Watch The Concert for Bangladesh For Free

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Two concerts were held at Madison Square Gardens in New York on the afternoon and evening of August 1, 1971 to raise money and awareness for the plight of war refugees in Bangladest as organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. 40,000 attended the two shows. The album of the event won the highly coveted Grammy Award Album of the Year for 1972. Eric Clapton would be on three album's of the year in his career, Bangladesh, his own Unplugged in 1992 and Santana's Supernatural in 1999. Clapton is on two of the only four live albums to win album of the year. He almost didn't make Bangladesh however due to his heroin problem. As a last minute replacement Taj Mahall guitarist Jesse Ed Davis was chosen but Clapton did show up and Davis remained in the stage lineup. Clapton is pretty much a sideman here and does no singing and only one guitar solo. Ravi Shankar starts out the concert with his band of Indian musicians, Ustad All Akbar Khan, Alla Rakah and Kamala Chak Ravarty in a long, long set. The concert also features Harrison's former Beatle band mate Ringo Starr. Fellow former Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney were invited to take part. McCartney declined but Lennon accepted and just two days before the concert when Harrison informed Lennon that it was he who was to perform and not Yoko Ono, Lennon dropped out. Also from the Beatles days, Billy Preston is here and Klaus Voorman. Apple recording stars Badfinger, are part of the ensemble stage band. Leon Russell and special guest Bob Dylan round out the big name stars. Also here are Jim Horn and The Hollywood Horns as well as Carl Radle, Jim Keltner, Don Preston, and backup singers Don Nix, Jo Green, Jeanie Greene, Marlin Grenne, Dolores Hall and Claudia Linnear. Saul Swimmer directed this documentary. He would go on to do the acclaimed Queen We Will Rock You documentary 10 years later. His attempts at directing feature films were forgettable. He was credited also as being a co-producer of the Beatle documentary Let It Be. Harrison was concerned that larger 32MM film cameras would be too imposing so he opted for the use of smaller 16MM film cameras. Richard E. Brooks and Fred Hoffman were the principal cinematographers of the eight man film crew that also included Sol Negrin and Tohru Nakamura. Brooks was like the Ed Wood of cinematography whose career consisted of filming low budget obscure bad feature films. When this film premiered in March of 1972 it was 140 minutes in length but somehow got chopped down by 45 minutes to a 95 minute run-time. I saw this during it's initial theatrical release and have seen it maybe one since and I have not seen it's new DVD version. It's a low budget film with no imaginative camera work and the Ravi Shankar segment is to long but it captures some great performances by a great cast of stars and recording and touring musicians. I would give this a 7.5 out of 10.

After a bit of rambling about the reasons for the concert (which, it has to be said, are typically simplistic), George Harrison introduces Ravi Shankar to the stage. After telling off the audience for making noise and asking them to just be patient and concentrate on the music he is about to play (great way to sell yourself Ravi), he then asks the audience not to smoke and then launches into 20 minutes of music that I must confess didn't do a great deal for me. Perhaps I was just a bit off by him tell me (the audience) to pay attention to the point where he seemed to lack faith in his own music but I almost laughed out loud when he asked for no-smoking during the gig – was the bit where he told them where the fire exits were edited out of the film? Either way I mustn't have been patient or quiet enough because I didn't like Shankar's bit and was very grateful when he finished. He was followed by artists who didn't feel the need to apologise for or pre-warn the audience for the audience about the music they were about to play. At this point the music got better and I enjoyed it even if it wasn't that great. The appearance of Dylan at the end livened it up for me and generally the music was enjoyable but I was surprised, given this was a high-profile concert, that it wasn't actually that memorable.Of course the delivery of the film doesn't help it that much either though. The static cameras maybe feel a bit less hectic that some concert films but they rob the film of atmosphere, focusing on one person at a time with only a bit of zooming in and out to show that anyone is awake at the wheel. Occasionally we'll get a crowd shot but this is not the film to come to if you want to get a feel for the atmosphere at the gig. The "cast" are mostly very good. Harrison leads things well and he has good support from the various musicians with him, although the highlight for me was of course Bob Dylan's arrival near the end.Overall then, a reasonable concert film that is worth a look for fans of Clapton, Harrison and Dylan. The delivery of the film lacks atmosphere and, as has been said by others, isn't the nicest picture you'll ever see, but it is the music that makes up for it mostly. I didn't like anything about Shankar at the start (his attitude or his music) but after that things got much rockier and better, even if most of it wasn't that memorable.

