The Beatles or the Stones? By late 1969, the question was redundant because the Fabs had all but split whereas their Satanic Majesties were in their self-congratulatory, most decadent pomp. At the end of Ang Lee's (underwhelming) forthcoming comedy Taking Woodstock, the character of promoter Michael Lang says he's heading to California to help put on another free gig, starring the Stones. What could be cooler? Except as the decade hurtled towards its end, with Vietnam and the Manson murders, a band dabbling in witchcraft and revolutionary politics was never likely to lead peace and love campfire singalongs.

Instead, their show at Altamont on 6 December was the pyre on which all the optimism of the 60s burnt. Early on in the Maysles brothers and Charlotte Zwerin's documentary (now fully restored and handsomely packaged), an organiser warns of the hordes descending on the site: "It's like lemmings to the sea."

Framed by Jagger watching the rushes of the murder of Meredith Hunter by Hells Angels during Under My Thumb, at a point when it didn't seem as if the atmosphere could get any heavier (and check the alsatian walking across the stage!), the film is underscored by a sense of dread. The exception is the scene of the band listening back to their recording of Wild Horses at Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama, when you're reminded of why they were the greatest (with Keith, in snakeskin boots, making his claim to be the ultimate rock deity). But to see Jagger pleading "Brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, everybody be cool... come on!" in the manner of a querulous teacher as violence flares is to be reminded of the very real limits of the music.