Sympathy for the Devil

Rating:
Summary: Jean-Luc Goddard, what were you thinking!
Review: Luckily I was familiar with Goddard's other "films" before seeing this effort so I knew not to expect much in the way of a movie. But as a Stones fan it's absolutely priceless. Clear color footage of the original Stones which of course includes Brian. Brian contrary to everything I'd read about him at this stage looks completely alert, involved and digging it. He's interacting with the guys and looks at ease. If you believe all you read you'd expect to see a stoned out zombie at this stage, but it is not the case. This for me was a eye opener. In fact all the Stones look like their getting along, (Keith ain't stoned either) contrary to what we read. What Goddard needs to do is "edit out" his movie completely and add all of his extra Stone footage! Filled with Goddard's usual guilt-ridden
hate USA/White people nonsense, he has a field day letting Blacks machine gun kidnapped white girls. Just fast forward from Godard's "movie" parts and it'll be allright. As a document of the original Stones this is a must have despite the insanity of Jean-Luc Goddard.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money & time
Review: My rating is a big fat zreo. The Stones fiddle around with the song off and on but never really get it going. Brian Jones is all
but invisable. The social commentary that is interspersed throughout was probably cool at some point in time but I've seen it all come and go. My remote was working, and I used it a lot.
I'm still looking for something really good by the Stones on DVD, VHS whatever and have yet to find it. I saw them in 1971 and they were decent but didn't really leave that much of an impression as a live band.

Rating:
Summary: this is phenomenal stuff
Review: one plus one is phenomenal stuff at least for one reason, which is that one of the 'ones' mentioned in the title refers to the Rolling Stones' recording of Sympathy for the Devil.
The experience is amazing. The viewer is taken into to the studio where Keith Richards literally composes the song, plays guitar, plays the bass, sings in the chorus and directs fellow backing vocalists (Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Marianne Faithfull). It is literally amazing to see how involved Keith was and how much he was leading the band.
But Keith's leadership is only half of the story. One plus one also tracks how Mick Jagger come up with the lyrics that have made this song so famous. The movie also makes it quite clear how alienated (and marginalized) was Brian Jones from the rest of the band.
The movie develops from the first chords (that Mick patiently shows to Brian Jones), to the session in which percussion where added, to those in which the piano was added, to those in which Keith plays bass, to those in which Keith improvizes few notes that would later become Sympathy-for-the-Devil-vintage-guitar-solo.
It's a great historical document and the music is quite excellent. One plus one is definitely worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Awful!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Poorly edited scenes of the band, with interjections of absurd sociological clips, accompanied with poorly recorded readings of pulp fiction.

Rating:
Summary: 85% unwatchable
Review: The footage of the Stones' working sessions is great. I loved watching and listening to the metamorphosis of that great song. But Jean-Luc Godard's interspersed, incoherent "cultural revolution" playlets with the little pinball Love Grrl and the Black Panthers...I can't describe how utterly awful it is. There's something wrong with the fast-forward button on our dvd player remote, so I went to the tv and pressed the fast forward on the player to get through these parts after the first two bits. Needless to say, I ended up sitting in front of the player, a foot from the TV, so I wouldn't have to see any more of these parts. Won't somebody please edit this movie down to a great 15 minutes of Stones in session, please. I'd add a couple of stars for that.

Rating:
Summary: 85% unwatchable
Review: The footage of the Stones' working sessions is great. I loved watching and listening to the metamorphosis of that great song. But Jean-Luc Godard's interspersed, incoherent "cultural revolution" playlets with the little pinball Love Grrl and the Black Panthers...I can't describe how utterly awful it is. There's something wrong with the fast-forward button on our dvd player remote, so I went to the tv and pressed the fast forward on the player to get through these parts after the first two bits. Needless to say, I ended up sitting in front of the player, a foot from the TV, so I wouldn't have to see any more of these parts. Won't somebody please edit this movie down to a great 15 minutes of Stones in session, please. I'd add a couple of stars for that.

Rating:
Summary: "Well, let's just go roll some bandages for the revolution!"
Review: Were we, the members of the "Woodstock Generation" really that STUPID, taking this "revolution" stuff literally? OK, were it not for the fact that Jean-Luc Goddard, the director of this thing, seemed hell-bent on inflicting footage of...I guess..."the upcoming revolution" or something, this would be fantastic. It's interesting to watch the Stones take their own sweet time, create the song. Initially, there's Mick, Keef, Brian (!), & Charlie doing a "well, we CERTAINLY don't have THIS together" version, with sideburned Nicky Hopkins trying to lay an organ part on what he hears. And, again, try to tune out the "revolutionary" segments, because the movie just keeps getting more and more interesting. There's Keef, swapping off with Bill, laying down a bass pattern; Brain finally getting so out of it that someone has to light his cigarette for him; both Keef and Mick are QUITE..."primed," you can almost smell the exotic tobacco in the studio. I have been told there there is a version of this movie available somewhere with the completed song, I haven't seen it. But I do enjoy watching Mick doing his "electric rooster" routine while laying down the vocal track, and right behind the sound-baffle, Keef and Anita (VERY much together), and a host of others are doing the OOH-OOH background vocals. Try to do the impossible and tune out the liberal gibberish. You'll be rewarded seeing the Stones create one of their very greatest songs. And let me know if you can get hold of the copy with the completed song.

