Festival Express

I live in Winnipeg and unfortunately missed FESTIVAL EXPRESS when it rolled through back in 1970. I opted instead to go to Winnipeg's other huge ticket that summer - Manpop - which featured Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly and the Youngbloods as headliners. I've always remembered Festival Express as a golden opportunity missed - but being only sixteen years old with limited funds - I was forced to live with the consequences of a tough choice.

Seeing the film "Festival Express" isn't quite like being there in person, but it's the next best thing! For young folks who weren't even born in 1970, it's a chance to see Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Band, the Fly Burrito Bros, Buddy Guy, Ian & Sylvia, et al... in their prime and find out what the buzz was all about. Janis and Jerry Garcia are in particularly great voice. Janis gives a gut wrenchingly poignant performance, particularly during "Cry Baby". I'm not sure what brought the tears to my eyes, her greatness or the knowledge that she would leave us just a few short months after that performance (followed later by the tragic death's of the Dead's drummer "Pigpen" & guitarist/singer Jerry Garcia and the Band's piano player Richard Manuel & bassist Rick Danko)

The concert footage of Janis and the Dead alone justify the film's admission price. My biggest gripe was that there should have been far more concert footage included. However, a local newspaper writeup mentioned that much of the concert footage was non-usable (bad sound, out of focus cameras, sound/no pix, pix/no sound....). It was so bad apparently - the fact that anything remotely resembling a cohesive film was wrought from the mounds of botched footage was nothing short of minor miracle! Don't get me wrong - the behind the scenes footage of the band partying and jamming stand on their own merit. Jerry Garcia pops up jamming on stage and off with everyone from Ian & Sylvia and the Great Speckled Bird (on stage in Calgary) to the Band's Rick Danko (on the train along with Janis - quite schwacked - hilarious!) Shots of protesters bitching about "the pigs" and high admissions prices (Fourteen dollars - how outrageous!)are also good for a chuckle and help capture the flavour of the period.

"Festival Express'" split screen camera techniques, the documentary style narrative and band lineups are bound to invite comparisons to the movie "Woodstock." I believe the camera techniques and documentary style are intended to help recapture the time period and mood rather than to ripoff "Woodstock." Further, neither Janis', the Dead's nor the Band's Woodstock performances made it into the original "Woodstock" movie. The experience of trucking a load of monstrously talented - notoriously hard partying rock n'rollers across Canada in a train with a well stocked bar, guitar amps, and a drum kit while the cameras rolled is singularly unique in the annals of rock n'roll - so is this film! Check it out!!

I'm a little baffled by some of the comments here regarding the film making style or skill in this film. I watched the film to see Janis and the Grateful Dead and The Band -- happy, young, and exuberant, and that's exactly what I got. I even liked the footage of the promoter talking about the festival and the issues with the crowds.

ANYWAY... I recommend the DVD over the theatrical release, since everyone here seems to mention that they want to see more musical performances, and the DVD delivers. There are two DVD disks -- the movie disk and the extras disk. On the MOVIE disk, go to the menu and select "extras" and there are a dozen additional music performances from Janis, the Grateful Dead, Flying Burrito Brothers, and others. (I hear that the extras disk contains interviews with the director, but I haven't seen it). Enjoy!

There is nothing more to add to the other commentaries: all you want at this end of the almost perfect documentary is MORE MUSIC!! Indeed I could see the same technique used by Pennebaker, and the same groove as in "Woodstock", but this is the closest you'll ever get in these modern times to a recreation of the flower-power atmosphere!! Today we have no more Janis, no more Jerry, and the whole world just feels empty without them, now even more than before, thanks to this movie. JANIS just steals the show every time she appears in the film, but there are many other people with memorable lines and comments, so in the whole it's an amazing feast for the eyes and ears! GO AND SEE IT

I saw the film and it is great! It certainly offers a great trip back to the prolific age of the great rock festivals, and provides an interesting and candid insight into how the performers "lived and played" between concert appearances. I have also seen unreleased Festival Express footage of Alvin Lee & Ten Years After performing "Love Like A Man" and their epic version of "I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes". Why was none of this Ten Years After performance footage included in the theatrical release film or the upcoming DVD additional performance footage? Ten Years After were certainly at their peak during that appearance at the Canadian National Expo Center date of this tour. It's a shame that such classic Ten Years After performance material was omitted!!

I recommend this film not only because I am a fan of most of the people that gave performances, but the creator of the film captured footage of the performers that was exceptionally good. The "young" Grateful Dead gave a tighter performance than I had ever seen them perform live. "The Band" also surprised me. They performed very well and they too seemed tighter than when I saw them live 30-plus years ago. However, Janis stole the show. She was wonderful! You must see the movie just for her performances alone. What a trip! The in between shots of all the musicians riding on the train was fun and full of energy and a real bonus to the film (the concert footage was enough to bring me in to see the movie). If you are a fan of the 60's and you enjoy Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, you must see this film. The only time I felt disappointed was when the movie ended. I could easily have watched two or three more hours of concert footage.