakela and Marion Makeba's African folk/jazz. Included are Rock's lesser knowns Scott McKenzie, Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish and Eric Burdon and the Animals. Featured are "big names": The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Mommas and Poppas, Janis Joplin & Big Brother, Jefferson Airplane. An exciting 18-minute Ravi Shankar raga melds two worlds as a fitting finale.

An undercurrent of the film is how Pennepaker catches a "hippie" vs "mainstream" motif. Capturing Hippie culture: sharing food, offering barely articulate enthusiasms, or presenting an off-the-wall dress code; he compares it with better-dressed, more upscale audience members. With the images, one recognizes music unifing these differences.

It ain't MTV, or fancy camera lens stuff: just straight-ahead documentary; but it's a GREAT way to spend 98 delightful, laid-back minutes.