User reviews

For anybody who came of age during the late 1960's/early 1970's,this film will probably be a feather in your cap. This film,shot mostly in a commune in Hawaii that seemed to be centered in various realms of spirituality was directed (?)by Chuck Wein, a former hanger on with Andy Warhol & the Factory clique (a few of which appear in this film). The film seems to be pure improvisation, as there is no screen writer mentioned in the credits,and the cast made up of various members of the commune. Don't try & make any kind of sense out of it (at least in the traditional way,anyway). The film seems to be very organic in it's presentation (shot in 16mm,which vies for it's kitchen sink,do it yourself look). The obvious highpoint of the film is the participation of Jimi Hendrix,who in addition to being filmed at a concert overlooking a volcano,also makes a non musical appearance,conversing with some of the various denizens of the commune. I suppose experiencing this film loaded to the nines on whatever psychedelic drugs one can get their hands on is a "must" for this film (but so were other films of this nature produced between 1967 to 1975). All I can say is, fish out those love beads that have been hiding in that back drawer for the last 30 plus years,turn on that black light,roll another number & drop this in your DVD/VHS player & get 'yer groove on.

oh, how those criticvs love to rip apart low-budget movies outside the box. In '70, that expression was unknown but the hippie culture was still going strong (though after Altamont, Kent, State, Isle of Wight, and losing Janis Joplin, the surge lost a lot of momentum).

one attractive feature is that viewers cannot make headz or tailz of this film until about the fourth FULL viewing. plus...and this means kudos the creative side: we are never sure if the actors are actors! now, that is acting! and directing! we have our hippie-corporate head liaison visiting the Meditation Center in Maui...just to see how the money is being wasted. Pat Hartley, very sexy in her hippie-tight jeans, makes the trek....she encounters many obstructions of the establishment, on the way.

she falls mesmerized by the true love, peace, contentment - dreal *harmony* she finds. her enthusiasm is then further increase when the man, THE hippie musician icon of the day, Jimi Hendrix arrives to rock out! Hendrix's performance is the centerpiece of the film, but it comes well *into* the proceedings. a great performance.

baby boomers, esp. those a tad too old for Elvis and just young enough for The Beatles, invite yourself to join the peaceniks.

First of all, you have to give credit where its due - the late 60's/early 70's sure was a time when proper leftfield stuff was unleashed in the cinemas. This film now seems a wilfully uncommercial and bizarre effort and I'm pretty sure even back in the day it must have been somewhat oddball. It centres around the people who live at the Hawaii hippy commune called the Rainbow Bridge. But its very difficult to determine what is acting and what is documentary - it seems to be a bit of both, with the emphasis heavily on authentic chat but in effect this is non-actors acting themselves (if that makes any sense). For that reason, this movie improbably is a precursor for the reality TV shows 'The Only Way is Essex', 'Made in Chelsea' and 'Geordie Shore'; but instead of featuring Essex girls, Geordies or toffs talking garbage, this film does the same thing but with hippies talking gibberish, albeit about 40 years earlier! So, you do have to be forgiving of listening to an awful lot of waffle because 80% of the runtime compromises of chat about new age nonsense. After enduring a lot of this interminable - and often barely audible - drivel, Jimi Hendrix pitches up and knocks out a few tunes in an open-air concert populated by our hippy friends. The musical segment, needless to say, is the highlight of the film and unsurprisingly is the angle that the movie poster's homes in on as the chief selling point, made even more pertinent as this turned out to be Hendrix's last live concert, seeing as he unfortunately died two months later.

The upshot is that this remains an oddity which can be cautiously recommended. As a snapshot of the hippy counter-culture, it offers an interesting time-capsule; albeit, it would work better as background viewing, as opposed to sitting down and giving this your full concentration. The Hendrix material is great of course, but it does only constitute maybe 20mins or so of the overall runtime. So, hard going overall but it has its good points.