Possibly the granddaddy of all charity super-concerts, as well-meaning as they come, and probably delayed from video and DVD release because of the same money-rights confusion that comes into play with these giveaway projects. The film itself is a blow-up from smaller stock film to 70mm, and you know what that means: a muddy, grainy visual workout for the eyeballs. It doesn't help that the director is totally incompetent, with constant shifts in focus and possibly the worst lighting ever of any theatrically-released concert film. Most of the players are lost in the darkness on stage, with an occasional spotlight seeking them out (for instance, the group 'Badfinger' plays acoustic guitars at the audience-right side of the stage for a number of songs but is unseen until Harrison introduces them and a spotlight pulls them out of the blackness). Showmanship is not the angle here: Harrison tells the audience that the gang of musicians on stage are playing for free and some even cancelled some paying gigs in order to be here. And it's not an ego thing, with rock stars demanding intros and "guest star attention"; they're all assembled on stage at the same time. Exception: Bob Dylan. He IS a guest star, but I don't know the backstage story. Maybe he showed up late. I DO know that Harrison had an initial commitment from John Lennon to play, but Lennon backed out at the last minute. But, hey, you got Harrison, Ringo, Billy Preston, Dylan, Leon Russell and Eric Clapton (and Badfinger, sorta) so, there ain't much to bitch about "cast-wise." It's too bad that there are few close-ups, and worse, there's no backstage material, interviews, or even narration. There IS a gentle warning at the opening, by Harrison, that the show will start off with some sitar and tabla playing by Ravi Shankar and some other Indian musicians. The crowd recognizes Shankar's name and roars approval (possibly aware that Shankar was dynamite at the Monterey Pop Festival) and settles in for a loooong stretch of sitar-tabla material (while I watch Shankar and think THIS is the man who would later help "produce" his greatest creation: Norah Jones!) It would be churlish to object to Indian-style music considering this IS a Concert for Bangladesh, not for Liverpool; but it is also an acquired taste for Western ears. Then again, Bob Dylan's hideously out-of-key voice is also an acquired taste for ANY pair of ears. Dylan also settles in for a looong stretch. I admit I'm no fan of his work for the most part, so to each his own. I think it IS good to see Preston and Russell given a few leads, but Ringo only gets one song and, as an example of the lack of showbiz flair at this gathering, he sings it while buried behind a drum kit instead of being brought up front stage to a mike (no, that wouldn't leave the song without a drummer: Jim Keltner, drummer extraordinaire, bangs away beside Ringo on his kit throughout the concert). It's also surprising that Clapton never sings and has no guitar solos except his classic work on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Also surprising is how it ends, with the band playing Harrison's song "Bangla-desh" at full-tilt, when Curious George puts down his guitar and rushes off stage as if in need of a bathroom break, then it's closing credits as the band plays on sans George... and that's it. Not a good concert film, needless to say, but definitely an artifact worth keeping for rock-history purposes.

This is the film version of the historical show that took place in New York's Madison Square Garden on August 1st, 1971. People may take charity shows like this for granted these days, but back then it was a very special event. It was famed Indian musician Ravi Shankar who thought up the idea of helping the starving underprivileged people of East Pakistan, and he approached former Beatle George Harrison with his concern. George organized a concert to help the cause, in addition to writing and recording a song called "Bangla Desh," which he used to close out the night's performance. Among the musicians who gave their efforts were: ex-Beatle Ringo Starr (on one drum kit with Jim Keltner playing another), Eric Clapton (guitar), Billy Preston (keyboards), Leon Russell (bass and keyboards), Badfinger, and the legendary Bob Dylan.The program starts off with Indian music, with Ravi Shankar and other musicians, and it is an acquired taste. Ravi asks the audience for patience during their act before the crowd gets to hear their "favorite stars" later in the show. It's a long twenty or so minutes, but eventually George and Friends take over the stage. Harrison performs songs off his recent ALL THINGS MUST PASS album, like "Wah-Wah," "My Sweet Lord," "Beware of Darkness," and "Awaiting On You All". During the course of the evening, he continues with Beatles favorites like "Something", "Here Comes the Sun," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Ringo gets to do a vocal of his recent hit, "It Don't Come Easy", but manages to screw up the words pretty badly which is a shame, as it's always been a favorite of mine.It's purely a matter of personal taste as to what one will take from the performances, but for me Leon Rusell and Billy Preston provide some low moments of the concert. But the highlight of the event, even to a Beatles fanatic like me - which is really saying something here - comes from "a friend of us all, Mr. Bob Dylan". I am a moderate fan of Dylan's, and have always felt he was in excellent form on this particular venue, singing wonderful versions of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry," "Blowin' In The Wind" and "Just Like A Woman" (the latter tune with Harrison and Russell in vocal support).While the show is not perfect, it's quite good. It may seem more quaint alongside today's LIVE AID's and FARM AID's, and even in comparison to the superb 2001 CONCERT FOR GEORGE tribute for the late Mr. Harrison -- but this baby was an innovator. ***1/2 out of ****