Rating:
Summary: "Well, let's just go roll some bandages for the revolution!"
Review: Were we, the members of the "Woodstock Generation" really that STUPID, taking this "revolution" stuff literally? OK, were it not for the fact that Jean-Luc Goddard, the director of this thing, seemed hell-bent on inflicting footage of...I guess..."the upcoming revolution" or something, this would be fantastic. It's interesting to watch the Stones take their own sweet time, create the song. Initially, there's Mick, Keef, Brian (!), & Charlie doing a "well, we CERTAINLY don't have THIS together" version, with sideburned Nicky Hopkins trying to lay an organ part on what he hears. And, again, try to tune out the "revolutionary" segments, because the movie just keeps getting more and more interesting. There's Keef, swapping off with Bill, laying down a bass pattern; Brain finally getting so out of it that someone has to light his cigarette for him; both Keef and Mick are QUITE..."primed," you can almost smell the exotic tobacco in the studio. I have been told there there is a version of this movie available somewhere with the completed song, I haven't seen it. But I do enjoy watching Mick doing his "electric rooster" routine while laying down the vocal track, and right behind the sound-baffle, Keef and Anita (VERY much together), and a host of others are doing the OOH-OOH background vocals. Try to do the impossible and tune out the liberal gibberish. You'll be rewarded seeing the Stones create one of their very greatest songs. And let me know if you can get hold of the copy with the completed song.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected. Probably not what you expect either.
Review: What can I say? I was in Wal-Mart shopping for a last minute birthday present and this little oddity caught my eye. It aroused my curiosity, and the words of praise on the box made it seem so deep so artistic and Jean-Luc Godard wow I mean he is associated in my mind with highbrow film of the type which I usually dig so I bought it and called a few friends and said I had something that looked good and shouldn't we all congregate somewheres to enjoy this? Too bad this was the worst film ever made and there I was hyping it as the next Live at Pompeii or something. Well first the obligatory praise for the behind the scenes Stones footage that somehow seems to save the movie for most people. I love the Stones, and I admit it was interesting to watch what we have come to know as the song "Sympathy for the Devil" come together. But the buck stops here. Interspersed between the band footage are hodge-podge clips of what could be called "artistic political commentary", meaning in my book a sucession of disparate scenes connected by the thread of a Marxist narrative (as well as several having overt Marxist themes as well) with the intent of hopefully leaving the viewer with the ambiguous feeling that they have seen something that could have been artistic and the result of a grand vision unifying cinematic art with music and politics. But, judging from the other reviews left here, Godard missed his mark. Nobody was fooled by this one. With many other works of art I feel that if I have gained nothing from my interaction with it, then most of the blame lies with me. I was not being receptive enough, I was expecting something else and when I didn't get what I wanted I rejected the piece as a whole. I don't get that feeling with this. I don't think there is anything to get. It is not enjoyable. It is a waste of time. And this from a guy who likes Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected. Probably not what you expect either.
Review: What can I say? I was in Wal-Mart shopping for a last minute birthday present and this little oddity caught my eye. It aroused my curiosity, and the words of praise on the box made it seem so deep so artistic and Jean-Luc Godard wow I mean he is associated in my mind with highbrow film of the type which I usually dig so I bought it and called a few friends and said I had something that looked good and shouldn't we all congregate somewheres to enjoy this? Too bad this was the worst film ever made and there I was hyping it as the next Live at Pompeii or something. Well first the obligatory praise for the behind the scenes Stones footage that somehow seems to save the movie for most people. I love the Stones, and I admit it was interesting to watch what we have come to know as the song "Sympathy for the Devil" come together. But the buck stops here. Interspersed between the band footage are hodge-podge clips of what could be called "artistic political commentary", meaning in my book a sucession of disparate scenes connected by the thread of a Marxist narrative (as well as several having overt Marxist themes as well) with the intent of hopefully leaving the viewer with the ambiguous feeling that they have seen something that could have been artistic and the result of a grand vision unifying cinematic art with music and politics. But, judging from the other reviews left here, Godard missed his mark. Nobody was fooled by this one. With many other works of art I feel that if I have gained nothing from my interaction with it, then most of the blame lies with me. I was not being receptive enough, I was expecting something else and when I didn't get what I wanted I rejected the piece as a whole. I don't get that feeling with this. I don't think there is anything to get. It is not enjoyable. It is a waste of time. And this from a guy who likes Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music.