I saw this movie when it came out, and was a bit disappointed at the time. I was in the movie as an extra and was paid free lunches during shooting and a free Hendrix concert on the side of Haliakala (sp?) volcano. The concert alone was worth the standing around and waiting to "act" in scenes. It was a great concert, I remember Foxy Lady and Purple Haze as highlights. The concert seemed to last most of the afternoon, he played lots of songs. One sort of silly thing (in hindsight) they had us do was sit grouped according to our astrological sign. I think they had 12 speakers, one focused on each group so Jimi could direct where the sound was focused while he played. I won't go into the theories behind this, it didn't seem to work out.

I don't think Hendrix showed up for the film till the day of or slightly before the concert. Most of the filming was done by then as I recall. Jimi Hendrix gave a great performance that day.

You know, this movie is odd, but interesting to watch. Taking from a completely different time and from a different view that most people at the time either didn't do themselves or couldn't understand. The reason why I said this film "could have been good" was due to the fact a lot of people watch this because of the Hendrix material in it. I personally have come to collect more than 400 Hendrix CD's, 50+ DVD's among many VHS tapes, posters, etc.....of Jimi Hendrix and I found this movie to be a real travesty. The Editing job during his play was so mies-matched, it made me forget the last hour of the movie and hate what I was seeing. There's parts where what the movie was showing him do wasn't even matching what was being played. I understand that it was made at a really low budget and at a different time however, I really think whoever actually let this movie be released was on some kind of drug that the editor was on because, it's obvious of all of the flaws. 2/10.

To begin, it would be a mistake to approach viewing this film as a "Jimi Hendrix film." As I understand it it began as a documentary about the Rainbow Bridge meditation center. When it was filmed nobody knew Jimi's death was but two months down the road. The film was supposedly bankrolled by the Brotherhood of Eternal Love (qv) -- the loosely knit communal family that first delivered mass quantities of high-quality LSD and Afghan hashish to the western world.

That said, the film could have benefited from some better writing and editing. Still, we are provided a window upon a moment in time and space when a positive vision of what might have been was still alive and progressing. Take the film and appreciate it. There will be no more like it. As strange as it appears at first glance it is valuable historical footage that is like none other. The Hendrix footage is just a bonus -- the icing on the sunshine-frosted cake.

I bought this DVD as a gift for a family member who is a Hendrix fan. We were both extremely disappointed. Jimi didn't even appear until well after the halfway mark. Then we got about 5 minutes of incoherent conversation and a 20 minute performance. The rest of the movie consists of hippy dippy conversation among members of some commune in Hawaii.

This was not what the the DVD package would have you believe. Jimi Hendrix name is in larger print than the title, and all the pictures on the package are of Jimi. A colossal rip-off.

I felt the need to give my opinion of this film, Rainbow Bridge, as a previous reviewer had left me cold with a rather incredulous review which I felt was a bit harsh, at times downright nasty in judging certain people ("She is obviously an uneducated moron"), shallow ("She is also buck-toothed and ugly") as well as egotistically presumptuous ("How did Hendrix fall in love with her?" which implies an ability to know what is right for other people more so that those people themselves)... This isn't me slamming some other reviewer; I'm simply attempting to provide an open-minded and fair counter balance… In my review you will find no attacks or judgments of other people (maybe criticisms of their attitudes, but nothing personal), or any naive presumptions of wisdom ("a obviously deluded earth-mother..." etc) So what kind of audience will Rainbow Bridge appeal to? Well, it will not be to everyone's taste, that's for sure. The most obvious audience are die-hard Hendrix fans and people who are into surfing films. But if you have an open mind and enjoy quirky 60's films, you might like this too (yeah yeah, I know it was filmed in 1970 and came out in '72, but lets not get pedantic about it ;-) In Rainbow Bridge, the validity of the psychedelic experience as a means of transcending normal human perception is debated. The pros and cons of such a method are discussed, and comparisons made between the effects of psychedelic substances and that of various meditation and yoga practices. The conclusion seems to be that psychedelics can be effective to a point, but are ultimately futile/counter-productive as a method in itself. However, this discussion, and that of extra-terrestrial life is, in my view, an interesting one and one which the late Terrence McKenna would delve into and elaborate on in years to come.

