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Rating:  - Woodstock Nation Rocks Out!
This is the seminal rock film of all time. I remember reading about the concert in "Rolling Stone", wondering about going, it sounds pretty good. But I was still in high school on the west coast, and the surf was up that summer. Then, when it hit the television news, the whole thing took up a life of its own...spontaneous combustion! Then the three-record set came out, the movie came out, the poster came out, the magazine coverage, and the books. With the passing of time, it's great the director's cut has been released, revealing more of what happened at the original Woodstock. Drop some brown acid, and take a wild ride!
Rating: - The counterculture's finest moment
Something happened in the '60s, and we're still feeling the effects of it now. Even as I type these words, my neighbors on the other side of the apartment wall are playing rock music REALLY LOUD -- I even like what they're playing, though I'm not sure what band's album it is. For better or worse, rock music and its attendant baggage have had an enormous effect on our culture: I would even go so far to say that a certain energy has been raised, and continues to be raised, by this sort of music.
Popular music began to change in the mid-1950s, as black rhythm-and-blues was sanitized for the white audience, or should I say that audience's parents. To make a long story short, popular music (according to a rock history documentary I saw some years ago) had been taken over by the bohemian element by 1969. From that time until sometime in the '90s, a large percentage of popular music actually had artistic merit: an anomalous situation in the history of the recording industry.
That reality is reflected by the Woodstock music festival of 1969, which the DVD being reviewed here documents. This DVD seems to be somewhat longer than the theatrical release was, with a few more acts shown. The only group that seems really out-of-place here is the novelty act Sha Na Na, who did a sendup of '50s rock. The rest of it is at least very good, with some of it being superb. Some of it left me with my jaw hanging open, even after all these years. The echoes of this energy still in some part animate us...
One thing about this that younger people might think about is that this was all new at the time: only 14 years before Woodstock, the number 1 hit for 1955 was Patti Page's "How Much is That Doggie in the Window." The WWII generation mostly hated our music; the width of that generational gap, perhaps the widest such gap in history, is shown by the difference between our music, and their music. I still can't stand watching Lawrence Welk...
Along with the music, there are short clips of life at the rock festival, including some interview footage. This footage nicely frames the music, and gives, I think, some sense of the spirit of the time.
I do have a small connection to this: in 1971 or '72, I met a guy at a party who told me that he was in the Woodstock movie -- he was one of the people who came over the fence at about the time they turned it into a free concert. I went and watched the movie again the next time it came around, and sure enough he wasn't lying.
My previous review to this was of the film _Groupies_, which I characterized as illustrating more of the everyday reality of those days.
This film provides the contrast to that, as it gives us a glimpse of the counterculture's peak moment. After that, it was all downhill; by the late '70s we had gone from "peace and love" to "disco sucks!" There was still a lot of good music to come, but that was truly our grand ball. I'm confident we won't see the likes of this again, nor will our descendants for some generations to come.
I give this one five stars: not only is the music terrific, but the film is superb as a documentary that gives a good impression of "how it was" to those not old enough to remember the time.
Rating:  - BUY THE VHS - not the DVD
Read the other reviews.
I bought the VHS to see if it was better than the DVD. It is! Better video AND sound quality. Warner Home Video did a poor job on the DVD version. It is NOT truly widescreen (as you will see if you buy the VHS). It is more pan-and-scan full screen. You WILL get a better movie by buying the VHS and copying it to DVD.
Rating:  - Woodstock "Raw" Three day event
They say that Woodstock is coming out on blue-ray in 2009, Fitting I since it will be the 40th Anniversary. But I do have a question for Warner Bros who own the outakes to the footage of the 1969 concert.
If there's a DVD worth of Jimi Hendrix performances not used in the original documentary but were edited and released to the public, Imagine what other performances exist of bands who performed at the concert.
If you read up on the making of the film, they say original runtime of the "first cut" of the film was 14 hours. I'd have to guess that there are more performances sitting in the vault waiting for them to be transfered and conformed to HD and mixed. It would be nice if they were available for download or it would be great if we could get them on DVD or blu-ray. There are other considerations that need to be considered. The artists, the producers of the film, as well as Woodstock Ventures would need to be compensated and that is probably the sticking point for all parties involved including Warners Brothers.
Come on Warners, hire a guy to oversee the release of these outake performances!
Rating: - Greatest Concert Film Ever So Why No Reissue?
A great film, and would be a five star review based on content, but this is the same exact DVD released at the start of the DVD era, and there's no excuse for that. This would be one of the few films I'd actually watch the entire special features dvd, and with 296 hours of unused footage, there's bound to be some great deleted material in there, not to mention the chance to do "where are they now" interviews with not only the performers and event planners, but they might also be able to track down some of the audience members who gave interviews. It would be interesting to see how responsibility and parenthood affected their outlooks on life, and how many were able to retain the youthful optimism that made the event one of a kind.
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