Eternally ebbing just around the edges of cinema lore there exists a handful of films that, for one reason or another, you were never allowed to see. Whether legal or personal, the reasons behind such a decision more or less guarantee that someone, somewhere it going to doggedly pursue the film until a copy is unearthed. Take, for example, The Rolling Stones 1972 backstage documentary "Cocksucker Blues", a film that so dissatisfied the band that they got a court order to keep it out of distribution.The story goes that in 1972, legendary still photographer Robert Frank was involved in a documentary that would capture the Stones – for better and for worse – during their North American tour to promote their album "Exile on Main St." The result was "Cocksucker Blues", a film with a very simple approach, the band is filmed cinéma vérité, warts and all, with several cameras lying around back stage so anyone could pick one up and start filming. This means that any and all backstage bits of debauchery and excess could and would be captured on film, everything from wild sex parties to rampant drug use. What you see in the film is not exactly surprising. The Stones were not happy with the results. They were concerned about their image as it was portrayed in the film (but more likely because some of the things they are doing on film could land them in jail.) For years, "Cocksucker Blues" (which Mick wrote to irritate the record label) remained hidden and was only screened on the provision that it was allowed to be shown a few times a year with the director present. Meanwhile, for the public, it became a bootleg legend. Bad copies were available from indie video stores and later some bad looking prints began showing up around the internet. Today, more people have probably seen the film than any decade past, and for the hard-lined movie obsessed, the film is something of a lost legend.Now, let's get to the million dollar question. Is the movie any good? Well, that depends on you. The movie isn't exactly insightful, what is contained in this film (and what stays in your memory) are the moments of sex, drugs and rock and roll. The band and nearly every member of their entourage do drugs freely. Keith and Mick do drugs only in fleeting glances. Look fast and you can see Mick snorting cocaine off a knife. A glance captures Keith rolling up a dollar bill before shooing away the cameraman. Others are not so careful. One disturbing scene has a couple shooting heroine in their hotel room and, as they talk to the camera, you can slowly see the drug taking effect. The sex is just as frequent. Lots of naked people (mostly women), lots of sex, especially during a wild party on an airplane that culminates in the most bizarre display of cunnilingus you're ever likely to experience.Those moments happen frequently but in between are quite moments when we get a look at the band during downtime. This was 1972, the 60s were over, and the band was obviously tired. We can see that they are exhausted, possibly by the lifestyle, possibly by each other. Mick Jagger in particular has moments when he is in serious need of a good night's sleep. Maybe it was the times; this was the band's first North American tour since four people were killed at their free concert at Altamont four years earlier. The free love generation was on its way out, 60s anger was about to give way to 70s indifference and there are moments – fleeing moments – when you can see that the members of the band would rather be somewhere else. Then they hit the stage and their lethargy all but disappears. The Rolling Stones have always occupied the stage with fire and energy and none of that is lost here. The best moment – in fact the best moment in the entire movie – occurs when the Stone are on stage singing a medley with Stevie Wonder. That moment was magic. I could have watched an hour of that material.What are not so magical are the moments when the film grinds into tedium when the band and their entourage are backstage or in their hotel room just doing nothing. The camera is on, it captures some people talking or just laying around and those scenes go on and on. Those moments I could do without. "Cocksucker Blues" is not a great movie; it's more of a curiosity that captures a legendary band at a crucial moment in their history, if not on their best behavior.*** (of four)

'Cocksucker Blues' is a cinema-verite style time capsule, filmed by American photographer Robert Frank, who functions as a sort of fly on the dressing room wall, so to speak. As such, comparisons to any other existing "rockumentary" are pointless.The film is essentially a collection of real life situations captured during the Rolling Stones' infamous 1972 U.S. tour, when their celebrity status had reached critical mass. Viewers are sucked into the band's fishbowl existence, travelling from jet to hotel to venue, spending time, in many cases, in a surprisingly un-glamorous fashion.If nothing else, the film lets the fan into the eye of the storm; the band's onstage performances are repeatedly set in contrast with their travelling constraints, while around them both the media and the public continually orbit in a veritable feeding frenzy.The viewers' realization of what is the general event-less reality of a rock band's actual offstage touring experience--even more pointed, given the Stones' worldwide notoriety--makes the live musical highlights all the more impressive, and reveals insight into why no hotel room t.v. is safe from any rock band who can (or, sometimes, can't) pay for what they destroy.The band's treadmill lifestyle, coupled with the fact that the group is all but isolated from their fans lends perspective to why touring bands tend to indulge in random acts of destruction, self and otherwise. Possibly the most inane segment of the film is the backstage presence of seriously unwelcome hangers on such as writer Truman Capote and Princess Lee Radziwill, tabloid-style jet setters for whom the Stones are merely the Flavour of the Week, their dressing room another place to be "seen".Obviously, a tour film's main appeal is to the fans of the group. In the case of the Rolling Stones, their inner sanctum is harder to reach than almost any other, and considering the mythology that has built up around the band over the last 30 years, they deserve credit for having the courage to reveal their private world, warts and all.Anyone who has seen the film can understand why it has never seen official release, and probably never will. And that just makes 'Cocksucker Blues' an even bigger treat for true fans of the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World. See it if you can; regardless of its' flaws, it's still an amazing document of yet another turbulent period in the amazing lifespan of this remarkably resilient band.

I like both Robert Frank and the Rolling Stones, but this combination is not that hot. As the other reviewer ( withnail-4) pointed out, this is pretty banal with lots of drug taking. Robert Frank is a photographer and this film seems like a motor wind gone wild. Imagine the "Exile on Main Street" cover coming to life and you have a pretty good idea of what this film is going to be like. The mystique comes from the fact that the Rolling Stones have done a pretty good job of keeping this off the market and out of the theatres. Thanks to modern technology, this film is pretty readily available in forms of varying quality. In fact, it was a local film groups showing this from a DVD that rekindled my interest in seeing the film. Short of being a serious fan of the Stones, you will be pretty bored with this film. You might even be pretty bored if you are a serious

I used to think that 'Gimme Shelter' was the end all, be all of Rolling Stones documentaries. The Maysles' film is undeniably heroic, but its shine and polish, its squeaky clean view of the Stones as consummate professionals utterly belies the fact that road life with the skinny brits did involve a good deal of sex, drugs, and a bit of rock and roll too. Filmed during a tour to promote my personal favorite Stones record, 'Exile on Main St,' 'Cocksucker Blues' is a grimy, sordid foray in the behind the scenes workings of the Rolling Stones machine. Gloriously filmed in both color and black and white super 8, and artfully presented with a strong focus on non-diagetic audio tracks, 'Cocksucker Blues' is no simple document of events, but a solid work of art in its own right. The haphazard filming style during performances is more kinetic and subjective than the Maysles' lens and suits the jarring, hell-bent nature of the music. The craziness of tour life is captured in some particularly amazing and unforgettable scenes. The kook, nearly suicidal fan, whose baby's been taken away due to mom's acid habit, the primitive and forceful disrobing of women on the plane while the band cooks up a beat to go with it, and the junky sound man all create a subterrainian truthful texture to the Stones experience that was most likely not available to the Maysles brothers.