This iteration of their story emphasizes storytelling & momentum over important chapters, occurrences, Documents (heck, "American Beauty" & "Skullfuck", critical, landmark, groundbreaking recordings, marking quantum leaps in the band's commercial viability & success, not even mentioned!), even seminal players in the band omitted (the rise & fall of Brent Mydland, Vince Welnick. Bruce Hornsby's short but meaningful & timely residency).
"Long Strange Trip" director Amir Bar-Lev lies squarely in fellow documentary producer/director, Alex Gibney's school of film-making, "don't let history & the facts impede a good story arc".
I found it difficult to believe Mr. Bar-Lev's self-admitted devotion to his subject, as so many important developments went undocumented in favor of vastly less interesting &/or important back stories.
So for us amateur Dead Historians who just happened to track it as we lived through it, this document is wholly unfulfilling, as so much of what made the experience vital & completely original (it was The Music, stupid!) was not depicted here.
Most of my Dead-Fan colleagues could have cared less about the "social implications of the 'movement' the Dead accidentally spurred".
It was just that they rocked longer & harder than anyone else we had ever seen, & have yet to see since.
That was what brought us there, & kept us coming back for more.
Beginning & end of story!
"Long Strange Trip" is sadly, an epic fail & a fairly feeble attempt, in my book to tell what is a much more interesting story than what ultimately survived the cutting room!
Thanks as always for your honest reportage.
Cheers.
Jerry Horn
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Kudos from an ardent reader and person of no particular import in the music business. Eager to check this film out, warts and all.
FYI, if you haven't seen it, I found "The Other One" doc on Netflix about Bob Weir quite interesting. Delved into the dark side of Jerry fighting the demons, and of course Weir gave the film makers access to so much amazing rarely=seen footage. Worth a watch.
All the best,
Karl Woitach
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They left so many things out that puzzled me.. no mention of Mickey hart leaving the band because his dad stole money ( honestly i still wonder what he contributes with sound, thank god for Billy
Ryan Jacobs
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''The Other One", the Bob Wier movie (Netflix) is a more succint telling of the story..I'm not a fan, but I put in the whole 4 hours.( of the Amazon flick).I dig rock-docs THAT much..Franken's appearance is an unabashed branding move...Expect to see him EVERYWHERE, he's got his eyes on the prize, the White House..What fascinated me, was the last chapter..How the individual AND collective psyches of the fans PROJECTED onto the idea of the band what they WANTED it to be..The actual musicality was sub-par, mostly, (the Prog boys were MILES above them), but who cared? It was the IDEA of the Grateful Dead...It was about a lifestyle, and the music was more of a background noise...Ditto on the "Parrot-head" experience..
The SPIRIT lives on , at music festivals and jam-band concerts..Work your straight- laced job, and escape on the weekend...Be a hippy, or a beach bum, for a day...Hell yeah!
James Spencer
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Bob, I am halfway through the Dead movie on Amazon, and I agree with a lot of what you say, Of course the movie is going to end up being a reflection of each person's relationship with that band. If you were a casual listener, never went to a live show, you will probably not watch it. And if you are deep into their history and have read all the books and back story other places, you will probably not find it satisfying.
I was very into the Dead when I was in college ('69-'73), even followed the band around the East Coast a little to catch different shows in New York and New England. Did acid at many of them. I was "there".
As Jerry delved into heroin and the shows got sluggish and repetitive I gave up on them. I marveled at how out of tune so many of the live recordings that were released sounded (both vocals and instruments).
I watched at a distance through the '80s and '90s, amused how the audience continued to grow with no support from the music business or society in general.
For me, the movie is a great capsule of the Grateful Dead story. The footage in the first episode of the original acid tests, (which I understand they got from the Ken Kesey estate) the early concerts, the alternative shots from photo sessions... all great.
The story is one of a born leader who refuses to lead. Garcia embraced the idea (like Krishnamurti) that there is no God outside oneself, that the leader is within you. But he would not lead, and by not leading he became more of a de facto leader for all those people out there who feel they want freedom of expression, the people who believe there is more to life than birth - work - death.
Kind of like "Anarchists Unite!"
I for one am so glad they put this film together, so I could revisit the Dead that I remember, and be able to see that there really was something amazing there, with or without the LSD.
Jerry Horn
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To say this movie is a "miss" would be an understatement.
