Festival Express
Composite Score: 82.07
Featuring: Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Band, and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
Directors: Bob Smeaton and Frank Cvitanovich
Genres: Documentary, Music, History
MPAA Rating: R for some language
Box Office: $1.28 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Festival Express is a documentary about the week-long 1970 summer concert tour by The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, and others across the nation of Canada, cutting together footage from the train, the concerts, and modern interviews with participants in the tour. The film is more a piece of musical history than a true film. It feels, in some respects, like an extended museum film that you might catch at the Smithsonian or somewhere similar. The music contained in the documentary is some that cannot be heard anywhere else, making it a great film for fans of the participants.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Beyond great music and a glimpse into the “summer of love” in Canada, Festival Express has very little to offer. It is mostly an informative piece intercut with portions of the concerts. Overall, the film’s message is not completely clear – if it has one at all. There is a lot left on the table in terms of potential story lines that the filmmakers could have followed to make the film more widely accessible and give the film a more cohesive narrative to go along with the great music and interesting footage, but very little is done to draw in more audiences than just fans of the music.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
If you want to listen to around 45 minutes of otherwise unavailable Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Band, and the other acts music, there’s not many other options that have it all in one place (except probably YouTube these days). The performances are what makes this film so memorable. Joplin’s performances in particular showcase her passion for the music she created and the pieces that made her such an incredible artist. The Grateful Dead pieces are more just catchy in the ways that so much of their music is, making the film more easily watchable. Overall, Festival Express delivers high on its music content and low on narrative, making it a great documentary for superfans, but not much else.
