As a massive fan of Leonard Cohen, it's amazing to see any footage of him performing, let alone such an iconic performance. That being said, this documentary could have been so much better. For one thing, this film doesn't even show his entire performance! And much of what is here is inter-spliced with useless interview footage talking about Leonard Cohen and how great of a performer he is, which is ironic because this time could have been spent showing more of his performance. This documentary should have simply shown the whole performance from start to finish, but it repeatedly gets in its own way. This is definitely still is a must-see for fans of Leonard Cohen and his music, but I'm pretty disappointed by how the filmmakers mishandled such great material.

Basically footage from a 1970 concert, bookended and interleaved with some context and, thankfully, presented without much evident editing. Some audience scenes are inserted, and some modern interviews, to help set the context. The quality is surprisingly excellent, with very few artifacts of age; the picture and the sound are very clear.

Leonard Cohen has been an important force in music since the 1960s. For those of us who admire him and his work, this is a terrific look at a seemingly fearless performer as he was 40 years ago. His performance is perhaps less polished than now, but the powerful intimacy and kaleidoscopic imagery of his poetry are as affecting as ever. I'm grateful to the makers of this film for bringing this to us.

In 1970,documentary film maker Murray Lerner ('Festival','Jimi Hendrix At The Isle Of Wight',etc.)and his crew had the good fortune to be able to fly to the south of England,on the Isle of Wight to film the U.K.'s answer to Woodstock,The Isle Of Wight concert. What they got, besides hours & hours of incredible music,was the dark side of the festival,as well (riots,drug bummers,bad vibes,political subterfuge,mostly centered around gate crashers who just didn't want to cough up the three to five pounds to get into the festival,and copped the attitude that "music belongs to the people,man,so we should not have to pay"). All of this footage was assembled into a three hour plus feature film that sadly was pulled from being distributed,no thanks to the power that be,at that time (yeah,I'm talking about the corporate ambulance chasers working for the record companies that wanted a major piece of the pie). As a result,all of that footage sat in a can for twenty,plus years. Flash forward to twenty,plus years later. Murray Lerner's now legendary film of the Isle of Wight concert is trickling out,a little at a time. Here,we get to see Leonard Cohen's four a.m. set. A rumpled,unkempt,unshaven Cohen takes the stage,including his back up band (including a then unknown Charlie Daniels on fiddle,guitar & bass guitar),and manages to have the sleepy eyed crowd in the palm of his/their hand,starting with familiar L.C. anthems such as Bird on a wire,Suzanne,So Long,Marianne,and others. In between songs (and alas,sometimes during songs),we are availed to commentary by the likes of Joan Baez,Judy Collins & Kris Kristofferson,who also performed at the festival,but this does not hamper the film (much,anyway). Fans of Cohen,who are only familiar with his songs within the last ten,to fifteen years will be in for quite a treat. Not rated by the MPAA,this film has some brief,strong language,but little else to offend