This iconic musical documentary covers the three-day 1969 music festival on the property of Max Yasger's farm that symbolized the late 1960s in terms of musical, social and political ideology of the era. American audiences are introduced to Ten Years After, featuring guitar great Alvin Lee. Jimi Hendix, The Who and Joe Cocker give riveting performances. As naked flower children romp, the New York freeway is closed because of traffic congestion. Music lovers leave their cars and travel on foot only survive torrential downpours of rain, food shortages and non-stop music. Jefferson Airplane gives the wake up call with their song "Volunteers Of America." Crosby, Stills and Nash deliver a memorable performance. John Sebastian gives an impromptu set with a borrowed guitar from Tim Hardin. Santana, Sly and The Family Stone, Sha-Na-Na, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens and Joan Baez also appear. The movie did big box office business and a successful three record set sold millions of copies. The Grateful Dead, Credence Clearwater Revival and Janis Joplin performed but were not shown in the film. The Dead's Jerry Garcia recalled that it was the worst live show the band ever did, ironic for a band known for their spirited live performances. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
Review
Woodstock set the standard for all rockumentaries to come. Sensing that the 1969 Woodstock concert would be something more than a mere "happening", director Michael Wadleigh brought along a battalion of cinematographers and assistants. As a result, what could have been an aloof, detached record of the landmark concert is as "up close and personal" as it was possible to get without actually being there. Utilizing widescreen, splitscreen, and stereo-sound technology to the utmost, Wadleigh puts us right in the middle of the 400,000 screaming, mud-caked spectators, then zooms in to loving closeups of the stars. Edited by Martin Scorsese (among many others), the finished product won the 1970 Oscar for Best Documentary -- and was also stamped with an "R" rating due to some innocuous (by modern standards) nudity and profanity. The talent lineup includes Canned Heat, Richie Havens, Country Joe and the Fish, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Santana, David Crosby and Stephen Stills, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Arlo Guthrie, John Sebastian, Sly and the Family Stone, Ten Years After and Sha Na Na. The original 184 minute running time was expanded to 224 minutes for the 1994 video version, featuring previously excised footage of Janis Joplin. One of the best shots in Woodstock has no music at all: the final image, as a group of dour policemen survey the garbage and debris left behind by the Woodstock Naton. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Jefferson Airplane; Arlo Guthrie; Richie Havens; Jimi Hendrix; Santana; Sha Na Na; Ten Years After; Canned Heat; Country Joe & the Fish; Roger Daltrey; Pete Townshend; Johnny Winter; Bill Graham; Janis Joplin; Country Joe McDonald; Keith Moon; John Sebastian; Stephen Stills; Hugh Romney - (Wavy Gravy); Sly & the Family Stone; Joe Cocker and The Grease Band
Credit
Thelma Schoonmaker - First Assistant Director, Martin Scorsese - First Assistant Director, Michael Wadleigh - Director, Jere Huggins - Editor, Thelma Schoonmaker - Editor, Martin Scorsese - Editor, Michael Wadleigh - Editor, Yeu-Bun Yee - Editor, Joni Mitchell - Composer (Music Score), Larry Johnson - Composer (Music Score), David Myers - Cinematographer, Richard Pearce - Cinematographer, Michael Wadleigh - Cinematographer, Don Lenzer - Cinematographer, Sonya Polonsky - Production Manager, Lewis Teague - Production Manager, Bob Maurice - Producer, Larry Johnson - Sound/Sound Designer, Larry Johnson - Sound Editor
Both cuts take liberties with the timeline of the festival. However, the opening and closing acts are the same in the film as in real life, i.e., Richie Havens opens the show and Jimi Hendrix closes it.
In 1996, Woodstock was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". An expanded edition of Woodstock, released on June 9, 2009 in Blu-ray and DVD formats, features additional performances not before seen in the film, and also includes lengthened versions of existing performances featuring Creedence Clearwater Revival and others.
* studio recording from an album by the artist ** director's cut only, not in the original theatrical release
Reception
Woodstock received universal acclaim from critics, earning a 100% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.[6] The film was also an enormous box office smash, grossing $50 million in the United States on a tight budget of $600,000,[7] easily making it the sixth highest grossing film of 1970.
Woodstock Generation
19**–20**
R.I.P.
it up
Tear it up
have a Ball
– Woodstock (director's cut) closing credits
In 1994 a director's cut (subtitled 3 Days of Peace & Music) was released that added over 40 minutes to the film and included performances by Canned Heat, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin that were omitted from the original release. Jimi Hendrix's set at the end of the film was also extended with two additional numbers. Some of the crowd scenes in the original film were replaced by previously unseen footage.
On June 9, 2009 a remastered 40th Anniversary edition was released on both Blu-ray and DVD. The 40th Anniversary edition is available as both a two-disc "Special Edition" and a three-disc "Ultimate Collector’s Edition". The film was newly remastered and provided a new 5.1 audio mix. Two extra hours of rare performance footage, features 18 new performances as never before seen from 13 groups, including Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald, Santana, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker and five (Paul Butterfield, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead, Johnny Winter and Mountain) who played at Woodstock but never appeared in any film version.
The previous DVD edition was released in 1997, with reviewers on Amazon complaining of its VHS-like quality.[9]
Cultural references
In the science fiction thriller The Omega Man, Colonel Robert Neville (played by Charlton Heston) is seen traveling to a movie theatre in Los Angeles to screen the film alone. Woodstock had been the most recent film debuting prior to the onslaught of biological warfare, and Neville darkly remarks the film is so popular it was "held over for the third straight year". As he repeats some of the dialogue verbatim, it is clear that Neville has repeated the ritual many times during the two years that he has believed himself to be the last man alive on Earth.
Saunders, Dave (2007). Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties. London: Wallflower Press. ISBN1905674163.
Bell, Dale; (edited by) (1999). Woodstock An Inside Look at the Movie that Shook Up the World and Defined a Generation. Studio City: Michael Wiese Productions. ISBN0-941188-71-X.
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