The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1996)

I love this movie so much

Excellent but underrated film

Am I Missing Something?

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Great artists, great songs, great performances.A Rolling Stones-inspired and headlining concert from 1968. Staged inside a circus tent, it has some superb acts: Jethro Tull, The Who, Taj Mahal, The Dirty Mac (a temporary supergroup consisting of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell) and, of course, the Rolling Stones. All of these deliver in spades.Marianne Faithful is also there and is not too bad.On the downside, unfortunately, John Lennon lets Yoko Ono sing... Though that's using the term "sing" in it's broadest definition...While the Stones' performance is great, I would have preferred a more even spread, song-wise, between the artists. While the Stones get 6 or 7 songs on the movie, all the others only get one. A few more tracks from The Who and Jethro Tull would have been awesome.

Although I'd seen parts of this film before, I'd never seen "RnRC" in its entirety until the other day. I found it to be an enjoyable film, although I can understand why the Stones decided not to release it back in the day - it's good but not great, and the Stones' performance leaves a lot to be desired in the excitement department.As the title informs us, this is indeed a "rock and roll circus", featuring several different bands jamming under the big top, and a variety of circus performers doing their thing in between the bands. Honestly, it sounds like an interesting concept but in reality it's more of a stupid gimmick. The best thing about this film are the performances, but sadly only some of them are fully up-to-snuff.Jethro Tull pull off a fairly decent, mostly-mimed performance - apparently only the vocals/flute were performed live. It's a pretty good performance though nothing more.The Who turn in a thrilling performance of "A Quick One" which is easily the musical highlight of the film. According to rumor, the Who's superior performance is the main reason the film wasn't released at the time. It's easy to see why - the Who were tight from being constantly on the road, whereas the Stones hadn't toured in over a year.Taj Mahal's performance is decent blues rock/soul, but nothing to get too excited about. His performance is mainly notable for featuring a young Jesse Ed Davis on guitar.Marianne Faithful sings a nice song which is ruined by her wretched vocals. She looks pretty cute though. I guess it pays to be Mick's girlfriend, because her musical ability is negligible.Next up is the Dirty Mac, a "supergroup" featuring John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell and Keith Richards on bass. One would think this would be a good combination but one would be wrong. Richards sounds like what he is - a guitar player playing bass, and Lennon's guitar is not even close to being in tune with Clapton (or anyone else for that matter). Despite this they manage to turn in a fairly decent reading of "Yer Blues" which makes me wonder how history would be different if the Beatles actually played live after '66...They also play another song with Yoko on vocals which really isn't worth mentioning. What's with Lennon and Jagger and their tuneless, talentless girlfriends? Interspersed between a couple of the numbers is some footage of Jagger and Lennon goofing around which is probably the most revealing and interesting part of this whole spectacle...Closing out the show are the Stones, who manage to turn in a fairly lacklustre performance. After the likes of the Who in particular, the Stones somehow sound very spare and empty, not to mention kind of boring. It's not a terrible performance by any means, just a so-so one which is easily overshadowed by the other acts on the bill. It is nice to hear the material from "Beggar's Banquet" played live though. The highlight for me is the mostly-mimed performance of "Salt of the Earth", which has always been one of my favourites.

On 11 December 1968, The Rolling Stones presented two concerts on a stage of a circus, with the presence of great bands. About twenty-eight years later, the show was released on VHS and CD in USA, and I bought both of them. On January 2003, this concert was finally released in Brazil on DVD. It was a time-travel to a magnificent concert and today I have seen it again. The opening, with Jethro Tull playing one of their best songs, 'Song for Jeffrey', from the successful album 'Living in the Past', is amazing. A very simple band, composed by Glen Cornic (Bass, Harmonica), Mick Abrahams (Guitar), Clive Bunker (magnificently playing a very small drums for the standards of the present days) and highlighting Ian Anderson in the lead vocal and flute in a wonderful performance. The Who (Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon and John Entwhistle), Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithful, Dirty Mac (John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell) and The Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts) are also excellent. The unique weak part of the whole concert is Yoko Ono screaming like a jay in 'Whole Lotta Yoko'. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): 'Rock and Roll Circus'

... Mick Jagger says after finshing a set as Keith walks across the stage while Mick graciously accepts the warm applause of the audience. Get a feel for the times as these rock'n'roll icons huddled under a circus tent for a great performance. Being able to see Mick Jagger really get into his performance, interact with the crowd, and even direct his singing to the camera is great and makes this production very unique... not like Gimme Shelter with Hells Angles. No, this is a controled stage performace and everyone is having a great time. If you look around you can even see the camera men lugging around their heavy equipment catching different angles and views of the performers and the crowd. This is a definate must have for fans of real rock n roll music.