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Message to Love - The Isle of Wight Festival | 
 enlarge | Director: Murray Lerner
Actors: Alvin Lee (iii), Free (ii), Donovan, Jim Morrison, John Entwistle
Studio: Sony Wonder (Video)
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $4.89
You Save: $5.09 (51%)
New (39) Used (17) from $4.59
Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 38019
Format: Color, Compilation, Dvd-video, Live, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 2
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: 49335
ISBN: 1573306932
UPC: 074644933598
EAN: 9781573306935
ASIN: 1573306932
Theatrical Release Date: February 21, 1997
Release Date: December 10, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
This documentary by Murray Lerner (From Mao to Mozart) was shot in 1970, but for many reasons was not shown to the public until 1995 in Great Britain. In an important way, it is the final chapter in an unofficial trilogy of concert films (along with Woodstock and Gimme Shelter) that together paint a picture of the highest and lowest points of Woodstock Nation politics: from mass goodwill to anarchy to outright stupidity. On the one hand, Message to Love is a rock & roll movie with several performances that are outright revelations (the Who's triumphant show, the Doors' "The End"), some that are awfully good (Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun"), and more than enough that are superfluous (Ten Days After, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Jethro Tull). On the other hand, Lerner's cameras are trained on the increasingly testy relationship between nomadic hippies who travel a long way to see the show but refuse to pay, and concert producers who resort to using guard dogs, cops, and aluminum walls to keep crashers at a distance. Just how bad does the mood become after several days of this? Check out the scene in which Joni Mitchell breaks down in tears after singing her ode to peace and love, "Woodstock," before this lot. In an era when we've become used to extraordinary security and high ticket prices at rock concerts, it's perhaps hard to grasp what the fuss was about at the Isle of Wight. But Lerner's amazing film helps a viewer get a sense of what was really at stake in that period before rock & roll was a corporate matter, and when kids naively thought it was theirs for the taking. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews:
 greatest festival ever June 10, 2008
Craig M. Schuster (Lincoln, NE)
This is documentation of the greatest festival of all time. It gives all sides of the festival. You will not be dissapointed when you buy this!
This movie is heaven May 12, 2007
E. J. Ryan (South Africa)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I don't get the criticism of this movie. Firstly, it's damn cheap - so whatever you get is value. Secondly, I've never bothered to watch the actual movie all the way through - all I'm interested in is the music. I go straight to the titles section where you can just watch the performances uncut. That's what I wanted, and what I get is the most fantastic performances by The Who, Doors, and some bands which either aren't available anywhere else (such as Family and Ten Years After) or some bands for whom one or two performances are enough for me (such as Jimi Hendrix, Free, Taste and Leonard Cohen).
For me, that's the beauty of buying a Festival movie - fairly short clips of bands. If I want more, I buy a DVD of that band. Since buying this movie, I've been inspired to buy more by The Who and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, whereas it has put me off buying anything by Jimi, much as I like his music (on CD).
 When the music's over February 13, 2007
James Harrison (CA, USA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
A poorly made documentary focusing on the problems surrounding the festival's producers. Every music clip in this film has been edited down, sometimes to no more than a few seconds, so the creators of the movie could slip in a few more of the countless interviews with hippie's proclaiming the freedom of the music and the show promoters worrying over how they're going to pay the musicians and beat the bad publicity. There wasn't enough room to include a single entire performance of any song by any of the bands featured, but there's enough room to show interviews with burned out hippies in their entirety, interviews that consists mainly of babbling or long pauses while they try...to...remember...the...right...words...man.
It's obvious that the creators of the film wanted to focus on the deterioration of the hippie generation, but if they were trying to make a statement, they were about 30 years too late. The only statement this film makes is one of frustation. The audience of this film will feel much like the flower children featured in the movie, caught outside the festival, trying to get a glimpse of the music they love through a fence that the people in charge won't let them through.
 The music is great but... January 3, 2007
John Laing (Umatilla, FL)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
There's great vintage shots and sounds from Free, Tull, The Who, ELP and others but all the other documentary stuff, while interesting, I found distracting and boring.
 kinda disappointing July 3, 2006
JMF (Monroe, NC United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Depending on whether your interest lies in viewing this as a historical document or as a concert video you will probably be either less or more disappointed.I was expecting something more similar to Woodstock in which you were able to see the artists entire performance instead of edited versions of the songs.I could have done with a lot less of disgruntled hippies and more music.Some of the performances were great(The Who,Moody Blues,Miles Davis,ELP,Jetro Tull).Others were mediocre,most notably The Doors.Even Hendrix was not as good as in days past.So much for the hippie utopian dream that was portrayed in the Woodstock movie.
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