No members of the Rolling Stones were involved in the making of this film but there is featured commentary from the Stones entourage, including tour manager Sam Cutler, band photographer Gered Mankowitz and 1969 tour manager and Altamont festival organizer Ronnie Schneider. The film does an excellent job of showing how the personal lives of the Rolling Stones dovetailed into the dark zeitgeist of the era; band members had been busted for drugs, original band guitarist Brian Jones passed away under questionable circumstances and the Rolling Stones were, as a whole, at the lowest point in their career.

The group had shown naivete at hiring the Hells Angels to provide security for Altamont but there was some logic behind the decision. The Hells Angels in England regularly provided security at concerts but their members were tea-swilling milquetoasts, not the thugs that comprised their American counterparts. Already at a low spot in their career and on a live performance hiatus, the group was anxious to reestablish themselves as top dogs in the States, and here the film chronicles how the band decided to pair with the Grateful Dead and others for the massive show at Altamont (the Dead, upon deeming the venue's security inadequate, pulled out.) The film does an excellent job of juxtaposing footage of violence from the festival with clips of the daily news, showing that, unfortunately, the time was ripe for something like this to happen. In essence, it answers the question "why?"