Woodstock (1970)

I love this movie so much

the audience applauded

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This is the ultimate hippie heaven. A concert that had paying customers until they break down the gates and overwhelm the system is symbolic here of what this concert film is. 9 Months after this concert, I think there was a group of babies born because the number of women running around naked at this concert is still a world record. There is love, mellow drug use, and lots going on. I am not sure how these 3 days were edited down to 3 hours, but I doubt that any footage that did not make the film is any different than what did.The biggest band here from concerts previous to this one is Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. While these 4 were together, they were at the top. After Neil Young left the group, there would be rumors at every CSN concert that Young would join them. It still has never happened, though CSN has done pretty well without Young. Woodstock has tracks from the group with Young, though it was only their second concert as a group. The rest of the line up here is a rock hall of fame. Some of the best musical acts of the era played at Woodstock, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Band, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Ten Years After, Joan Baez, Santana, Joe Cocker, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. All that is missing are the Rolling Stones and Beatles. The whole line-up- 1 Friday, August 15 to Saturday, August 16 1.1 Richie Havens 1.2 Swami Satchidananda 1.3 Sweetwater 1.4 Bert Sommer 1.5 Tim Hardin 1.6 Ravi Shankar 1.7 Melanie Safka 1.8 Arlo Guthrie 1.9 Joan Baez 2 Saturday, August 16 to Sunday, August 17 2.1 Quill 2.2 Country Joe McDonald 2.3 Santana 2.4 John B. Sebastian 2.5 Keef Hartley Band 2.6 The Incredible String Band 2.7 Canned Heat 2.8 Mountain 2.9 Grateful Dead 2.10 Creedence Clearwater Revival 2.11 Janis Joplin 2.12 Sly & the Family Stone 2.13 The Who 2.14 Jefferson Airplane 3 Sunday, August 17 to Monday, August 18 3.1 Joe Cocker 3.2 Country Joe and the Fish 3.3 Ten Years After 3.4 The Band 3.5 Johnny Winter 3.6 Blood, Sweat & Tears 3.7 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 3.8 Paul Butterfield Blues Band 3.9 Sha Na Na 3.10 Jimi HendrixThree Days, three nights, history made. The crowd got larger and larger as the legends played. When the concert ended, the resulting traffic jam leaving forced New York State to open a brand new interstate route 17, before it was completed, to relieve the congestion. So many people had come in, the existing roads could not handle the exit traffic.Hendrix closing this concert was incredible. There was a hope for world peace at this concert that never quite came off. In fact, it is more distant today then it ever was then. When Vietnam ended, it seemed like peace had come at last. This concert was the intersection of sexual freedom, peace, and mellow drugs. All of these went off the deep end after it. The hard part for today's young viewers is understanding how this feeling existed, and why it went away in the years after? Almost 50 years later, and a lot of this is fading. The good thing is this film proves it existed. The bad thing is every thing that happened after it has been down hill from the top of the peace movement represented here.

This is a documentary of the iconic 1969 three-day music festival in upstate New York. The use of the split screen is interesting. It gives the movie a sense of chaos and energy. The performances are iconic to say the least. It is a little funny to follow Sha Na Na with Joe Cocker. The cheesiness of the choreographed dancing clash decisively with the raw power of Cocker. The music is generally great, raw, and close-up. There are some other scenes like the yoga class that breaks up the movie and gives it some fun. It's also gets full marks for being a time capsule of that landmark event. It does run long but it was quite an event.

The reason I chose this title for my review is so that others don't make the same mistake I did years ago and miss-out on about 2 hours of this movie. "American Movie Classics"...not quite! Any self-proclaimed "classic" channel that censors an American Classic is hypocritical. Kinda-like the Nazis burning books - 'you can read and see this...but, not this!?!?'Back in the summer of 2000, I was so excited that "Woodstock" was going to be shown on the American Movie Classics (AMC) channel that afternoon.I hadn't seen this movie for many years before that and planned on making a VHS recording of it.Anyhow...I watched that recording many times over the next fifteen years until I saw "Woodstock" on the IndiePlex channel this month (September 2015).I'll never watch the 'edited' version of this movie again! I never even realized that I'd recorded a watered-down version of this since I hadn't seen the unedited version in decades (around 1976, I believe!?!?).To say the very least...the unedited version is excellent! This movie (Rockumentary) isn't just about the music or the musicians, it's about an entire generational subculture of people who were, for the most part, on their way out in many ways...some good, some bad. For many of them, it was their last hoorah before the 1960s ended...and, what a hoorah it was!I've always loved concerts. I've been to many in my youth, and, have many on VHS and DVD. However, to me, "Woodstock" (1969) is by far the best because it's not 'only' a concert...it's a major event that defined much of the 1960s!In retrospect...imagine if 'everyone' invited to perform at "Woodstock" actually showed up (The Beatles; The Rolling Stones; The Doors; Led Zeppelin; Jethro Tull; Iron Butterfly; The Moody Blues; Chicago; and, so many more)!?!? They could have made it into a mini-series! :)

Woodstock (1970) **** (out of 4) Oscar-winning film is part documentary and part concert film as it captures three days at Woodstock, NY where between August 15-18 a countless number of people showed up for some great music by the best known artists of the time. The director's cut, clocking in at 225-minutes, is mammoth in regards to everything it captures but no matter which version you watch, the documentary remains something so important that you can't help but be transported back to the actual event. As a documentary this is an important film just because of what this concert has become over the past few decades and it really captures the mood of the times. There are several times in the movie where we concentrate on the people in the crowd and this includes not only the wild stuff with the sex and drugs but we also get some interviews where the kids talk about their parents not understanding what they're about and why they have long hair. It's really amazing that through all the wild and crazy drugs and music that the film allowed some quiet, more tender moments and it works. As the festival went on and people ran out of food and water, the things grew more crazy and we get some of the most iconic scenes in history.As far as the music goes, there were a lot of festivals in the history of rock 'n roll around this time but I think it would be fair to say that this here contained the greatest line up. It really does seems as if the artists just walked out on that stage, saw the huge crowd and knew that they had better bring their A game. I think this is one concert film where you could say that there's really not a weak performance to be found. You could pretty much call every performance a highlight but some that really stand out include: Richie Havens (Freedom), Canned Heat (A Change Is Gonna Come), The Who (Summertime Blues), Joe Cocker (With a Little Help From My Friends), Arlo Guthrie (Coming Into Los Angeles), Crosby, Stills & Nash (Suite: Judy Blue Eyes), Country Joe McDonald (Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-to-Die-Rag), Sly and the Family Stone (Dance to the Music), Janis Joplin (Work Me, Lord) and of course Jimi Hendrix closing out the film with a set including a masterful "The Star-Spangled Banner," which has to be one of the greatest performances ever given on a guitar.WOODSTOCK, whether in its original version or the director's cut, is pure magic and it's just amazing that the filmmakers were able to get all of this stuff on camera. They could have just shot the stuff on the stage and it would have been a masterpiece because of how great the performances are. By the filmmakers knowing that they had something special on their hands and filming the people in the crowd, they really captured something for a generation. The event now is seen as something legendary and we're all lucky that we have it on film for future generations to see.