The Complete Monterey Pop Festival [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Monterey Pop
The first concert film of the rock & roll era, Monterey Pop is an invaluable record of some of the major musical figures of the late 1960s. The organizers of the Monterey International Pop Festival, held June 16-18, 1967, wisely chose to record the proceedings on film for commercial distribution. Even if some of the festival's big acts -- the Byrds, the Grateful Dead, and Buffalo Springfield -- didn't make the final cut for various reasons, the roster of performers who did reads like a who's who of the era: Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & the Holding Company (featuring Janis Joplin), Simon & Garfunkel, and the Mamas & the Papas (that group's leader, John Phillips, was one of the festival's principal organizers). The festival's "international" tag is well-earned by one performer in the film: Ravi Shankar, whose final-day performance was one of the festival's highlights and closes the movie on an exuberant note. Though the festival seemed to be anticipating nearby San Francisco's Summer of Love, the film chooses to concentrate on the musical performers, with only brief intimations of the burgeoning counterculture. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

Jimi Plays Monterey
Few people in the United States had any idea who Jimi Hendrix was when he and his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, came on-stage at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. By the time his relatively short set had been played, everyone present knew they had heard a guitar genius -- the performance was history-making. This HBO Home Video release contains most of the songs from the festival performance, which was the Jimi Hendrix Experience's U.S. concert debut. ~ Steve Blackburn, Rovi

Shake! Otis at Monterey
Renowned documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker captures Otis Redding in his ascendancy, singing at the historic Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967. Comedian Tom Smothers introduces Redding to a crowd that is leaving -- until Redding grabs them with his charged rendition of "Shake." Redding's performance also includes "Respect" (which he wrote), "I've Been Loving You Too Long," "Satisfaction," and "Try a Little Tenderness." Tragically, Redding died in a plane crash six months later. An innovative filmmaker who started in the 1950s making experimental films, Pennebaker garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature in 1993 for The War Room, his behind-the-scenes look at Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. His other subjects have included Norman Mailer, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie. ~ Steve Blackburn, Rovi