Metrograph

Zwerin and the Maysles’ record of the Rolling Stones’ infamous Altamont Speedway show in December 1969 is so much more than a concert film—though it’s a brilliant success as a concert film, with strutting, swaggering Mick and the boys strutting across the stage to “Brown Sugar,” “Street Fighting Man,” and many more. It is also, however, a time capsule of a culture on the edge, at the tail end of a tumultuous, violent decade, a record of a celebration that turns to tragedy, and a real-life tragedy that turns into an image, a few frames of celluloid watched and rewound on a flatbed editor. To Zwerin goes credit for the film’s unique—and deftly handled—“flashback” structure, the result of her inviting the band into her London editing suite to review footage, having them filmed on their visits, and interpolating this material into the finished feature.