My first exposure to this movie was in the mid-1980's when I was in my teens. Had been playing guitar starting in 1982, had appreciated Hendrix via an older relatives record collection. Back in the 1980's, Hendrix on home video was fairly limited, thus for the avid Hendrix fan anything was appreciated.
Even within that context, though, Rainbow Bridge as far back as when I first saw it in the 1980's came off as a bit of a rip-off. Back then, I didn't know the history of the production or any of the behind-the-scenes stuff. I just knew the results I was seeing onscreen.
Said results for me boil down to what more than a few reviewers on this site have said about this documentary, in that by and large it certainly is a filmic time capsule depicting all the self-important, drug-deluded, acidhead babble righteousness of the late 1960's American hippies. One of those "hey, man, let's just start filming and see what happens!" things that were all the vouge in the late-1960's/early 1970's.
One of the producers of the film was also Jimi Hendrix's manager. As a result, a by multiple accounts reluctant Hendrix was coaxed by his manager into performing a couple of concerts to be filmed for the hippie be-in 'cast' and said manager used the attachment of Hendrix as a means of securing financing for the movie.
A couple months after Hendrix filmed the movie, he died. A little more than a year later, the movie got released and a soundtrack featuring some Hendrix music he had been working on in the studio in the months leading up to his death was put out.
As is abundantly clear by now, THE primary (really, the ONLY) calling card for Rainbow Bridge was the participation of Hendrix. The sole reason there remains any continued interest in the movie is because Hendrix was involved in it.
On those terms, Rainbow Bridge is...okay. Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox turned in competent performances. Nothing particularly astounding in comparison to what they were doing in the summer of 1970 live re: Atlanta, or Berkley. But good. It should be noted, though, that within the context of the Rainbow Bridge movie there is only a little more than a 1/4 hour of Hendrix performing. The full audio sets of Hendrix performing the gigs used for the Rainbow Bridge film wouldn't be issued until 2020 as part of the Live In Maui release.
So, with Rainbow Bridge, one is left with 15 minutes or so of Hendrix playing and the remainder being a bunch of filthy hippie deadbeats yammering a bunch of stoned gibberish that they doubtlessly found extremely profound when they were saying it although probably less so the following day (or year, or decade) when they finally came down, man!
Even within that context, though, Rainbow Bridge as far back as when I first saw it in the 1980's came off as a bit of a rip-off. Back then, I didn't know the history of the production or any of the behind-the-scenes stuff. I just knew the results I was seeing onscreen.
Said results for me boil down to what more than a few reviewers on this site have said about this documentary, in that by and large it certainly is a filmic time capsule depicting all the self-important, drug-deluded, acidhead babble righteousness of the late 1960's American hippies. One of those "hey, man, let's just start filming and see what happens!" things that were all the vouge in the late-1960's/early 1970's.
One of the producers of the film was also Jimi Hendrix's manager. As a result, a by multiple accounts reluctant Hendrix was coaxed by his manager into performing a couple of concerts to be filmed for the hippie be-in 'cast' and said manager used the attachment of Hendrix as a means of securing financing for the movie.
A couple months after Hendrix filmed the movie, he died. A little more than a year later, the movie got released and a soundtrack featuring some Hendrix music he had been working on in the studio in the months leading up to his death was put out.
As is abundantly clear by now, THE primary (really, the ONLY) calling card for Rainbow Bridge was the participation of Hendrix. The sole reason there remains any continued interest in the movie is because Hendrix was involved in it.
On those terms, Rainbow Bridge is...okay. Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox turned in competent performances. Nothing particularly astounding in comparison to what they were doing in the summer of 1970 live re: Atlanta, or Berkley. But good. It should be noted, though, that within the context of the Rainbow Bridge movie there is only a little more than a 1/4 hour of Hendrix performing. The full audio sets of Hendrix performing the gigs used for the Rainbow Bridge film wouldn't be issued until 2020 as part of the Live In Maui release.
So, with Rainbow Bridge, one is left with 15 minutes or so of Hendrix playing and the remainder being a bunch of filthy hippie deadbeats yammering a bunch of stoned gibberish that they doubtlessly found extremely profound when they were saying it although probably less so the following day (or year, or decade) when they finally came down, man!