| The 10 Essential Rock and Roll Movies
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Al Weisel
CDNOW Senior Editor, Movies
The spirit and energy of rock and roll is not always easy
to capture on film. Most rock movies are only able to give us
a hint of the music's power. But sometimes even that hint is
enough. Watching a movie of such watershed events as the
Monterey Pop festival, Woodstock, or the Band's last concert
(in Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz) may not be the
same as having been there, but one is able to get enough of an
idea that their impact is still extraordinary.
Unfortunately, so far filmmakers have been even less
accomplished at portraying the rock business as a subject.
Some of the more successful of these films include the
hilarious mockumentary This
Is Spinal Tap, the musical Bye
Bye Birdie, and such comedies as That
Thing You Do, Grace
of My Heart and High
Fidelity. Perhaps the most penetrating look at the
music biz is Peter Watkins' extraordinary 1967 film
Privilege, which stars Manfred Mann's Paul Jones as a
rock star who becomes a messianic figure in a futuristic
totalitarian society.
Other rock stars have also made credible forays into
acting, notably Mick Jagger in Performance,
David Bowie in The
Man Who Fell to Earth, and Sting in Quadrophenia.
But many rock movies are merely showcases for the musical,
rather than the acting, talents of their stars. Perhaps the
greatest of these films are the Beatles' A Hard Day's
Night and Help, which influenced every rock movie
and video that came after them.
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| 1. Monterey Pop (1969) |
 Shot at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival during the Summer
of Love, D.A. Pennebaker's film captured a seminal moment in
rock history. Some of the star-making performances recorded
here include the Who, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Otis
Redding, all of whom were not as well known in the U.S. before
their shows here as they would be afterward. Joplin's "Ball
and Chain" and Hendrix's "Wild Thing" may be the best rock
performances ever caught on film.
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| 2. Don't Look Back (1967) |
 Although Bob Dylan is not nearly as petulant in this
film as is commonly believed, it's fascinating to watch him
take the piss out of the press and Donovan, who was laughingly
once known as the "New Dylan." We also see him in concert
performing such songs as "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right,"
"It's All Over Now Baby Blue," and "The Lonesome Death of
Hattie Carroll," at that pivotal moment just before he went
electric.
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| 3. The Last Waltz |
 This recording of the Band's last performance,
directed by Martin Scorsese, may be the most beautiful rock
and roll concert film ever made. But not only is every shot
perfectly framed and lit, the performances by the Band and a
few of their closest friends, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young,
Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, and
others, are all spectacular. Every performer is at his or her
peak in this bittersweet celebration of the end of an era made
on Thanksgiving Day 1976, the year before punk rock would
signal the beginning of a new epoch in the history of
rock.
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| 4. A Hard Day's Night
(1964) |
 The most successful rock group of all time also made
one of the best rock movies. Director Richard Lester, a
veteran of advertising, used a free-form style that let each
of the Beatles' personalities come through. The witty script
by Alun Owen (augmented by Beatle ad-libs) helped win over
sophisticates who had looked down on the group as just another
teenybopper fad. And every music video made today owes
something to this film's visual flair. Unfortunately, no rock
group since has made the transition from stage to screen as
effortlessly as the Beatles did in this film and its
follow-up, Help.
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| 5. Purple Rain (1984) |
 Although its forgettable plot steals every show
business movie cliché you can think of, what makes this movie
so successful are the pull-out-all-the-stops performances by
Prince, who manages to communicate the energy of his
performances on film as few rock musicians before or since
have been able to do. Featuring such Prince classics as "When
Doves Cry," "Let's Go Crazy," and "Darling
Nikki."
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| 6. Madonna: Truth or Dare
(1991) |
 Madonna bared it all in this film, which alternated
between black-and-white behind-the-scenes footage more
personal than any performer had put on screen before and color
footage of her Blonde Ambition tour that shows her at the
height of her popularity. Playing herself has so far been
Madonna's greatest onscreen performance.
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| 7. The Harder They Come
(1973) |
 This powerful film, which stars Jimmy Cliff as a
singer who grapples with the corrupt record industry and finds
himself on the wrong side of the law, introduced reggae to
world audiences and made a star out of Cliff, who sings such
classics as the title song and "You Can Get It If You Really
Want."
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| 8. Gimme Shelter (1970) |
 This Maysles brothers film about the Rolling Stones'
1969 American tour is best known for the notorious footage of
the tragic concert at Altamont when the Hell's Angels murdered
a concertgoer, which effectively ended the short-lived
Woodstock era. But it also contains footage of the band at its
best as well as its worst.
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| 9. Woodstock (1970) |
 Although the performances by such groups as Jefferson
Airplane and Crosby, Stills, and Nash are not always as good
as cracked up to be, the film captures a generation at a key
moment and includes Jimi Hendrix's memorable deconstruction of
"The Star-Spangled Banner" that more than makes up for the
lackluster moments. Its use of split-screen photography, which
seemed innovative at the time, hasn't worn quite as
well.
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| 10. Stop Making Sense
(1984) |
 Jonathan Demme's film of the Talking Heads over three
days of performances at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood
shows the band at its best. This visually stylish film proves
that a concert film doesn't have to be cinematically dull.
Among the funk-punk numbers included here are "Once in a
Lifetime," "Burning Down the House," and "Psycho Killer."
Note: The video version of this film is unavailable. The link
below is for the CD soundtrack from the movie.
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