The 1969 Woodstock concert might very well be the most legendary
concert of all time. Not just only because who all performed but even
more so the stuff and atmosphere surrounding the entire event. It was
held at the height of the flower power craze and the entire event
became much bigger and longer than eventually anticipated, resulting in
some crazy events, as can be seen in this documentary.
Yes, it is a documentary but it doesn't really feel like one. This
sounds like a bad thing but it really isn't. It isn't a documentary
that gives you any insightful information about the planning and
execution of the whole event, with lots of backstage footage but it
more is one that simply shows all of the stuff, as it happened. This
gives you more the sort of feeling of what it must had been like, on
and around the farm fields, the concert was being held on. Nothing
about this documentary feels planned, as if they were just simply
shooting away as much material as possible, which later got put
together in the editing room by none other than Martin Scorsese, among
many others.
But the main emphasis is really put on its music and artist, with
occasionally some footage of the festival attendees and the people
living in the area, responding to all of the events. I liked it that it
showed all of the events from many different perspectives and wasn't
only just focusing on the beautiful and positive things that went on.
But really, when the music plays, there are absolutely no distractions
from it. The camera is filming the artist from the front only and
doesn't ever cuts or swirls away from them. I liked this approach,
which is quite different from normal other concert movies that often
tend to focus on the audience as well.
And there truly is some great music in this movie, played by some big
name stars. I was actually surprised how I was able to recognize pretty
much all of the artist that were on stage, even though all of them and
their biggest hits were far before my time. It should tell you
something about how legendary some of the persons that perform at
Woodstock were. Janis Joplin, The Who, Santana, Joe Cocker and of
course Jimi Hendrix, just to name a few, all make their appearances.
The documentary is also really a testament of its time. It shows the
atmosphere and the whole state of minds and mentality of youngsters,
around that time. Searching for love and peace, with the help of some
music..and lots of illegal substances! I can imaging how this bothered
some 'older' people and different people around that time but now days,
it's actually quite fun to watch all. It putted many of the festival
goers into a certain mood, which also made them do some crazy things.
One of the craziest things I saw in this documentary was a naked man
dancing with a real sheep in his arms, in the middle of a big crowed.
Why? Because he could of course! No one that looked surprised or
bothered by it, just because it fitted in with the whole ideology and
mentality of certain youngsters around that time. Everybody was allowed
to do what he wanted and whatever made him or her happy, as long as it
didn't involved any aggression.
It's a really long and extensive portrayal of the Woodstock events.
Depending on which version you are watching, the running time is close
to 4 hours. And not only that, it often is using split-screens, so
basically there is about 6 or 7 hours of footage to be seen in this
documentary. It probably also helps to make it good and suitable for
repeated viewings.
Simply a must-see for the movie lovers and for those who enjoy a good
concert registration, or are curious to find out what all that buzz
about that 'old' Woodstock concert event was all about.
8/10
Watch trailer
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