The Grateful Dead Movie

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The Grateful Dead Movie

The Grateful Dead Movie DVD cover
Directed by Jerry Garcia
Leon Gast
Produced by Edward Washington
Ron Rakow
Starring Jerry Garcia
Bob Weir
Phil Lesh
Bill Kreutzmann
Donna Godchaux
Keith Godchaux
Mickey Hart
Editing by Susan R. Crutcher
Release date(s) June 1, 1977
Running time 132 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $600,000
IMDb profile

The Grateful Dead Movie, released in 1977 and directed by Jerry Garcia, is a film that captures performances from the Grateful Dead's October 1974 five-night stand at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. This end-of-tour run marked the beginning of an extended hiatus for the band, with no shows planned for 1975. The movie also faithfully portrays the burgeoning Deadhead scene. The film features the "Wall of Sound" concert sound system that the Dead used for all of 1974.

Contents

"There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert" was a saying popular among Deadheads, as the loyal fans of the band are known. During their performances, the Dead valued musical improvisation, jamming extensively, and they changed their set lists nightly. As a result, their music was best appreciated at live concerts. But beyond that, Dead shows generally had a positive, happy atmosphere, as the band and the audience interacted with each other to create a special environment of musical celebration. Capturing this phenomenon on film is the admittedly paradoxical goal of The Grateful Dead Movie.

To document the Grateful Dead experience, the film showcases the fans much more than is usual in a concert movie. Sometimes they are shown enjoying the show, and in other scenes they discuss the music and the band, and what it's like to be a Deadhead. The film also includes interviews with members of the Dead, and vintage footage from the early days of the band showing some of their colorful history. Also featured, especially at the beginning of the movie, are animated scenes of icons from Grateful Dead art such as the Uncle Sam skeleton. This psychedelic inspired animation was created by Gary Gutierrez,[1] using some techniques that he developed specifically for this project. All these elements combine to make The Grateful Dead Movie much more than just a concert film.

The lineup of the Grateful Dead at the time of The Grateful Dead Movie was: Jerry Garcia on guitar and vocals, Bob Weir on guitar and vocals, Phil Lesh on bass, Bill Kreutzmann on drums, Keith Godchaux on keyboards, and Donna Godchaux on vocals.

At the beginning of the second set of the last show that was filmed for the movie, Mickey Hart joined the band on stage as a second drummer. Hart had previously been a member of the Dead from September 1967 to February 1971. No one knew it at the time, but this appearance on October 20, 1974, marked Hart's permanent return to the band.

In 2004, The Grateful Dead Movie was released as a two disc DVD. The first disc is the movie itself. The second disc contains additional concert footage from the October 1974 Winterland shows, and several documentaries about the making of the movie and the DVD, including then-recent interviews with some former Grateful Dead members.

Also in 2004, the musical performances in the movie, the extra songs on the DVD, and other songs recorded during the same set of concerts were released as a five disc audio CD called The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack.

The concert footage shot on October 16 - 20, 1974 and included in The Grateful Dead Movie contains full or partial performances of the following songs.

  1. ^ McNally, p.499


The Grateful Dead
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