Woodstock (1969) - movie discussion

thank you, guys, for your comment. you can imagine i was similarly amazed reading this - and my curiosity is immense. alas, i won't be in for rental of a 16mm copy - at this price to boot. but for those interested: there's another early woodstock flick mentioned in the 38cd book - a documentary by one h.j. roman, being shown as early as autumn '69, but i couldn't trace any info at all about it.

 

I wonder if the incidental Jethro Tull music that's in the the movie briefly, is on the box box..?

 

andy zax mentioned in the accompanying book to the box that they couldn't include any incidental music - rights, it's always the rights. but he listed some records that were played, "if you'd like to replicate that experience for yourself at home - rain and mud optional" (quote).

 

My wife and I attended a showing on Thursday night (Aug 15). Only about 20 people in the theater with us.

Extended Directors Cut cut allowed for more atmosphere and detail. It was dirty ! There were problems ! And you can defiantly tell the cinematographers were men !

It has been several years since I saw the movie, and even then it was in a communal boisterous environment on a TV screen. Now I could concentrate on performances etc. Most performances were good-very good. Creative or judicious editing allowed most artists to appear at their best- allegedly Janis Joplin was tripping on acid when she performed, and many of the musicians were drunk when on stage.

The split screen effects were innovative at the time, and part of the soul of the movie. Changing them or taking them out changes the movie not entirely for the better.

I have to single out Joe Cocker- we've all seen his performance and some feel it is a cultural touchstone. But seeing it restored, on the big screen with decent sound was a surprise. The initial power cord of organ, guitar, and bass hits with visceral impact and the sound makes the air shimmer in its wake. Then the visuals of a musician having a combination of a nervous breakdown, and strike by lightening leaves even the viewer exhausted and sweating by the end. Cocker about collapses as he walks off of the stage drenched in sweat.

Jefferson Airplane were the epitome of Cali Cool. Grace Slick in white, with all black hair, electric blue eyes, CA suntan, and tight grooves. They are shown playing for a short time, but the camera lingers on Grace during the performance and after as she digs another band.

Sly Stone exhorting 400k to respond HIGHER when he waves his arm.

Carlos Santana becoming a super star right there on stage.

Canned Heat looking exactly like they were, beer drinking white boy jammin frat band.

And Jimi blowing everyone's mind at the end.

 

it is a special movie, it will always be a special movie and I will watch it every year in celebration of a great, great weekend!

 

I just watched the PBS doco last night and found it very moving. I actually got a little teary-eyed at the thought that you could have 400,000 people in one place and have almost no violence, everybody cooperating, people feeding each other what little they had, and the local farmers and residents contributing canned foods, fruits, vegetables, and water as best they could. Very gracious and unselfish.

It's also very sobering to look at the beautiful, bright-eyed teenagers and 20-somethings in the muddy ground of Yasgur's Farm and realize they're all fifty years older today... if they survived. The documentary also cited the ongoing Vietnam War and how many of the young men attending Woodstock were terrified of being drafted, so that was something else that hung over the festival. At least the music and the drugs and the camaraderie took everybody's minds off that for a few days.

It's shocking to consider how disorganized and idiotic the festival organizers were at putting this thing together. Hell, even if only 100,000 people showed up (similar to the 90,000 that came to Monterey Pop two years earlier), they should've had at least 5000 toilets and several hundred food vendors. It's insane they didn't get that prepped prior to show time. At one point in the documentary, one of the surviving festival staff says, "at this stage, we were right about where we should be if the concert was happening in November. But it was happening in four days!"

Woodstock | American Experience | PBS

 

Is there any home movie footage available of the Festival? (Not counting the $100 to rent movie)

I realize many of the crowd were tripping, etc, so filming might not have been the first thing on their mind, but I figure maybe someone in the crowd had a Super 8, etcetera.

And not to get too off topic , but I've always wondered something. I've only ever been to multiple day festivals in the 1990s and 2000s. At all of these there were campsites away from the stage area to pitch your tent. Watching Woodstock, I don't see camping, and obviously there wasn't space for 400, 000 cars. So everyone just slept in the open an the concert field for 3 days? I never even see any tents, etc anywhere.

 

I can't believe it was 50 years ago...sometimes it seems like yesterday when I close my eyes and imagine that weekend! I thought about it a lot this past weekend! ; )...O' to be young again and not care about being hungry, wet and crowded...being able to just enjoy the music with so much excitement from seeing your favorites live on stage! IT was AWESOME! People really believed in Peace and Love, sharing and caring...it was just genuine...really. : )

 

yea, like sardines! LOL...one big happy family...

 

I had the same emotional reaction watching last night. I found it really moving.

 

Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, Tell me, where are you going
This he told me
Said, I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm
Gonna join in a rock and roll band
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
Well, then can I roam beside you?
I have come to lose the smog,
And I feel myself a cog in somethin' turning
And maybe it's the time of year
Yes and maybe it's the time of man
And I don't know who I am
But life is for learning
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we…
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust, we are golden
We are caught in the devils bargain
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
Source: LyricFind

 

Joni Mitchell has said in a way she was glad she didn't go to the real Woodstock and instead wrote the song after seeing bits and pieces of the concert on TV while in New York City. If she had actually been there (as her boyfriend Graham Nash was), she would've likely had a much more jaded, cynical impression of how dirty and disorganized it was. Instead, she saw the good in the gathering, and the caring spirit that many people had over that weekend, and I think her lyrics captured something timeless and magical and important.

Ironically, the version of the song I love the best is not her version, and not the CSN version, but the later 1971 Top 40 hit version by Matthews Southern Comfort:

 

maybe something like this:

oh yes, there were camping grounds - they can be seen on sitemaps and footage. one, for example, was behind the stage area on the right hand side (from audience view point).

 

Thanks. I guess this shows why we don't know about these "home movies."

Then about an hour later a friend sent me this link. 784 Woodstock videos. Good grief!

Woodstock - YouTube

 

yeah, that probably includes all and everything under the woodstock moniker available on yt. and most of it is well-known.

 

That yasgurs farm thing is pretty cool to watch.

 

Is the PBS doc only on DVD or is it out on Bluray as well?

 

I didn't see a Blu-ray mentioned, but I noticed last night it was available in HD streaming on Netflix.

 

I assume this DVD (which is supposed to be released on 9/13) is not the same as the one being discussed here?
Woodstock: 3 Days That Changed Everything on DeepDiscount

 

I probably put this in the wrong thread. I was referring to the PBS documentary. Sorry.

 

No it is not the movie being discussed here.

But it IS the PBS American Experience documentary.

 

Then what is this?

 

no, it's not - different director . . . and different title.

 

Sorry guys. That picture didn't come up on my browser and I confused the title.

 

No problem. Just wondering if anyone knows anything about it.