Rainbow Bridge is a product of its time, for sure, but that doesn't make it irrelevant or passé. On the contrary, the ideas expressed and the questions posed about the human condition are timeless, and seem to be re-emerging in relevance today. There is talk of higher life forms/extra-terrestrials/spiritually evolved beings (or whatever term appeals most to your particular frame of reference) that will no-doubt raise a few sneers from those among us who are convinced that we now have our collective finger on the pulse of reality, which is all cut & dry, and now that we know the world is not flat we need not keep our minds open any longer, and that "space people" is a possibility entertained only by a poor mindless/crazy/naïve/deluded few, and that anybody who openly questions these things is obviously in some brainwashed state (the irony!).

Actually, if one were to take an open-minded and entirely rational look at these questions, they may be surprised to find some logical basis for some of these ideas. Concepts that the layperson may find outlandish or even downright crazy, often have some basis in quantum physics, and there are many open-minded scientists out there who refuse to rule out any of this stuff.

But this is a review of a film, not a philosophical/scientific/spiritual debate, so lets move on! The final live footage of The Jimi Hendrix Experience (featuring Billy Cox on bass) is cool, but the sound is marred by strong wind (evident by the big sponges taped around the microphones!). As I say, it's cool, but not essential unless you simply have to have as much Hendrix footage in your collection as possible.

All in all it's a nice, unusual, quirky film featuring some cool footage of Hendrix casually hanging out, as well as performing live. Regarding the more "far-out" aspects of the film, I'll simply leave you with this thought, and let you make up your own mind: Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine.

The Jimi Hendrix soundtrack is superb but Chuck Wein's film is an embarrassing relic of the Sixties counterculture at its most self-indulgent and absurd. Hendrix is in the film briefly but most of it records the Aquarian Age musings of stoned out hippies who try to sound wise but have no earthly idea what they are talking about. Silly, dismal, and a blight on Hendrix's memory.

OK. Its not really a movie about Jimi Hendrix or a Jimi Hendrix concert. And yes it has a lot of hippie oriented nonsense in it. Still its a good window into times gone by. I remember seeing this in the theatre when it was released and thinking WOW what a great movie... I bought it recently and I still look at it fondly. Its worth the cost just for Hendrix's ROUSING Dolly Dagger.

A fun "BLAST FROM THE PAST".

For those of you curious what "Rainbow Bridge" was, I was too. After finally learning it was the most ill-conceived, disoriented festival, I advise you to use your time watching better documentaries of more significant events.

In the 80's I saw a Hendrix album "Rainbow Bridge-Original Motion Picture Soundtrack," at the record store and wonder why I had not heard of it. Before internet, it took years to find out the album was a scam. It did not contain any of his performances there. It has unreleased tracks for his Cry Of Love album. They were released in 1997 as First Rays of the New Rising Sun, but it's not a soundtrack.

In the 90's I spotted a VHS of Rainbow Bridge at a video store and eagerly brought it home, only to waste 2 hours and end years of wondering what it was. It is simply one of the worst documentaries ever made of a badly conceived, disorganized, incomprehensible waste of time, especially Jimi's.

My understanding is, in 1970 industry people Michael Jeffery & Chuck Wein talked Warner Bros. Into making a film combining the hippie-freedom-peace movement with the Hawaiian surfing culture, having Hendrix provide the music and perform at it.

They recruited Warhol actress Pat Hartley to walk around aimlessly, carelessly asking people their feelings of the world today before boarding a plane to Hawaii for the culmination of this unintelligible gathering.

