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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This IS the Woodstock backstory. If you want the concert music, watch the documentary!, February 7, 2010
This was a real treat. Being an extreme Woodstock-phile I know alot of small behind the scenes facts and details. The Michael Wadleigh documentary is simply the holy grail of doco's! I was under the assumption parts of this were made up for the movie and I refused to go to the theatre to see it. I was sooo wrong! Not only is it factual, they nailed so many details taken and recreated from the documentary!Like the nuns being filmed while flashing a peace sign! The Earth Light players! Hog Farmers!
All of the people who whine that it's a movie about a concert with no music in it, GO WATCH THE MICHAEL WADLEIGH 4 HOUR DOCUMENTARY! In fact, if ya wanna make a weekend of it, watch them back to back! This tells the background of the concert and the local politics. You don't need a movie with the music in it...The documentary already exists and more people need to become hip to it. This movie just made my heart jump when the first helicopter lands at the El Monaco motel!
Eugene Levy's portrayal as Max Yasgur is uncanny. No other actor could have pulled that off but him. He looks and talks just like the real Max. Watch the documentary right before Hendrix near the end and you won't believe the likeness! A perfect companion to the Academy Award winning documentary!
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film, great performances, and a brownie-serving drag queen!, December 10, 2009
I was lucky enough to see this movie in an actual theatre (remember those?) this past September, and it really was a delight. Watching with a small group of friends and loved ones, I felt a kinship with the central character and his simple desire to do something, anything, to change his fate while the world seemed to be changing its tune - for those three days, at least. Being both a musician and a fan of all things European, I really liked the look and the pace of Ang Lee's film. While the book on which the film is based bubbles and froths madly and delightedly like a late Seventies hot tub, Lee's film presents a place and a time that feels alive and gentle like a spring leaf but also has the sullen gravity of the fallen leaf once the autumn comes. Demetri Martin comes across like a slightly-stoned Pinocchio, hoping - through his 11th-hour involvement in helping to save Mike Lang's Woodstock festival from cancellation - to become a real boy. (It's not coincidental that the actor who plays his father, Henry Goodman, looks a bit like Gepetto in the Disney animated classic of years ago.) Those who complain that this film doesn't have music are missing the point - the film itself is music, and a soft and glorious one at that. Besides, there's a wonderful sequence towards the end of the film involving use of a song from `60s group Love being played on an 8-track cassette player in the back of a psychedelic VW van . . . that scene alone captures the real experience of being at Woodstock, at least as told to me over the years by those who were really there or who wanted so badly to have been there in person (though they were already there in their hearts). Having seen this film, I feel like I was at Woodstock too . . . and when this movie is available on DVD, I plan on going back . . .
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a Treat for Woodstock Fans!, July 16, 2010
I happened to recently find this movie on my On Demand cable service. I had not ever heard of it.
I'm a HUGE fan of 1969 WOODSTOCK, (have Collector's Edition of DVD). I have always felt I was born in the wrong era--I should have been there! (To me, there is really only ONE REAL Woodstock.)
I knew some of the facts in the movie Taking Woodstock, but it was AWESOME to see it put together and done so WELL!
I love the portrayal of Elliot, whom I perceived as the main character. I saw this as also a "coming of age" film, from his point of view. He was amazingly brilliant at such a young age and to make such excellent "business/promotion" decisions that had to be made under pressure.
It is *totally* a "feel good" movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would love to own the DVD!
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!
In my opinion, the best review here on Amazon about the movie is by James Lossing (it should be the top review) so be sure to read it!
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