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Customer Reviews of Sympathy for the Devil

Marx 'n' Roll
A rarely screened late 60's curio, "Sympathy For The Devil" looms larger as a legend in the minds of those who have namechecked it over the years than as a bonifide "classic". While it's great to have it available on DVD, 35 years passing have not been kind to the film's scattershot approach. Director Jean-Luc Goddard is not exactly famous for linear narrative, so it's not like I was expecting "ABBA: The Movie", but I found this film rough going all the same. The premise: Goddard was given permission to film the Stones working in the studio on thier classic "Sympathy For The Devil". He took this footage and intercut it with Black Panthers spouting political rhetoric and conducting "guerilla theater" vignettes about the "Revolution". While I think we "get" the analogy between the seeds of creativity (the Stones methodically building the song in the studio) and the seeds of Revolution (being sown in the streets), the repetitive nature of the dated rhetoric wears out its welcome quickly. This does leave one pondering as to whom, exactly, the film is for. Music fans will probably find the interruptions annoying; history buffs studying 60's politics will likely find the Stones superfluous. Personally, I found the beautifully shot Stones footage enough to warrant hanging on to my copy. If you're looking for a classic 60's MUSIC film with the Stones, check out "Gimme Shelter" instead. If you're looking for a time capsule of 60's POLITICS, try "Medium Cool" or "Putney Swope". Unfortunately, while "Sympathy" contains a good amount of both,it never successfully connects with either music OR politics.

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Save your money & time
My rating is a big fat zreo. The Stones fiddle around with the song off and on but never really get it going. Brian Jones is all
but invisable. The social commentary that is interspersed throughout was probably cool at some point in time but I've seen it all come and go. My remote was working, and I used it a lot.
I'm still looking for something really good by the Stones on DVD, VHS whatever and have yet to find it. I saw them in 1971 and they were decent but didn't really leave that much of an impression as a live band.

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85% unwatchable
The footage of the Stones' working sessions is great. I loved watching and listening to the metamorphosis of that great song. But Jean-Luc Godard's interspersed, incoherent "cultural revolution" playlets with the little pinball Love Grrl and the Black Panthers...I can't describe how utterly awful it is. There's something wrong with the fast-forward button on our dvd player remote, so I went to the tv and pressed the fast forward on the player to get through these parts after the first two bits. Needless to say, I ended up sitting in front of the player, a foot from the TV, so I wouldn't have to see any more of these parts. Won't somebody please edit this movie down to a great 15 minutes of Stones in session, please. I'd add a couple of stars for that.