Then you watch over 1 hour of stoned young people, wasted out of their minds, talking meaningless chatter they probably didn't remember the next day. Even a drunk Jimi Hendrix himself shows up in an attic, talking insensibly with some of these aspiring shamans.

The final and only redeeming part of this had musical guests Hendrix, Cox and Mitchell trio performing on stage. It is a short portion of edited song clips, sync'ed over the film. Apparently, the recording was so bad with noise, it was not used in the film.

Rainbow Bridge is one of the worst documentaries ever made. It was horribly filmed, with no direction or purpose, as was the entire half-baked idea.

On a positive note, Eddie Kramer and a staff of technicians, restored most of the audio and in Nov 2020 released Hendrix Live in Maui. The performance is great. As a Hendrix fan, I encourage you to instead enjoy this CD and First Rays of the New Rising Sun.

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!

Well....Do you love Jimmy, 60'S, and hippies? Then yes! Rent me!I joined a nudist vegetarian commune after watching this. I was born in the 70's and got robbed. I could not go see Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin...This gave me a spiritual taste of what the "movement" was really about. I also got to see the real Rainbow Bridge in Hawaii. I feel films like this are necessary to show the people younger than us what is was about also. I believe the Utopian like atmosphere that they were trying to create was ideal, however clouded by the overuse of the drugs. I often think to myself, besides Jimmy, are any of those people alive? They were into some heavy partying.

Rainbow Bridge is a favorite of mine because it features Jimi Hendrix. His music performance is great and he looks like he is having fun with it. Also, you are treated to some candid conversation between Jimi and other people which let's you see him as just a regular guy who is maybe just a little different than other people.

This is very much about the 60's and Jimi Hendrix and I just absolutely love this movie and its sense of humour ... Hat's off to Hartley as she makes her way to Hawaii for a private concert with Jimi Hendrix. Man, I wish I was from the 60's.

This was a awesome movie to see in the theaters when it first came out. I saw this movie in the midnight, movies back in Connecticut with all the cool kids; when it first came out. Midnight movies on the east coast was someplace you went after partying with your friends for a goof. Midnight movies started in New York City in the early 1970's. New York City is the neighboring city to the state of Connecticut. When I had gone to see Rainbow Bridge; I had already been to the midnight movies several times. It was the small theater room and it was packed, like I never remembered it being. I got there early and had prime seats with my friends. I am not proud of it, but I did a one hitter of marijuana before the film started (while I was in the crowded theater with my buddy). I had done this before during major rock concerts. The reason I said I was not proud of it; is because I got really uptight, after I realized no one else followed my lead. Same thing with the concerts. This place was packed with long haired college aged hippies and I was in my teens. It got so rowdy in there just before the film started they turned the lights on. This one long haired, long bearded dude got up and said something like; we need to all cool out now man. The people eventually calmed down. This movie is all about Hendrix as far as the music lyrics matching what goes on in the film. The way this movie starts was so innovated; I have never seen anything like it, to this day. A bunch of hippie hating guys on horseback shots this dude on a surf board and his spirit leaps out of his body; looking like the Led Zeppelin Swan Song logo. I will never forget seeing that scene back in the seventy's; it was pure epic rock and roll come to life. The song that plays during that scene is one of my favorite Jimi Hendrix songs. My second favorite seen is when Pat Hartley see's a jet plane then the next thing you know she is in Hawaii. Then there is this scene out of the blue; where this young black dude and lady sing this ballad that rivals the scene in the movie Hair, that features the song, Easy To Be Hard. I also liked the scene at the beginning where the Jesus freaks were trying to get Pat Hartley to be saved. This movie is full of innovative camera work and scenes; that should have set precedent in the film industry. The genius of this movie seems to have been completely ignored by the industry. The Hendrix music and sound effects are incredible too.

