Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead

Long? Yes, four hours. Strange? The Dead Heads can be a bit weird. Trip? LSD does play a major role in the story of the Grateful Dead. Filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev’s aptly-titled epic documentary traces the evolution of the San Francisco rock band Grateful Dead from their pre-Dead 1965 incarnation as the Warlocks—playing as countercultural novelist Ken Kesey’s (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) house band at his famed "Acid Test" LSD parties—to becoming Warner Bros. recording artists releasing albums that were notably low on singles (until the breakout 1970 hit "Truckin’), to performing in the U.S. and Europe in the ‘70s with their unwieldy 500-speaker "Wall of Sound" array, and up through their surprise popularity in the MTV ‘80s thanks to the megahit "Touch of Grey," followed by the drug-related death in 1995 of frontman/guitarist Jerry Garcia. New interviews with classic band members (guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh, drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, lyricist John Perry Barlow), relatives, road crew, early manager Sam Cutler ("The Grateful Dead are dumb"), Warner exec Joe Smith, and Dead Heads (including Al Franken) are combined with extensive archival performance footage for a well-rounded portrait of a highly influential rock group whose freeform approach to music and life was their signature characteristic. Presented in DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo on DVD, and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and LPCM stereo on Blu-ray, this is highly recommended. (R. Pitman)