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Glastonbury

Play trailer Poster for Glastonbury R Released Feb 23, 2007 2h 15m Documentary Music Play Trailer Watchlist
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73% Tomatometer 33 Reviews 68% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Filmmaker Julien Temple documents the 35-year musical history of the Glastonbury Festival. Farmer Michael Eavis founds the United Kingdom's longest-running rock fest, where many music fans gather annually. Featured performers include Chris Martin and Morrissey.
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Glastonbury

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Critics Consensus

Glastonbury is formless and scattershot, and successful in capturing the festival's raw, wild energy.

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Critics Reviews

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Nigel Andrews Financial Times When a voice-off narration burbles something about a "convergence of the powerlines of the mind", you know you are in the presence of a film that has purchased at the refreshment kiosk of life more than it can consume. Oct 7, 2018 Full Review Victoria Segal New Statesman Too long, with too many shots of hands-in-the-air ravers and too much Damien Hirst, Glastonbury is still hugely evocative... Sep 26, 2017 Full Review Arthur Ryel-Lindsey Slant Magazine It's hard to pin down the intent and even the honesty of the filmmaker. Rated: 2/4 Jun 12, 2007 Full Review Kathy Fennessy Seattle Film Blog For a wide-ranging exploration of a major festival...this rambling document offers a wealth of riches, including--or in spite of-all the acid-addled hippies, lager-filled punk rockers, and ecstasy-fueled ravers. Rated: 3/4 Sep 16, 2024 Full Review David Lamble Bay Area Reporter While a tad long at 138 minutes, it lacks the sustained performances demanded by concert-film fans. But Temple gives us a wonderful reinvention of the rock film. May 21, 2020 Full Review Shawn Levy Oregonian Combining images of 30 years of politics, music, self-expression and alternative living, it's a vibrant, if inevitably scattered, film that manages to tread the fine line between chronicling the festival and exploiting it. Rated: B Jun 8, 2007 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Documentário sobre o festival de Glastonbury dá mais tempo às manifestações populares do que aos concertos em palco, sendo que assim fica muito mais sujeito a ser uma galeria de freaks e saltimbancos. A falta de direcção e de foco (apesar das tentativas de analisar as transformações sociais em Inglaterra) também não ajudam a evitar que "Glastonbury" tenha o seu quê de estopada de 2 horas e tal. De resto, há uma sequência de limpeza das casas de banho que é de um incrível mau gosto. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Too long and no real structure or purpose to this documentary. Apart from some great music from some of the best music has to offer, there isn't really anything here worth watching. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member You probably need to have been to Glastonbury festival over 3 decades or more to really enjoy it but I have so I love it! As good to have on in the background as BBC 6 Music and as entertaining to take in as Glastonbury with a warm cider and a doobie! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member my mum would love it Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Don't know how/why I made it through this whole documentary. Oh yeah, I remember: because of the bands listed on the front of the case. I thought this was going to have performances by these artists - kind of like Woodstock. Show some of the crowd, but showcase the music. This was the opposite. It was basically showing the attendees of the festival from it's beginning to the present day. It also went into detail about some of the problems the town has with hosting this many people, like crime and sewage. Not that fascinating. A lot of the people that were shown were either naked or high as hell. Not that fun to watch at home. So, where does the music come in? Like, in 30 second snippets. And that's if you're lucky. The music will continue to play but the editing is so haphazard, there is no consistency, so much of the band footage is a montage, no more than a few seconds of a continuous shot at one time. If this was a marketing tool to come to the yearly festival, it did nothing to plead its case. Really not about the music - more about the revellers, who aren't so attractive. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Directed by Julien Temple (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1979), Absolute Beginners (1986) and Oil City Confidential (2009)), this was the third attempt at making a film around the annual Glastonbury festival, after Glastonbury Fayre (1972) and Glastonbury: The Movie (1996). Despite all good intentions, it actually highlights all that's wrong with the festival. The documentary focuses on how the Glastonbury festival came to be, inspired by the free festival movement in the early 1970s, like the Isle of Wight. It was started by dairy farmer Michael Eavis, who started it in 1970, and it was followed by another one. After a break of 8 years, it started up again in 1979, with Peter Gabriel and the Alex Harvey Band headlining, and it continued nearly every year ever since. It also focuses on the people who go to the festival, including New Age Hippies and old ones. The film was primarily made in 2002, when Eavis feared that because of licensing problems, it would be the last one ever, which much of the documentary was focused. However, it wasn't, and it's still going on to this day. Temple assembled the film from the festivals films between 2002 and 2005, as well as an archive of over 700 hours of footage. Instead of focusing on what the festival is really about, the music, it focuses on the idiots and troublemakers who seem to spoil it for everyone else. Watching this makes you not want to go to Glastonbury ever, they should have used all the best acts on there over the past 40 years, this reeks of self-indulgence. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis Filmmaker Julien Temple documents the 35-year musical history of the Glastonbury Festival. Farmer Michael Eavis founds the United Kingdom's longest-running rock fest, where many music fans gather annually. Featured performers include Chris Martin and Morrissey.
Director
Julien Temple
Producer
Robert Richards, Christopher Heary
Distributor
ThinkFilm
Production Co
HanWay Films, Newhouse Nitrate
Rating
R (Some Sexual Content|Drug Use|Nudity|Language)
Genre
Documentary, Music
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 23, 2007, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 5, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA)
$7.3K
Runtime
2h 15m
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