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The Complete Monterey Pop Festival: The Criterion Collection
Movie: 10/10
I had always thought Woodstock was the big music festival. Criterion has given me a chance to stand corrected, the Monterey Pop Festival was indeed THE music festival. I'm not saying Woodstock was bad, it was very good, but Monterey came first and has some of the most memorable music moments in history. I love rock and roll, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, the Stones, etc. I simply love it, I grew up with it. When I was a little tyke, my parents played 60's and 70's music on our brand new CD player and I simply loved it and still do. D.A. Pennebaker brings us this excellent set containing the Monterey Pop Festival, two hours of out take performances, and two supplemental films of Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding playing Monterey. The film features such memorable instances as Jimi burning his guitar while Pete Townsend smashes his. These moments have become music history and it's wonderful to see that they have found a nice venue on DVD. This will be one of the biggest and best music DVDs ever produced.
Video: 6/10
Sorry to say it doesn't look too great. It's old and it's made to be kind of gritty. It's full screen and digitally transferred. It's not bad considering the show was very dark. But then again, this is a music festival, the music is the main issue. As long as I can see Jimi setting fire to his axe, I'm happy.
Audio: 10/10
This DVD sounds great. We have new 5.1 DTS and Dolby mixes remastered by recording engineer Eddie Kramer along side the original mix. It's beautiful to hear this DVD and I'm so glad it got the treatment it deserved.
Extras: 9/10
This set contains not only the pop festival but a disc chocked full of out take performances by Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas and the Papas, The Who, and others. Also included on the discs are numerous commentaries from Pennebaker and producer Lou Adler on the festival, music critic and historian Sharr Murray on Jimi Plays Monterey, and TWO commentaries on Otis Redding's performance. Aside from the commentaries, Criterion gives us new interviews, a photo gallery, and other great extras. The only extra I felt this disc needed was some sort of commentary by one of the musicians. I would have LOVED to hear that. Over all, this is a beautiful set.
Overall: <9/10/p>
A must for any music lover. This set is one of the best DVDs ever produced and will be on my top ten of the year. Nice job Criterion!
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