The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead? What exactly was the untold story? Seems like half the movie is spent rehashing the Acid Tests, Europe '72, Altamont and the Wall of Sound. These have all been previously told in better and greater detail.
Jerry deserves his own full blown documentary but it's disservice to the other band members to be relegated to minor roles. The Grateful Dead were a band. The film is void of the great music and tours and instead leans on somewhat lazy stereotypes and cultural phenomenon.
There are hundreds of artists and personalities that would have supplied notable commentary about the GD. Where were they?
And it ends with a series of Barbara Meier interviews that belong in a teary-eyed Barbara Walters special. Bizarre.
Jim Pothier/Southport CT
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You are right, we all have our own story, but it is fun to listen to others.
Also no mention of Mickey's dad or Debra Kuntz.
I'd say better than 70% unseen footage and that's good enough for me.
Thanks for review,,,
O'Dail Lawson
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The only thing that killed Jerry was his habits. Plain and simple. Unless you know them you can never explain them.
Dennis Rubenstein
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After reading this, I'm not sure I'll invest the time in the film, never having been that much of a Dead head anyway. But your comments about Kurt Cobain chilled me. We can never really know what it was like for Kurt, or for any of these musicians, but I can't help but agree with your theory. I think it's one of the reasons i left the business when I did. I was lucky to have been at Geffen/DGC for Nirvana, it was definitely the highlight of my twenty years in the business. Kurt was the absolute real deal, his ideas for visuals, which was my department, were unlike any artist I'd known. He understood what he was trying to express and understood that on every possible level. The business of it all just wore him out. How could it not? How could it not have worn any sensitive person out? It's inhumane. These weren't shoes we were selling, they were people. They had souls, lives, feelings and, for some, the glad handing, the endless parade day in and day out of selling themselves was so far from what drove them to make music in the first place. I can remember standing up in meetings and saying that to promo and sales people who ragged on artists who didn't want to do one more radio station visit or one more convention. It was just too damn hard.
For me, once I had a kid, I just couldn't put the two worlds together anymore. And sometimes I miss it a lot. But what I don't miss is seeing those artist's faces who just couldn't put the two worlds together either.
Best,
Robin Sloane Seibert
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It's a bore. Compare it to Bogdanovich's "Runnin' Down A Dream" or the Geffen piece on American Masters or the recent doc on Muscle Shoals or or or or or or and it really comes up short. Maybe like one of their shows you need to be on drugs to think it's good.
Tag Gross
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Jerry loved scuba diving? There's gotta be a water pipe joke in there somewhere.
Wallace Sanders
NW Arkansas
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"The definitive story of the Grateful Dead has yet to be told." Yes. But like a transcendent Grateful Dead show, this film is excellent for what's not there, what is left out, the notes not played. "Long Strange Trip" is like a unique setlist with songs played in surprising ways, exactly what GD fans love: Unexpected, a bit weird, but with much that is familiar. Many GD fans beleive that Barton Hall, Cornell University, 5/5/77 is the best of the some 3,000 shows the band performed. The soundboard recording was just released by WMG as a $30 CD release (with the May 1977 run of shows at $140) and Dead fans are thrilled. Forty year old mixing board tapes generating millions in revenue! Is that Barton Hall show the best? Who knows. It's all a matter of opinion. There's just 20 songs of the thousands the band has performed. But just like this film, it's a few hours of enjoyment from a band that's still popular 52 years after its founding.
David Meerman Scott
Co-author, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead
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I've been a Deadhead since 1977, when I first saw them at the Palladium in NYC. I left the US in 1984, so I missed out on all the later years, and I see them through rose-tinted glasses of the past, and through the many excellent soundboard tapes, CDs, and downloads I collected over the years, and, more recently, through their many official releases.
I've read lots of books about the Dead, and I was disappointed by the "film." I don't think it told much of a story for Deadheads, and I don't think anyone who doesn't know the Dead would get much out of it, since it was only vaguely chronological, and didn't give much of a feeling of the times after the 60s. There was far too much attention to anecdotes - notably Sam Cutler - and not enough to the actual band members, who certainly had much more to say. I don't know what the director was trying to do, but I don't feel that it expressed the essence of the band at all.
Best,
Kirk McElhearn
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What is the matter? Because everyone who has seen this deadheads and not love it…you have to take the opposing viewpoint?
There HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER DOCUMENTARY ABOUT A GREATER AMERICAN ROCK N ROLL BAND…
if you DARE make the case, we challenge you to come on out podcast and do so…if not, then please shut up and thank Amir Bar-Lev for fighting through a decade of battles to get this done.
