This 1968 oddity is probably a film only a total Beatlemaniac could love, but it carries both musical and historical resonance. It also gives intimations of what would happen in the next 30 years as artists gained more and more power over how they were presented. The roots of virtually any rock star's vanity project (including Prince's Under the Cherry Moon) can be traced to this little Liverpudlian home movie. Fresh from the success of their films A Hard Day's Night and Help!, and still under the influence of the intoxicants of the era, the Beatles set out to make their own fancifully psychedelic project. What they got out of it was, essentially, a knock-off album with a few good songs and a lot of filler, which is more than can be said for this alternately self-indulgent and mildly amusing British version of Ken Kesey's magic bus tour. Using some of their favourite actors (including Victor Spinetti, who was in their first two movies), the Beatles make an alternative British travelogue, stopping occasionally to sing songs like "I Am the Walrus" and "The Fool on the Hill." Strictly for completists. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
Writer-director Theodoros Bafaloukos responded to Jamaica's siren call all the way over in Greece and came to the island to make this 1977 movie about a band of Rasta men/Robin Hoods getting their own back at the expense of those perennial bloodsuckers, the "uptown top rankings", as men of money and position are called in Jamaica. The reggae star-studded cast is undoubtedly the movie's most rewarding feature, though some fans have objected to the demeaning sight of the incomparable late singer Jacob Miller threatening a friend with a knife over a purloined chicken leg or the equally great singer Gregory Isaacs exacting chump change for unlocking a tourist's rental car. However, these and other great reggae figures are also seen here in full and glorious performance at their peak. In fact, this film provides our only extended visual record of Miller's kinetic performance style and one of the best pieces of footage on Isaacs. Although Rockers doesn't approach the multi-layered complexity of The Harder They Come and it does betray a little superiority now and then to its characters, there are plenty of laughs as well as insights into life at the time for Jamaica's growing Rastafarian movement. Drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace makes an unlikely though quintessentially Jamaican leading man as he moves between wooing the rich man's virginal daughter and making pit stops at the shack he shares with his wife and children. His band of accomplices is priceless, and the scene in which each struts in his own "stylee" to Peter Tosh's "Stepping Razor" is alone worth the price. --Elena Oumano
The Festival in the Desert of Essakane 2003 was organised by the EFES Association with the help and support of the Malian Ministrey of Culture and in partnership with the Malian Ministry of Crafts and Tourism.MUSIC PERFORMED LIVE ON STAGETartit - HeyenaOumou Sangare - WayenaLo'Jo - Jah Kas Cool BoyTinariwen - Amassakoul 'n' TenereRobert PLant & Justin Adams - Win My Train Home (If I Ever Get Lucky)Blackfire - Common EnemyDjango - Laisse moi direAli Farka Toure - Goye KurTinariwen - Zin Es Gourmeden (Additional Music)
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