#1. Gimme Shelter (1970)

Storyline: A documentary on the Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour and the tragic events that concluded it. We see footage of their concerts and of them making the Sticky Fingers album in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. However, the main focus of the film is on one concert - Altamont Speedway, outside San Francisco, 6 December 1969. A free concert, it is the Stones' idea and it was meant to be the Woodstock of the West (Woodstock having occurred four months earlier). Other bands performing included Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, Crosby Stills Nash and Young and Santana. However, it is far from being the peace and love of Woodstock. Part of the problem is that the Stones hired the Hells Angels as security. The other problem was that a large portion of the crowd were high on drugs. Friction ensues. During the Stones' set, Meredith Hunter, high on methamphetamine and armed with a gun, makes a lunge for the stage and is stabbed to death by the Hells Angels. The peace and love era of the 60s was over.—grantss

Plot Keywords: musician, rock star, biker, victim, dark, tense, concert stage ...

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#2. Shine a Light (2008)

Storyline: Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones unite in "Shine A Light," a look at The Rolling Stones." Scorcese filmed the Stones over a two-day period at the intimate Beacon Theater in New York City in fall 2006. Cinematographers capture the raw energy of the legendary band.—alfiehitchie

Plot Keywords: rock star, musician, the rolling stones, fan, singer, fascinating, gripping ...

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#3. Stones in Exile (2010)

Storyline: In 1971, to get breathing room from tax and management problems, the Stones go to France. Jimmy Miller parks a recording truck next to Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg's Blue Coast villa, and by June the band is in the basement a few days at a time. Upstairs, heroin, bourbon, and visitors are everywhere. The Stones, other musicians and crew, Pallenberg, and photographer Dominique Tarle, plus old clips and photos and contemporary footage, provide commentary on the album's haphazard construction. By September, the villa is empty; Richards and Jagger complete production in LA. "Exile on Main Street" is released to mediocre reviews that soon give way to lionization.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: mick jagger, keith richards, girlfriend, band member, record producer, photographer, spirited ...

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#4. At the Max (1991)

Storyline: In 1989, the Rolling Stones go on their "Steel Wheels" tour: Jagger, Richards, Watts, Wood, and Wyman, backed by three singers, a sax, four horns, and two keyboards. In Turin, Berlin, and London, they perform on a gigantic stage in front of masses. The staging includes huge air-filled figures of women and of a wolf; there are fireworks and a light show. On stage, the musicians are sometimes yards apart, with Jagger racing up and down wide staircases that project like wings to the left and right of the stage. All the while, the music pours forth, sixteen songs in all, from "Satisfaction" and "Sympathy for the Devil" to "Start Me Up" and "Rock and a Hard Place."—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: rock star, keith richards, mick jagger, band member, audience, confident, incredible ...

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#5. Sympathy for the Devil (1968)

Storyline: Godard's documentation of late 1960s Western counter-culture, examining the Black Panthers, referring to works by LeRoi Jones and Eldridge Cleaver. Other notable subjects are the role of news media, the mediated image, a growing technocratic society, women's liberation, the May revolt in France and the power of language. Cutting between three major scenes, including the Rolling Stones in the studio, the film is visually intercut with Eve Democracy (Wiazemsky) using graffiti which amalgamates organisations, corporations and ideologies. Godard also examines the role of the revolutionary within Western culture. Although he believes Western culture needs to be destroyed, it can only be done so by the rejection of intellectualisation. "There is only one way to be an intellectual revolutionary, and that is to give up being an intellectual"—<gary.elshaw@vuw.ac.nz>

Plot Keywords: the rolling stones, filmmaker, jean-luc godard, engaging, study, recording studio, sympathy ...

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