Woodyanders 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.

barlenon Documentary originally filmed in 1970 about a series of 3 Canadian music festivals (effectively a 3 stop tour) and the train trip taken by the performers (Janis Joplin, The Band, Flying Burrito Brothers, Grateful Dead, Delaney & Bonnie and many others) between Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary. There are impromptu performances and dialog from the train journey, concert footage and short contemporary (present day) interview segments with musicians and promoters from the original festival. The disorganized informality of the the whole event seems to capture the atmosphere of the era. The musical performances are surprisingly good and the low tech, low budget film work is excellent.

happipuppi13 Let's see,I was 2 when all the events in this film went down. My older brother was 3 and oldest was almost 6. ....but! That in no way depletes how much we love this music & the time that it came from. In fact we've listened to the biggest of these acts since we were younger.As in most cases,I discovered this DVD gem at my local library and all I had to read on the back was Janis Joplin,Grateful Dead & The Band "live" and I had to see this. Last night (08/26/08) was the third time aboard for viewing.The performances by the headliners,as expected,are top notch and the lesser known Canadian acts here (from the DVD outtakes & extras)are interesting in their own way. Right now I have one their songs "Thirsty Boots" running in my head,a beautiful acoustic guitar ballad representative of the times.It's great to see The Band perform "The Wieght" after years of only hearing the studio version on the radio,as well as their version of Little Richard's " Slippin' & Slidin' ".The Grateful Dead are always good and for those of us not old enough then,it's kind of wild to see Jerry Garcia before the gray hair.Most incredible elements here are the cross country (Canada) train ride with these and other acts ,filmed for posterity & fun as well. The original "Party Train/Love Train". Seeing these folks jamming together (and other "activities" of the day) makes for a great window into the era. Present is Buddy Guy,Flying Burrito Brothers,Delany & Bonnie and others.The second and most significant element is Joplin herself. Her performances of "Tell Mama" & "Cry Baby" in the main movie are testament to her talent. She also has two more songs in the outtakes which are no less amazing.This was filmed exactly 3 months before her untimely passing at the age of 27. She performs last here on July 4th,1970 and in August she guested on The Dick Cavett Show....then was gone,on October 4th of a heroin overdose.In the ending credits,we hear the only "live" performance of "Me and Bobby McGee" before Joplin recorded it. We don't see her but it was recorded aboard the train while partying with the others. Otherwise,she never did get to perform it live in concert. The song hit #1 in early 1971,her second and only other top 40 hit.Overall,the fact that this entire collection sat on a shelf for 30 years makes it extra important that all this footage was finally "re-discovered" and given the royal treatment it deserves. Renewed through re-colorization and film cleaning techniques for DVD,it's great to see these former young dynamic artists looking so lively and fresh.Without any doubt,Ten stars! (END) Peace.

Roland E. Zwick In the summer of 1970, some of the world's premier rock musicians - prime among them The Grateful Dead, The Band and Janis Joplin - got together to perform a series of concerts across southern Canada. Rather than just flying to the various venues then afterwards going their separate ways, the performers boarded a train in Toronto and headed west to Calgary, stopping off at various places to "do their thing" for appreciative audiences. That train ride, which turned into a nonstop jam session among some of the top rock 'n roll talents of the time, became known as the Festival Express and this film is the chronicle of that experience."Festival Express" juxtaposes footage of the event with present-day interviews from some of the people who were on that train. We see the musicians jamming together in the cars then performing their sets in open-air stadiums. What the film doesn't show us is any real interpersonal connection or interaction beyond the music. Perhaps the cameras were turned off whenever the performers were talking to one another, or, perhaps, the performers were just too drunk or stoned to say anything of any real interest to one another on the trip. Either way, the film does not provide us with a very compelling behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives and personalities of these people. That is the biggest disappointment of the movie.Be that as it may, "Festival Express" is still a useful time capsule for reminding us about what the culture was like 35 years ago. The film does an interesting job capturing the strange moral paradox that has been an intricate part of rock 'n' roll from its earliest days. For although rock music has always derived its power and strength from its anti-establishment stance and attitude, it is also a highly competitive business built on corporate interests, involving record companies, producers, promoters and millionaire performers. So how does one reconcile these two seemingly antithetical positions? How justify high ticket prices or millionaire salaries in an art form that claims as its foundational principle that the corporate establishment is the source of all the evil in the world and the very thing that the music itself is dedicated to stamping out? And how genuine can this anti-establishment attitude really be when what looks on the surface to be spontaneous rebellion is actually the result of shrewdly calculated Madison Avenue exploitation? This conundrum comes to a head in the Toronto stopover where a group of protesters outside the concert are threatening to turn violent if they aren't provided free entrance into the arena (the tickets cost a whopping $14!). These youngsters feel that, because rock claims to be a statement against everything related to money and profits, the purveyors of the message - i.e, the concert promoters and the rock stars themselves - should be willing to forego being paid for their efforts. There's humorous irony in the fact that we see these "radical" anti-establishment musicians ultimately siding with the cops on the issue and against their youthful fans on the outside! The people who were on the train keep telling us what a life-changing and euphoric experience that trip turned out to be. That may well be the case, but due to the lack of intimacy we feel with the performers, that sense doesn't really come across very effectively in the film. What the film does provide is a rare opportunity to watch a collection of iconic rock legends performing at the peak of their youth and powers. That alone is what makes "Festival Express" a must-see for aficionados.