Celebration at Big Sur

This movie to me was an eye opener. It bares all. Sure Steve Stills was an established name in music by this time, but he is human too. The camera kept on rolling showed it. There are things in my life caught on camera I wish never happened too.

Personally, I love was the magical white guitar Still was playing. It had this vague image of a bird on the pick guard. The sound it was making was so different! The musics: What a gathering of folk rockers. It showed what they did off stage too. Crosby group chanting in a swimming pool. Stills guitar playing by a campfire, and stars going through a cafeteria line.

This movie is a glimpse in the lives of musicians in the brief time before the mass produced concerts of today. It catches the earthy feel of that time. Music was the event, not showmanship. Folkie, rockers, and gospel singers all playing separately and together. I recommend it to any music lover.

Rich, NW Louisiana

This is the film to see if you want to open a time capsule of the sixties in California. Although it has been knocked on film quality, it doesn't matter because the viewer finds themselves transported to an event overflowing with love and beauty. Yes, arguments and fisticuffs were a minor distraction, but the wish for a better life generated ed by the crowd created a bubble of light that repelled negativity like a force-field. The sense of being there is unparalleled. The film can be appreciated even more today witness the reactions to a recent screening at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. This is one of a kind in documenting the positive aspects of the counter-culture movement.

HI! I am from the UK and I have read the other reviews posted about this film and I want to add my piece to some of the comments already posted here.

I agree that Celebration at Big Sur is probably not the definitive music documentary of this era, nonetheless it is a fascinating view into this period with some great musical performances, and in a much more intimate setting than the big festivals as conveyed in Woodstock and Monterey Pop. I wish this film was shown more often late night in UK as it apparently is in US ? I caught it only once on TV in the UK as part of a series about the era on TV over here way back in the 80's. I managed to capture it on VHS at the time along with Monterey Pop and Woodstock and have viewed it many times since,but the VHS quality was not so good and I don't have a VCR or the tape anymore.

For people who didn't grow up in this period I think this a great watch if you want to get a feeling for that period. I was quite young when all this great music was happening, so for me it was very much an education to see this film and get a feel for the period it was composed in. I would love for someone to master this to DVD so it was available more widely and with better quality, because I found it captivating to see this time capsule of the sixties.

In my opinion this film has a different feel to the era than the larger scale offerings of Woodstock and Monterey Pop and deserves its place on the DVD racks alongside them.I for one would love to see it there.

Kev, London UK

This concert film -- a documentary of the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival -- pales in comparison to "Woodstock" production-wise, but nonetheless features powerful footage of a number of the '60s best, incl. Joan Baez ("Song for David", "Sweet Sir Galahad"), Joni Mitchell ("Woodstock") and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young" ("4 + 20", "Judy Blue Eyes"). Never released on video and sometimes hard to find (it's frequently shown on latenight TV) but well worth the effort.

I caught this film late night many years ago. I've seen it a couple times since. Their is more than one edit I assume because the hot tub scene was cut in one version I saw. The musical performances vary from spotty to captivating. Jonathon Sebastion's description of his "trip" to the Dead ranch is funny, revealing, and at points a bit incoherent. Stills throws a hissy fit that exposes his more self-indulgent persona, and Joni Mitchell's performance of her at-the-time brand new tune Woodstock (more famous in the CSNY version) makes the whole film worth a watch. My only question is where's the DVD of this unique psychedelic snapshot?