ElMaruecan82
Approaching the age of 35, I wonder what exactly defines my generation, what am I going to excitedly tell my children when they will ask me how it felt to grow up in the 80's or 90's, when years started with 19-. Sure, I can describe the shapes of videocassettes, I can also hum a few tunes of my childhood or hit songs from the teenage years, but again, what does define my generation?They had musical and spiritual communion in "Woodstock" and what do we have: bum-bum contests in Cancun? Give me a break (and not a spring one)! Watching "Woodstock" made me realize the extent of what I missed by being born too many decades later, I missed a youth, one that really captured values youth stood for: peace, unity and community, fun, innocence and love. This sounds corny but imagine Woodstock happening today: everyone would see it live on TV or Youtube, stars would come with armies of bodyguards, there wouldn't be one but dozens of helicopters buzzing around the area, imagine the security guards, the anti-terrorist controls, imagine all the i phones being raised to the air. Woodstock wouldn't be Woodstock, in fact, we wouldn't even have a Woodstock.The Woodstock Nation people, as they called themselves, didn't even know it would be filmed; they came, listened and lived the music, experienced to the bone whatever this new counterculture meant. We remember colorful details such as skin-dipping, naked girls dancing in the mud after the rain or naturally, pot-smoking, but from the standpoint of these young baby-boomers, it was the experience of a lifetime, one their parents could never understand, a moment of communion that would have at least existed for three days, for peace and music, like the subtitle says. They didn't know they were filmed but they knew they were part of a historical moment, no doubt.And Michael Hadleigh had a hunch that this wasn't going to be any rock concert, with sixteen cameras, an editor and a young assistant named Martin Scorsese (and how appropriate that it had to be Marty's, of all the filmmaking debuts), they went to that deserted farm of upstate New York and started shooting. The film opens with green lands, far from the crowded visions rooted in pop-culture, local townspeople commenting the incredible sights, it feels like an invasion, too many youngsters, but the tone is surprisingly easy-going, it seems that for once, peace would be more than a slogan. And it happened, people came for the music and apart from the rain, nothing ever interrupted the festival, the concert was free, in every possible way.Freedom, indeed, that was even the first song to open the concert, by Richie Havens. Look at him, he struggles with his guitar, he wears shoe-sandals, he interrupts his song, this is not a 'star', this is a singer with all the noble and spiritual craftsmanship the word carries.I said Woodstock wouldn't be possible today but even if we dared to spend three days without our precious electronic devices, we don't have artists like Havens. I'm not even sure we had them ten years ago, listening to the voice of all these J-named singers: Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix' electrifying rendition of the national anthem sent shivers down my spine, same with The Who, Santana, and even the names I didn't know about before watching "Woodstock". Every single one of them proved me that there was just something incomparable about music between the late 60's and early 70's.And the epic documentary finds the perfect balances between musical sequences and shots from the crowds when participants or cops give their two cents. One toilet-cleaner does it with a smile, he has a son in the festival and another in Vietnam, two visions of American, everyone has a saying about the event, sometimes, just a smile, a wink, say no more, there's the firm awareness that it is a significant moment of American history, one that became past when Hendrix and Joplin died in 1970, followed by Jim Morrison. Nixon resigned in 1974, and in Reagan's 80's, Woodstock would become a parenthesis… not to be forgotten though.I felt young again watching the documentary and listening to these songs, it was edited in such a way, with all the split screens, that I felt I was there, there was something really intimate as you could mix the experience with your own memories, a teen in the film is probably older than my father but for me, he was a kid. I wonder how many of them are still alive, I only hope they've watched the film again and realized that they were privileged people, they might not have had the adulthood they wished for but boy, they had the youth.Some generations can't afford this luxury, I don't think anything would defines the 80's generation, maybe it's a one-in-a-century phenomenon, but I wish I could feel part of something. Maybe this feeling of belonging to a community was integral to the success of Woodstock, but we also have communities right now, except that they are self-centered and antagonistic, there was an IMDb community but remember, they removed the boards, so… I don't think there would ever be a haven of peace like Woodstock in August 1969, it was too good to be true. But it was nice while it lasted.Now, I don't think the world was a more beautiful place by then, at the time of the events, Hollywood was stricken by the savage assassinations induced by Charles Manson and people died in Vietnam, and we don't live in a world devoid of beauty either, but "Woodstock" immortalized an era in one film and defined a generation.It all comes down to one thing, if anyone wants to know what was so great about the late 60's, watching "Woodstock" is enough.
brando647
I was born fifteen years after the iconic festival that brought together a half million people in Bethel, New York. As such, this is the closest I'll ever get to experiencing the magic that was three days of peace and music. In 1969, Michael Lang and his associates put together a music festival with some of the hottest acts the 60s had to offer, including the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and Santana. Director Michael Wadleigh did an amazing job capturing the vibe of the whole event. We're there as the stage is first erected and everything begins coming together, and then we watch as thousands of people begin swarming Max Yasgur's farm to attend.The film is loaded with interviews that cover gives us multiple perspectives of the festival. Multiple attendees fill us in on their experiences, what brought them to the festival, and what it means to them. Rather than just promoting the festival for all of its benefits, the filmmakers were sure to get opposing viewpoints as we see a local couple preach of the troubles having nearly a half million hippies swarm their small town. The interviews and candid footage of the attendees were probably the best part of the film for me. It's a chance to glance back in time to an counter-culture I will never get to experience.You can't comment on Woodstock without commenting about the music, and this movie has plenty. The live performances were amazing and I can't say how awesome it was to see some of my favorite artists performing in the flesh. Joe Cocker's rendition of the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends" is probably my favorite performance of the whole film, but there's so much more. The Who's killer performance ending with Pete Townshend smashing his guitar, Country Joe's crowd-rearing cheer, and Ritchie Havens' improvised "Freedom" were just some of the highlights. And of course, Jimi Hendrix blew my mind with his awesome closing performance. With the director's cut coming in close to four hours, it can be rough to watch in one sitting but it's totally worth it. My only regret is that some performances weren't included in the film because the artists didn't believe their performance was strong enough to be used, including one of my all-time favorites: Creedence Clearwater Revival.
