Director Bob Smeaton

This is a documentary (rockumentary?) covering a tour of a number of American bands across Canada in 1970. Post-Woodstock and a couple of other large free-loving and living festivals of the late 1960s; this tour was something different, in that the artists didn?t fly in and out of the venues ? they undertook the entire tour via a chartered Canadian National Railways train from east to west of the nation. The documentary includes concert performances and footage of the bands and others on the train that carried them ? all of this interspersed with contemporary snippets of information from promoters and other people involved with the tour. The documentary would appear to have been put together as a retrospect in 2000 ? many years after some of the principals were no more (notably Janis Joplin and Gerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead). More notably, being set in 1970, certainly the bands are certainly no more, but some of the band members were still around in 2000 to provide their own reflections on the tour ? and many of the names of the bands are now legendary.

I don?t feel there is a great need to give a description of the documentary itself, but I would like to pass on a few comments on feelings I get from the feature:

I was pleased to see how friendly and happy the whole entourage seemed to be. Sure, it was an all-day-all-night partying and jamming session, with heavy doses of alcohol; but pleasingly very little references to anything more illicit. And ?blue? language is pretty much non-existent!

In some of the comments from 1970 and the reflections of others in 2000, that it was very interesting to note that the band member and promoters noted that any of the trouble that occurred at concerts during that time was caused by the fans themselves, rather than violence toward the fans by authorities ? this is despite a snippet early on in the documentary with derogatory references to the ?pigs? ? this same joker who was inciting the crowd earlier on, openly compliments the police most highly and regretted injuries they had suffered.

There was a fair amount of music that did not suit my taste (the old acid-head that I am) but this did not detract from my enjoyment of Festival Express. Among the highlights to me were Buddy Guy who provided a pretty good lead guitar lick in his interpretation of Money, The Band?s live version of The Weight, and the immortal Janis Joplin with Cry, Cry Baby ? one criticism of JJ was that with her different interpretations of songs from venue-to-venue she could tend to be very inconsistent (and also certainly an ?acquired taste?) ? this was good!

A major plus for this documentary is that all live songs are complete ? something that other documentary producers could well take heed of.

THE EXTRAS

Despite the Festival Express slick stating that it was a 2-disc (sic) package, only one disk was supplied for the review. The first disk starts and ends with the feature ? there don?t appear to be any options available, nor are any accessible. Another insight is that the chapter index on the slick doesn?t fit what appeared on the display of my player ? the slick shows 27 chapters ? my player noted nine?

Special features attributed to the bonus disk comprise:

Extended interviews with musos and promoters

?Derailed? ? the making of Festival Express

Photo gallery

Theatrical trailer

I won?t add any further comment about this lamentable piece of PR for a reviewing ? except that I?ll probably end up buying the set when it hits the market to see what?s there…

CONCLUSION

What was provided in the Festival Express package for review (one disk out of two) was highly enjoyable - especially to see Janis Joplin in fine form was enough to give this documentary my A1 seal of approval!

Anyway, taking out my obvious prejudices, it was a highly enjoyable musical (and cultural) experience from a time we can never return to?

The production never got weighed down by too many interviews or pontificating on what occurred in those halcyon days. The fact that the ?stars? showed genuine sensibilities and avoided the more seamy aspects of the music/fun industry was a major bonus ? I would just about rate it as a ?G: classification ? something that could be shown to a general audience.

Highly recommended ? but check for the second disk before buying it!