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, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Rhino / Wea
• VHS Release Date: June 17, 1997
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 156605334X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,668 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

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.