On their 50th anniversary, the Rolling Stones, with the support of archive footage and interviewed by director Brett Morgen, retrace the first 20 years of their career. The film discusses their early success in the 1960s; the way the media characterised the difference between them and
the Beatles; the exceptional musical talent of
Brian Jones; their first song-writing; the difference between the boy fans' aggressiveness that resulted in fights with the police and the girl fans' screaming hysteria;
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards drug use and their arrest; the musical contribution of Jones that was waning due to excessive use of drugs, and his death a few weeks after the separation from the band;
Mick Taylor's debut concert in
Hyde Park in memory of Jones and the return to world tours; the awful organization of the
Altamont Free Concert; their flight to tax exile in 1971; the recording of
Exile on Main St. in a villa on the south of France; Taylor's departure and the arrival of
Ronnie Wood; and the arrest of Richards in Canada for possession of heroin and his decision to
detox, to safeguard the future of the band. == Critical reception ==