Boring

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

As one of the original investors in the FE project, I can tell you that there is more footage and recordings. While FE was a critical success, it was also a financial failure. There is some hope that as the distribution rights revert to the original group that more film and recordings will be released. Some of the best footage, Joplin and the Grateful Dead doing Honkey Tonk Woman, cannot be releases as the Stones refused permission. Maybe sending an email to Mick & Co. will change their mind, this was over 45 years ago!.

A five day roving rock concert travels across the country via train and performs live wherever they stop. This fantastic documentary covers the festival's Canadian leg of the tour, with the train making stops at Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgery. You can't beat the stellar line-up of first-rate musicians: the one and only Janis Joplin (her fiery performances of both "Cry Baby" and "Tell Mama" are absolutely electrifying show-stoppers), The Band (they hit it out of the ballpark with the rousing "Slippin' & Slidin'" and a potent rendition of "The Weight"), The Grateful Dead (in fine bluesy form with "Don't Ease Me In" and "New Speedway Boogie"), Sha Na Na (they do a spirited performance of "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay"), The Flying Burrito Brothers (their smooth-rolling rendition of "Lazy Day" really hits the soulful spot), and the Buddy Guy Blues Band (who burn it up with an incendiary cover of "Money"). Director Bob Smeaton keeps the pace hurtling along at the same constant speedy clip as the train and astutely nails a certain infectiously lowdown cool, breezy and mellow groovy vibe. All the musicians on the train put their individual egos aside, completely pour their hearts and souls into the giving the audiences their money's worth (the on-stage performances all seriously smoke, with Joplin in particular displaying a positively magnetic stage presence), and jam like crazy to the point where hardly anybody got any sleep and all the booze was drunk (the train had to make a special pit stop in Saskatoon to get more hooch). The cinematography by Peter Biziou, Bob Fiore and Clacke Mackey gives the film an appropriately rough'n'grainy look and makes neat frequent use of split screen. Best of all, there's a wonderfully warm and open communal spirit evident throughout which in turn makes this picture a true joy to watch. This spirit shines brightest when various musicians from different groups get together on stage to perform a marvelously sexy rendition of "C.C. Rider." While the concert itself had its fair share of problems (for example, people protested about having to buy tickets and demanded that they see the concert for free), the movie itself rates highly as one of the greatest rock documentaries to ever grace celluloid.

This is a document of the abortive 1970 trans-Canadian railroad tour featuring Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy, The Band, Sha Na Na, etc. Obviously inspired by Woodstock, the idea was to travel to several major Canadian cities, play a big day-long show at each, and collect a tidy sum. As with Woodstock, though, the dark side of hippiedom surfaced and there was a big hue and cry about the "outrageous" ($16 I think?) sums charged for the shows, so many people got in free and the promoters nearly lost their shirts.Contemporary interviews with survivors (Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Phil Lesh of the Dead; Buddy Guy and the principal promoter) are interspersed with archival (16 mm?) on-the-train footage and concert footage. The interviews are disappointingly pedestrian and similar, "oh it was so cool man we hung out and partied on the train and drank our asses off and took all these psyechedelics and then we got to play a lot and bummer that these kids were so ungrateful and bashed the police and bashed us because we didn't want to give it away free"...other than the promoter guy whose name I forget, they were all fairly dispensible. The train ride stuff was pretty cool, particularly a shot of Garcia doing a mostly-solo old gospel tune, and a nice vignette of The Band's Rick Danko, Joplin and Garcia doing a stoner improvisation...but there wasn't enough of this stuff overall, which is certainly rare and unique material.The concert footage was pretty awesome, though, and is the reason to see the film. Buddy Guy is incandescent in the one song we get to see complete("Baby Here I Come), Janis amazing on "Cry Baby" and almost as great on "Tell Mama" (though obviously messed up, on this song and everywhere else in the film...on the road to death), The Band impressive on "The Weight" and even more powerfully emotive doing "I Shall Be Released". The Dead's three songs are fine, but nothing really special from them; I wish they'd showcased Pigpen just a bit, as he was still singing in 1970...what, no "Hard to Handle"? Well worth seeing if you're a fan of any of the principle musicians...not much as a documentary. I'm a fan, so I liked it, but it's not for a general audience, really. Ya gots ta be a hippie, dude.

In 1970, The Festival Express was the given name to a train that carried bands and a film crew across the Canadian landscape for three festivals, starting at Toronto, to Winnipeg and ending in Calgary; heading west in the traditional sense. The bands that called this train home included Janis Joplin, The Band, The Grateful Dead, Sha Na Na, The Flying Burrito Bros and many more. The train was a living hybrid, that never slept the entire trip. Constantly awake on alcohol and drugs accompanied by many jam sessions. It was a never ending party; with an emergency stop in Saskatoon for more alcohol. The festivals while attracting many fans, sparked protests. People protested in the streets demanding the festival be free admission, which the musicians couldn't afford. The protest followed them from each town, people storming the gates and attacking the countless police; the power of music or scroungy bums? The footage of The Festival Express was lost when the production company holding this footage went under. On its discovery, the film you see is what you get. The footage is so beautiful, holding the warmth the bands shared with one another. The sound design is so crisp it penetrates your mind, resonating and haunting, craftily creating the illusion of being in the presence of the musicians. The shows are captivating to watch. Absolutely mesmerising is Janis Joplin, singing her heart out on Cry Baby. There is this rawness captured in the performances. All the bands were there to perform and give the best show possible they could conjure from within themselves every time. With modern day interviews of band members and organisers, with their reminiscent of their times spent with all the bands, the conflicts from the protesters and the hard fact that this will never happen again. There is onus that you either know the bands or you don't. If your unfamiliar with any of the bands, you are left in the dark on who they are. While information about who these people are would help the uninformed, the music and the shows are the real point, not the lives of the bands.Must see viewing for all lovers of this music, The Festival Express is a runaway train of great music and mind blowing performances.