The Rolling Stones have been the subject of at least eight official documentaries (not counting bootlegs and recent concert films like 'Forty Licks' and 'The Bigger Bang'), including the newest, "Shine A Light" by director Martin Scorsese. Check out the RT review of their latest and then read more about the previous cinematic offerings after the jump.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (1968): Word is director Jean-Luc Godard and Mick Jagger, already fine-tuning his micro-managing bandleader skills, clashed bigtime during the making of this movie. The film followed the creation and transformation of the title song -- one of rock's alltime best tunes -- mixed in with vignettes that didn't really work.. As a Stones buff, I loved seeing the band hard at work in the studio crafting what would be a classic song. But I think it’s a bit too ‘inside baseball’ for anyone but fanatics of the band. Guess that’s what happens when you pair up a pretentious French filmmaker with a British rock band.

GIMME SHELTER (1970)
I recently saw the Criterion Collection version of the Maysles brothers' doc and its lost none of its disturbing power 38 years later. The incident at the heart of this film -- the disastrous free concert the Stones put on at the Altamont Speedway -- has been indelibly marked as the symbolic end of the Flower Power 1960's. I'm not so sure it's anything more than one of the great rock and roll tragedies. A great band trying to make a historic statement with a huge free concert, but instead helplessly watches it all fall apart.
It's amazing how well-prepared Albert and David Maysles were. They had cameras in all the right places, and their cameramen (which included a young George Lucas) captured unbelievable footage like the film's signature moment, the stabbing death of a young black man named Meredith Hunter by one of the Hell's Angels. The moment in the film when Jagger asks to have the footage rewound in the editing room and we see the gun in Hunter's hand, is truly chilling.
We also see the Hell's Angels clubbing stagefront fans with pool cues, and then we hear the Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner announce on the mic to the crowd of 300,000 that they can't continue playing because one of the Hell's Angels had knocked Marty Balin unconscious.

Later you see Mick Jagger, looking and sounding, pleading for the crowd to 'sit down.’ Who's ever attended a concert where the lead singer begs the crowd to sit down????

It occurred to me as I was watching "Gimme Shelter" that the creation of those imposing 15-foot-high stages that are now standard at every stadium rock concert can probably be traced back to Altamont. Check out the lack of security and the stage -- it's barely three feet off the ground!

The Maysles brothers don't set out to provide answers here. That may bother people. But the images they captured and the 'present-day' storytelling method they use is far more effective than a string of talking heads analyzing and deconstructing Altamont in hindsight.

"Gimme Shelter" is more than just a brilliant documentary. It's a video journal of a seminal moment in pop culture history.

THE ROLLING STONES: ROCK AND ROLL CIRCUS (1968):
A dated piece of 60’s rock memorabilia and a timeless pop culture oddity at the same time, this project sat on the shelf, unreleased, for nearly 30 years before the Stones allowed it to be released. Longstanding rumors suggest Jagger and the boys prevented its release because they felt The Who had outperformed them during the taping.

Originally taped for a TV special, this ‘under the big top’ carnival-type production featured an incredible lineup: The Who, John Lennon in a jam band with Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Yoko Ono, Jethro Tull (with a pre-Black Sabbath Tony Iommi on guitar!), Marianne Faithful and Taj Mahal.

I don’t think there’s a single sober person to be found anywhere. It’s one big acid trip. And the jam onstage between Lennon, Clapton and Richards was one of those great rock moments – a truly historic, one-of-a-kind onstage gathering – until Yoko got onstage and started screeching incoherently.

Taj Mahal, one of the forgotten hitmakers of the late 1960s, absolutely rocked the big top with “Aint That A Lot of Love.”

The Rolling Stones had nothing to worry about. Yes, The Who put on a customarily brilliant and bombastic effort, ripping through “A Quick One While He’s Away." But the Stones nailed their show-closing set, which featured nuggets like “Salt of the Earth” and the best live performance of “Sympathy for the Devil” I have ever heard.

That’s worth the price of the dvd itself, but so is the interview with Who founder Pete Townsend in the ‘special features’ section. He talks in detail how ‘Rock and Roll Circus’ was a plan by Jagger, Townsend and the late Ronnie Lane to have a perpetual rock tour featuring the Stones, The Who and the Small Faces (Lane’s band with Rod Stewart) that would tour by train across America. Once it was deemed logistically impossible, Jagger reformatted it for a TV special.

Anyone who likes the Stones and the rock music era of the late 60s should check this out. Also, the film transfer on the dvd is sharp and the sound is better than you would expect from a 40-year-old film. The film also captures Brian Jones' final performance with the band before his tragic death.

C********ER BLUES (1972):
Robert Frank’s controversial backstage look at the debauched lifestyle of the Stones on the road during the early 70's has never been officially released (the profane title probably wouldn't have helped the marketing anyway). That’s probably because as the band got older, the horndogging, drug-abusing, groupie-sharing antics depicted here are an embarrassment. Especially the scene where Keith Richards is getting shot up full of heroin by a groupie.
Still, this has been a staple on the bootleg circuit for years, so if you scour eBay I’m sure you’ll find a decent copy. Funny part is, most of the stuff in the film is rather tame by today’s modern movie standards. This one's best left for the Stones completists who still listen to "Exile on Main Street" every day.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE ROLLING STONES (1974):
The band’s 1972 tour is the subject of this concert film, which has been out of circulation for nearly three decades. I’ve never seen it but a couple Stones diehards that I know say it’s a must-see. Not surprising, since the band was at its peak artistically around this time. I wish someone would convince Mick to finally put this sucker out on DVD. Until then, you can find clips all over YouTube.

LET’S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER (1982):
I love this film because not only is it the first Stones concert film I ever saw, it also documents the time when I first discovered the band – as an 11-year-old when ‘Tattoo You’ was a mainstay on FM Radio. My mom was a child of the 60s who loved the Stones and after I heard ‘Start Me Up’ for the first time, I started digging through her old RS albums (yes, even “Emotional Rescue”) and was blown away.
By this point in their career, the band had become larger than life, but even playing massive stadiums like they did on this tour, you could see how comfortable they were playing the part of Rock Gods. Especially Mick. No one – NO ONE – has ever been a better stadium show performer than Mick Jagger. If you have any doubt about that, watching this great movie will put them to bed.