and/or the heart and the mind, a term, antahkarana, in Sanskrit or a yoga. This rather pretentious title for a "cosmic surfing film" features surfing by Mike Hynson, a surfer who's model with low rails resembles a thin Phil Edwards model(Endless Summer fame), and his Maui buddy Les Potts (hashish inside the surfboard) at small Maalea (highlighted by a Greenough inspired inside the tube looking out sequence), a red-hot David Nuuiwha (U.S. Champion) doing sideslips and smooth turns, B.K.(Sunset beach legend), Herbie Fletcher(the guy perpetually arching on the nose off the point at San Onofre), and others filmed upside down and backwards to resemble a drug experience. Surfing is used as a metaphor for "the spirit of 1969" or peak of the counter-culture or drug deluded "revolution" that a few of us experienced. The film explored sexuality, drugs, yoga, aliens from space, music, ecology, nutrition, astrology, and science during an extended "rap" discussion by an ensemble of acid laced hippies, a philosophic young follower of yoga, a obviously deluded earth-mother talking about our "space brothers", and an interesting scientist. Of course, the best rap is by a drunken Jimi Hendrix, which is printed on the inside sleeve of the out of print "Rainbow Bridge" album on Warner-Brothers. You can find it for about $25 on EBAY. The film features "Dolly Dagger" as she arrives in Los Angeles, hitchikes to San Diego airport, down the Pacific Coast Highway through Laguna and San Clemente, past Black's and Swami's, enroute to Hawaii. She has been sent to "inspect" the Rainbow Bridge Meditation Center on Maui to make sure no one is wasting money, which is a laugh. During this trip the film mixes sound and scenery to pull off visual metaphors. For example, you hear a 747 airplane as a seagull takes off from the beach, a dog barking as a drill instructor marches recruits, et. al. Once on Maui, Dolly Dagger gets high, and pops around talking drivel with the other hippies. She is obviously an uneducated moron, and was a famous groupy. If you read a few of the books on Jimi Hendrix, one of them documents in her in detail. She is most famous for her ability to score drugs and sucking the blood from the finger of Mick Jagger. She is also buck-toothed and ugly. How did Hendrix fall in love with her? Anyways, the film climaxes with an outdoor concert by Jimi Hendrix. This is Hendrix at his best, near the end of his days, as Mitch Mitchell slams at the drums along with the lackluster bass of Billy Cox. Despite the absence of Noel Redding; this is the best footage of Hendrix in concert you will ever see. If you are a Hendrix fan, I suggest you fast-forward to the concert. If you want to see the surfing, there isn't much. The film needs to cut everything but the surfing and the concert. The soundtrack album on Warner Brother is worth buying, too.

... very good film ... jimi hendrix's friend pat hartley arrives a few days before jimi hendrix ... there is an interesting mix of people at the house ... not all good ... not all bad ... some of the men are too busy doing astrological star charts for match-making - and in no way good - which surprises the woman with the long red hair - she has the horses ... jimi hendrix executes "mister rabbit" - the spokesman for the "ecological army" which we are currently contending with as they plant out jungle rot under a government guise - especially act government canberra - everywhere and are against food which we eat - believing in fad diets + cannibalism ... look closely to see the bullet hole in "mister rabbits" forehead ... the satellite dishes are worth a view for anybody with an interest in satellite dishes - my apartment in belconnen canberra on lake gininnderra overlooks one such satellite dish and there are many more in the canberra area ... the satellite dishes are also seen in the "pink floyd live in pompeii" film ... the "computer palace" being spoken about in "rainbow bridge" is in reference to the world wide web ... however this is not as big as people might expect at 120 commonwealth avenue 2600 ... historic hotel ... the concert is good with billy cox bass which is the best ... i am glad the people in attendance enjoyed the music ... i like this film a lot ...

I bought this DVD hoping for a great Hendrix concert. I was way off. He only plays very litte and even appears drunk in a few scenes. And just when the music starts getting good, it ends suddenly. I thought it was a faulty DVD, returned it to the store and the next one was the same thing. If your really hard up for some Jimi, there is about 15 to 20 minutes, and that is it!!