Has anyone ever attempted such a feat to tell the tale of a band that has transcended 50 years?
Who the fuck are you to say 'until it destroyed them"?
Destroyed who exactly?
you are so petty and whining about what was left out of the 4 hours… I guess you could do better.
Respect the artist and his vision.
This was as much of a Dead show, as they occurred…for those in the know…
pferioli
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As always, interesting take. Not sure I completely agree with every part. But as to be expected, you raise some very strong points. As a young person, and a dead lover, I think the film definitely has its appeal. The people of my generation are chasing everything the dead were and you could argue that phish picked up literally where jerry left off. They're machine is so similar in many ways. As you state, there are endless stories to be told. But we all want to hear them. It's the era of nostalgia and this film is nostalgic and sad and a definitely shows the downward spiral. I've read Kreutzmanns book, and you are right, there was a lot of drama. The stories of Donna and Keith's fights, one of which ends in Donna attempting to hit Keith with a car. Later, Jerry's girlfriends commanding him and draining him like the ticks they were. There is so much to be said. These days, everything that comes out can be made better. Your point could be taken with so much of the content of today because there is always someone that can do it better. But these were the guys who had the wherewithal to do it and it's enjoyable. No one wants to hear the negative when we all know how it's gonna end. We're watching because we want to celebrate to legacy and try and capture the essence of Jerry. They were probably just having fun, and that is what Jerry would have wanted this movie to be anyway.
Leonard Gilbert
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I went to one of the debut screenings at The Castro Theater in San Francisco a little while back. Walked out during the intermission. This film didn't touch on anything in my opinion. I've grown up as a Phish dude but with a heavy respect and sense of fandom for The Grateful Dead. This movie just missed the mark in my opinion. It's a shame too. So much potential, but weak delivery. Hope the Phish documentary that's made 20 years from now takes notes from this one.
Michael Johnston
_______________________________________
My biggest disappointment was when they poke at perhaps getting some current rapport from lyricist Robert Hunter, then leave us totally empty-handed.
Bob Weir and his wife are even documented in conversation supposedly driving to Hunter's house, teasing us as if we're going to get some insights from the brilliant yet reclusive lyricist, who is very much a band member of Grateful Dead.
Sadly, nothing materializes from the hopeful notion of his inclusion in the doc, rather we're supplemented with some outside stock footage of a tour videographer capturing some offhand remark. Wish they wouldn't have teased it.
Anyways, of course there's lots skipped over, stuff that might have painted a portrait of the band's classic repertoire and artistry rather than mostly focused the story of their tour, the drugs, and Dead Family.
And while Garcia was bandleader, his cooperative nature made him a collaborator first. Indeed he is an icon, but defacto leader.
Kindest,
Dylan Muhlberg
A Deadhead
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Great analysis of this movie...I watch all of these music docs, even for bands and artists that I am not a fan of. I have never been a Grateful Dead fan, nor have I been moved by their music. This film made me feel an appreciation for Jerry Garcia as a person and an artist, as well as a real distaste for the band that seems to have been his destroyer. The glorification of the drug culture was disturbing...especially when by the end everyone involved hypocritically denounces Garcia for his drug use. The fact that this band has trotted out John Mayer to tour again....wow Chris Robinson was right on about this issue during his Stern interview. I do wish that these megastars that bring such joy to people would get some joy of their own.
Daryl Williams
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It wasn't focused on the music enough!
Adam Bernstein
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As a long time Deadhead, my problem with the doc was that in 4 hours they spent no time at all talking about the music...We all know that notwithstanding the unitiated's belief that the music was beside the point, the songs were everything. The scene developed because of this unique, incredible music.
Thanks for all the good reading!
Chuck Siegel, Esq.
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I wasn't disappointed.I cried.
owen
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There's enough here to satisfy this 'head
Derek Petrillo
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My sister is 58 and has been a Deadhead since high school. Still goes to the Dead and Company shows. She loved the movie, and said she learned a lot about them, even after all this time.
Perry Resnick
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Ken Burns needs to do one of his 12 hour documentaries on the Dead to set the record straight and capture everything that revolved around the Dead universe from 1965 - 2015.
I saw a one hour special on PBS last week about his upcoming Vietnam War documentary series and it looks really good and in very in depth.
Kent Black
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