AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

TxMike I found this documentary on DVD at my local library.I know all about the 1960s, I graduated from high school, I graduated from college, I completed my graduate studies, I got married, I started my career, I had my first child. She will be 49 later this year, 2018.But I never went to any music festivals. So finding this film on DVD was a joy. It has a good mix of on-stage performances and views of the mostly young crowd away from the stage. While I didn't know any of them I recognize all of them. That is how we looked and behaved in the late 1960s.Funny, when I was younger I avoided Janis Joplin, I just hated her singing style. But I saw a documentary on her, I became a fan of sorts. And here at roughly 25 minutes into the documentary she performs "Ball and Chain" which was a real show-stopper., showing her extremely wide range of talent. There is a memorable shot of Mama Cass Elliot in the crowd mouthing "WOW" when Janis' performance was over.Anyway, good film that brings back good memories.

druid333-2 ...And certainly before Altamont there was the Monterey International Pop Festival,held in 1967, with a cast of thousands (audience included). The talent included (depicted on film)Canned Heat,Big Brother & The Holding Company,Featuring Janis Joplin,The Who,Ravi Shankar,and yes...The Jimi Hendrix Experience (!) Also representing (but didn't make it to the final cut of the film),The Grateful Dead, The Quicksilver Messanger Service,etc. All of this,plus more was filmed by D.A.Pennebaker (Don't Look Back). We are also treated to shots of the festival being prepared the day before the festival (as there was in Woodstock),plus other footage of behind the scenes (concert producer John Phillips on the phone with Dionne Warwick's management about her supposed to be on the bill). But certainly,the musical performances are the real star attraction of the film. We get to see Janis Joplin belt out 'Ball & Chain'for an astonished crowd. Country Joe & The Fish play some real nice jam based instrumental music. The Who lash out 'My Generation' for the audience (with Pete Townsend trashing his guitar on stage),and Jimi Hendrix one-upping them by setting fire to his Stratocaster during a rendition of the Troggs 'Wild Thing' that visibly has members of the audience stunned,and Ravi Shankar & musicians play an inspired set of Indian classical music that gets the audience on their feet & applauding wildly. All of this (and more)make 'Monterey Pop' one of the original rock doc experiences a "must see". Not rated,but contains a few scenes of pot smoking & a few audience members getting their groove on with a psychedelic gleam in their eye,and a rude word,or two.

AudioFileZ A most excellent time capsule of a period. No questions. If you want to see what the sixties were like...Then watch. This really does put in a time capsule more of the generation than anything I've seen. You can feel the shift happening via the music. I vote this is infinitely more important than Woodstock because the movement was already in full swing at that point. Witness the birth of so much of what we still are listening to today. This is the real unadulterated thing. Kudos to the "Criterion Collection"! If only Otis Redding would have lived longer?There is no telling the musical legacy he was going to leave? Based on the incendiary performance here it would have been formidable. This is a must see for anyone interested in the procession of rock through all the permutations of soul and blues. Not to be missed.

w2amarketing The performance quality of the music and, in fact, the overall production, is rather poor. However, Monterey Pop is worth watching at least once simply as a window into the culture of the mid- to late-1960's. In a way, the Monterey Pop festival represented the last pure gasp of "Sixties" love and harmony, coming as it did before things went haywire in 1968 & 1969. While Woodstock was more of a rampage of frustration, Monterey is more representative of how those who were there want "the Sixties" remembered. Thus, the most interesting elements of the movie are the interviews with performers and attenders, behind-the-scenes footage, and random shots of the crowd before, during and after performances. It's all the more interesting for viewers who are in their 20's and early 30's today, watching what is essentially their parents' generation when THEY were in their 20's and early 30's.Coincidentally, I just finished the autobiography of the late John Phillips ("Papa John") which devotes a full chapter to his involvement with Monterey Pop. Definitely an interesting companion read if you're planning on watching the movie. One anecdote worth repeating is that Scott Mackenzie's rendition of "San Francisco" which runs at the beginning of the film was the studio version, not the live version, which Mackenzie flubbed mercilessly on stage at Monterey.