Sympathy for the Devil

Rating:
Summary: Inspired Genius
Review: A profound visual masterpiece describing the creative process like no other. Sure it avoids typical camera angles, numerous cuts, and trite superfluous information you'd see in other films about musicians. Feel lucky to be invited to experience a band in the midst of the creative process, a song from its most infant stage elevated and fine tuned in a grand crescendo. Jean Luc Godard was a film genius, artist, and cultural sponge. Who better to describe fleeting inspiration, on film and documented forever, for us all to see.

Rating:
Summary: Marx 'n' Roll
Review: A rarely screened late 60's curio, "Sympathy For The Devil" looms larger as a legend in the minds of those who have namechecked it over the years than as a bonifide "classic". While it's great to have it available on DVD, 35 years passing have not been kind to the film's scattershot approach. Director Jean-Luc Goddard is not exactly famous for linear narrative, so it's not like I was expecting "ABBA: The Movie", but I found this film rough going all the same. The premise: Goddard was given permission to film the Stones working in the studio on thier classic "Sympathy For The Devil". He took this footage and intercut it with Black Panthers spouting political rhetoric and conducting "guerilla theater" vignettes about the "Revolution". While I think we "get" the analogy between the seeds of creativity (the Stones methodically building the song in the studio) and the seeds of Revolution (being sown in the streets), the repetitive nature of the dated rhetoric wears out its welcome quickly. This does leave one pondering as to whom, exactly, the film is for. Music fans will probably find the interruptions annoying; history buffs studying 60's politics will likely find the Stones superfluous. Personally, I found the beautifully shot Stones footage enough to warrant hanging on to my copy. If you're looking for a classic 60's MUSIC film with the Stones, check out "Gimme Shelter" instead. If you're looking for a time capsule of 60's POLITICS, try "Medium Cool" or "Putney Swope". Unfortunately, while "Sympathy" contains a good amount of both,it never successfully connects with either music OR politics.

Rating:
Summary: Marx 'n' Roll
Review: A rarely screened late 60's curio, "Sympathy For The Devil" looms larger as a legend in the minds of those who have namechecked it over the years than as a bonifide "classic". While it's great to have it available on DVD, 35 years passing have not been kind to the film's scattershot approach. Director Jean-Luc Goddard is not exactly famous for linear narrative, so it's not like I was expecting "ABBA: The Movie", but I found this film rough going all the same. The premise: Goddard was given permission to film the Stones working in the studio on thier classic "Sympathy For The Devil". He took this footage and intercut it with Black Panthers spouting political rhetoric and conducting "guerilla theater" vignettes about the "Revolution". While I think we "get" the analogy between the seeds of creativity (the Stones methodically building the song in the studio) and the seeds of Revolution (being sown in the streets), the repetitive nature of the dated rhetoric wears out its welcome quickly. This does leave one pondering as to whom, exactly, the film is for. Music fans will probably find the interruptions annoying; history buffs studying 60's politics will likely find the Stones superfluous. Personally, I found the beautifully shot Stones footage enough to warrant hanging on to my copy. If you're looking for a classic 60's MUSIC film with the Stones, check out "Gimme Shelter" instead. If you're looking for a time capsule of 60's POLITICS, try "Medium Cool" or "Putney Swope". Unfortunately, while "Sympathy" contains a good amount of both,it never successfully connects with either music OR politics.

Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment!
Review: I am a huge fan of the late 60s and early 70s era Stones. I bought this DVD without knowing anything about the French director Jean-Luc Godard. The so called "pop politiacal cartoons" that the review on the back cover refers to as sheer genius, are moronic and actually painful to watch. These skits are all about socialism, black power, and revolution. Oh boy! The high minded symbolism of this movie just looks ridiculous to me. The skits in this movie are so un-professional that they appear to be made by Junior High School kids! And that is a slight to the kids! As far as the Stones rehersals, they are interesting, but slow. They develop only the one song. As great as that song is (one of my all time favorite Stones tunes) it's just not something to watch over and over again. Especially if you have to endure the rest of this horrible movie.

