--- title: "Gimme Shelter: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/gimme-shelter/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/gimme-shelter" critics_score: 64 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Gimme Shelter (1970): what the critics said Critics' score 64 from 8 reviews: 5 positive, 1 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics come down in favour of Gimme Shelter, though not by a wide margin. The praise gathers around the Maysles brothers and Zwerin’s construction: the film moves from tour footage towards the Altamont concert with a dread several reviewers find hard to shake, and it does so without commentary or talking heads. Jagger’s performances are singled out again and again, mesmerising on stage and withdrawn off it, and more than one critic ranks the film among the best rock documentaries made. The reservations are about ethics rather than craft. Pauline Kael in The New Yorker argues the film shapes events to let the Stones and the filmmakers off the hook while trading on the violence, and Time Out faults it for staring at Jagger and never asking what the musicians owed the crowd. The New York Times finds it skilfully shot and edited but bleak to the point of being unwatchable. The spread is wide, from outright dismissal to landmark. ## Film Comment Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 May 2015. The critic hails Gimme Shelter as the Maysles brothers and Zwerin's greatest film, centering on the Rolling Stones' catastrophic 1969 Altamont concert. It praises the film's clear construction, the way it forces the Stones to confront their image, and its status as a landmark of nonfiction cinema. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/albert-maysles/) ## The Guardian Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 6 September 2009. The critic highlights how the restored documentary captures the dread surrounding the Altamont concert and the Rolling Stones' music-making, while underscoring the limits of the era's peace-and-love ideals. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/sep/06/gimme-shelter-rolling-stones-dvd) ## Variety — Variety Staff Rating **. 31 December 1969. The film offers a riveting close-up of the Stones in performance, with Jagger emerging offstage as withdrawn and onstage as mesmerizing and petulant. It builds to the violent Altamont finale captured in the documentary. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1969/film/reviews/gimme-shelter-1200422222/) ## The New Yorker — Pauline Kael Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 12 December 1970. The review questions the ethics and structure of the cinéma-vérité approach, noting how the film shapes events to whitewash the Stones and filmmakers while exploiting the Altamont violence and Jagger's performances. It highlights the disturbing pathos and the complications of filming events staged for the camera. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/12/19/beyond-pirandello) ## Time Out — GA Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 3 May 2011. The critic finds the film a bummer, criticizing its near-constant focus on Mick Jagger and its failure to probe the musicians' responsibility for the Altamont murder. It nonetheless serves as a reminder that the 1960s were not solely about peace and love. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/gimme-shelter) ## The New York Times Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 13 December 1970. The film is described as one of the most unpleasant, bleak, and depressing movies encountered, despite skilled photography and editing of the Altamont events and Stones tour. It questions the profit motives and quasi-factual presentation of the disaster. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/13/archives/making-murder-pay-gimme-shelter.html) ## NME — Jeremy Allen Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 30 April 2013. The post calls Gimme Shelter one of the greatest rock documentaries ever made for capturing the Stones' Altamont concert and the murder that occurred there without commentary or talking heads. It contrasts its raw, committed approach with more polished later music docs. [Read the review](https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/leave-music-documentaries-to-the-amateurs-23611) ## The Skinny — Lewis Porteous Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 17 February 2015. Festival review. The piece describes Gimme Shelter as a documentary heavy on concert footage of the Rolling Stones leading to the disastrous Altamont concert. It highlights how the event's violence and logistical failures mark the end of the 1960s counterculture dream. [Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/cineskinny/stop-making-sense-talking-heads-top-five-concert-movies) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/gimme-shelter.md