Robert Frank’s much mythologized Rolling Stones tour film is a real oddity. The details about the legal battles over the work vary from source to source, but it is generally agreed that the film cannot be casually put on public display (some claim it can be shown but once a year and only with the director in attendance) and has not and cannot receive a home format release as of this time. The rarer the artifact, the more highly sought after it is, even it isn’t really a gem. This film has become much easier to acquire through modern digital distribution methods and I highly doubt that the Rolling Stones care for the same reasons they originally did. At the time this film was edited and presumably on the eve of its release, some of the Rolling Stones had run afoul of the law pertaining to drugs (and other things? – I’m not their biographer and I find them a bit of a bore). The release of a film containing semi-staged acts of sexual aggression, non-staged consensual sexually explicit acts (even more so for the times, I should mention not directly involving the band) and drug abuse/advocacy all while on tour in the United States, might have had unfortunate consequences on their ability to launch future tours and acquire the proper travel and work permits in this country. Now it seems more likely to me that the band would have more of a problem with there being free, though inferior, performance footage available at the click of a button. (They are some seriously hardcore money whores – nice work free-love generation!)
Ultimately Frank has a bit of a mess on his hands, but it’s kind of an interesting mess. He had the rather forward idea of leaving loaded film cameras laying around while accompanying the band and crew on the tour and encouraging anyone to pick up and shoot the ensuing diluted mess/boredom. The film lacks much of a structure, but that seems like a valid approach. It suffers where it falls into the hands of some advocate for the times and ways of the band and the culture/drug bubble that they lived in. When a junkie thinks they are being profound, they are usually just being the worst. Observing the near conundrum of some of the crew being part blue collar worker/artist/technician/junkie in a mild position of power could prove interesting if it wasn’t so goddamned boring. Human initiative and actualization tends to settle toward the state of least excitement. The band is glimpsed in the full grip of road monotony with a clichéd, predictable television launched off of a hotel room balcony. No insight outside of boredom and hangers on is truly glimpsed during the film and it eventually meanders to some closing credits. Given that this was shot during the first U.S. tour following the infamous Altamont incident and following in the longer shadow cast by the Maysles brothers more narrative document of those events in Gimme Shelter, the formless nature of the film makes even more sense. It’s worth a cursory glance for those interested in the human condition as it can manifest inside of a vacuum, but is hardly required viewing for fans of the band outside of a need to say they have been there and done that.