Rating:
Summary: Sympathy for the viewer?
Review: I have to admit, that both Gimme Shelter and the Rolling Stones Bridges to Babylon Tour Live in Concert '97-'98 DVD rate high for me. These two are classics that give us great performances by the Rolling Stones. Easy to follow, entertaining; and in the case of Gimme Shelter, though provoking.
What happened here? I originally bought the VHS version back in 1994 during the Stones hype of Voodoo Lounge. I do not have the DVD version. I do not want it. This is perhaps one of the worst films out there.
Don't get me wrong. I love the Stones footage of rehearsing the song. I can even see that the director may have been trying an avant garde film (or avant garde a clue, as the late George Harrison once remarked). Just because this is the Stones or "avant garde", does not make it any better.
Disjointed scenes of interviewing one woman about love, the black revolutionaries scene, and other hodgepodge of stuff make this unwatchable. C'mon. Give me a break. If I am watching Stones I want performance, interviews, or insight from the band themselves. I would have given this movie 1/2 a star(if I could have on Amazon) for at least seeing the Stones in part of it. I always like to give the benefit of the doubt to any artist that I like. In this case, avoid this "movie" at all costs.

Rating:
Summary: Wow...amazing how all these "reviewers" missed the point
Review: I personally love The Stones and I also think that Godard is one of a handful of great directors. Godard has always been somewhat of a revolutionary, artistically and politcally.
Everybody who sees a Godard film walks away with something different. His films are complicated and not linear or straightforward.
I'm not going to get into the details because that would take too long. But, what I saw, was a sharp, biting social and political commentary of a film that was wrapped around one of the greatest songs (a song that had everything to do with what Godard was trying to get at) of all time. The song is the film and the film is the song. The song provided the film with an unusually emotionally charged atmosphere for Godard. One that, for the most part, he avoids in most of his work. This resulted, in my opinion, as one of his most watchable and entertaining works.
...and yes, the Stones developing their art, taken on its own, was ALSO quite fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: Ah, yes, the Stones...
Review: I was very disappointed, not only because of the hype and "mystic" surrounding this film and it's director, but also because it gives us a very clear view of how absolutely marginal the talent of the Stones as a band was/is. Save your money, or watch it at your friend's house - you'll only need to see it once, if you can sit through it at all...

Rating:
Summary: Be Prepared To Use The Remote
Review: I'm a really big Stones fan. Im actually wearing a Stones shirt as I write this. I've glanced at this on and on, until a few nights ago I was given a Gift Card and decided to buy it.

Well I started watching it and the whole process of developing this great classic song was awesome. But the Director's crap with the incoherent babbling of some man, weird scenes with a bunch of Black Panthers was completely pointless in my opinion. I had to skip these segments quite a bit to get to the hidden jems in this movie.

Again, I loved seeing the band develope the song, it was phenomenal to get that Insider's perspective, but the rest was crap. I was expecting something similar to The Who's Kids Are Alright, where they show scenes of them in the recording studio, with unadulterated footage, but Sympathy was something much different. This is worth renting to see the band, but I wouldn't suggest owning it.


Rating:
Summary: LOVE the stones, but not so crazy bout the rest...
Review: Judging a DVD by its cover and title, you'd think that this film is a documentary following the construction of one of the Rolling Stones most famous songs "Sympathy for the Devil" (hence the title). However, alternating with footage from the stones recording this song in the studio, is some skits of some sort, something i wasn't so interested in seeing, because i mainly bought the dvd to see the stones and only the stones... i didn't have the patience to sit through some random skits. I'm sure these skits did have a deeper meaning, pose some importance, but for rolling stones fans, all we care about is the rock and roll, and the five (well, now four) guys behind it. I would've originally given this a 2 star, but the footage of the stones in the studio is so great, that it earned a star in itself. So, if you are one of these, i would say save your money for the Four Flicks dvd (just ordered, can't wait, but if you know the director and like his style, then yes, this would probably be a fit purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Sympathy for the New Wave
Review: Just to clarify: it's Godard, not Goddard. I know how snotty it sounds to bring that up, but it's gotta be pointed out.
To get to the point, I bought my copy of Sympathy For the Devil cheap at a Futureshop display that also had a number of reissue CD's and that new 4 DVD set that's causing so much controversy. I actually laughed when I saw it there, because really, the film has little to do with the Stones and more to do with Godard's ideology. Hardcore fans will like the in studio footage of bored and/or doped up Stones wandering around figuring out how to arrange the number, but most of the rest of the film will seem pretentious and puzzling. Hell, Godard IS pretentious at times (and I'm a fan), but never less then interesting. It's weird as hell, but infinitely better then the 4 DVD set where they hit the stage like bobbing marionettes, recycling It's Only Rock n Roll etc for the umpteenth time. Particularly fun are the scenes of black revolutionaries hanging around wrecked cars, spitting out staccato rhetoric and throwing around guns. Fun!