Customer Reviews

Taking Woodstock

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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!

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 . . .

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!

I cheerfully forgive this film whenever it is over the top or under the tent(?), because even though the perspective can be a little too close, as movies destined for TV often are, and even though Elliot's father looks more like Zorba the Greek than a Jewish alte-kaka (and his mother more a Polish babushka than a Jewish balabusta), (Hey, what are movies without stereotypes?), and even though I wish the movie were twice as long, the movie was the best replica of the era I have ever seen since I was at the original. Ang Lee captures America shockingly well - Connecticut suburbia in Ice Storm, the Civil War in Ride with the Devil, and now the Brief Shining Moment that was known as Woodstock.

"Taking Woodstock" is one of those films I could have easily missed. I had no desire to see it, and it was only by chance that I ended up catching it OnDemand. I can only say, as far as movies go, that I am very pleased I happened across it. The movie was a fantastic depiction of the behind the scenes story leading up to the monumental event which has become infamous. This might be the only concert in history that literally, on its own, defines a specific decade and what life was about during the much maligned period in time.

Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) is a young Jewish guy trying to do the right thing and help his parents save the family motel business. He moves back home, forgoes his dreams of heading to California, and ends up being the President of the local Chamber of Commerce. Think of any small town in America with a couple thousand people and you get the idea of the farming community they called home. His crazy mother is so out of control she has actually began charging extra for towels and clean sheets to the few guests that venture their way.

The roles of Elliot's parents were played by Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman and I have to say I am not sure there has ever been better performances on the screen than these two did in this movie. They were phenomenal in their parts, making you both love and feel sorry for them as they rode through life pinching pennies, and fighting to keep the bank from foreclosing on everything they owned. Having grown up in a small town of 1,600 people myself, I almost felt like I was back home while watching the perfectly adapted settings Ang Lee so magically brought to life.

In an attempt to bring business to the local community Elliot happens across a newspaper where the headlines focused on a concert permit being pulled for an event called Woodstock in a neighboring town. Elliot has personally headed a local musical production each year in his own back yard, already has his approved permit, and gets the idea of coordinating the events together. He calls the Woodstock executives and within a few days everyone is in full gear putting pegs into holes to make the event happen. All it took was a phone call, a local farmer getting his pockets greased, and a bunch of people with wads of cash ready to listen to some music.

Elliot really does meander through most of the story which makes for a slow rhythmic flow that putters in the 45 mile per hour speed zone. Don't expect any high paced action. Once you connect with the pace of the film you can focus on the underlying tone which deals with the "hippie" generation and what people were attempting to discover. Themselves. Elliot doesn't know who he is or what he has the potential to become. He finds himself trying marijuana, acid, experimenting with homosexuality and the free spirit of sex in general, not to mention some really awesome music.

In the end "Woodstock" forever changed the way a nation would view "hippies" and as we saw within the movie it also drastically changed the way a family looked at itself. Elliot was shot down the path of finding himself and in the process discovered secrets about his mother and family that rocked the foundation he thought his life was built upon. The movie really does an excellent job at providing the backdrop of a serene hippie generation, comfortable walking around naked, doing drugs all while being polite to everyone around them. Once you get past that the growth of Elliot surrounded by the insanity of his family adds for a very compelling story.

Excellent movie, not perfect, but definitely worth viewing on a quiet evening if you have the need to relax and let things slow dow

Having grown up in the days of Woodstock and been a part of the hippie culture, I embraced this film for many reasons. Not only was it well made, actors top notch, but it took me on a very exciting trip back to the days of my youth. I unfortunately was not able to be at the festival but am a huge fan of the music of the time, the love that was shared (although missplaced at times) and the free open feeling of treating everyone around me as my brother or sister. The film certainly brought this atmosphere back and I felt it in the room as I watched it. I can not speak for its accuracy in how it all came about however if it was even close, it could not have turned out better regardless of the financial disaster it turned out to be. There is a part of the film that shows the reaction of the two parents after having eaten some very special brownies which was so hilarious I laugh just remembering it. Made me wish I had spiked some for my parents who needed to get off the alcohol wagon and try something a bit less destructive.....lets face it, everybody that has had pot in some form or another experienced the fun unstoppable laughter that made your stomach touch the back of your spine!!!! When I watch films or listen to music, in order for me to relate it must ignite all my senses and emotions and this film certainly accomplished all of that and more. There is much to say about this film that is noteworthy but I cant sit in this chair all day writing about it. If you relate with the times at all, buy this film, you wont be sorry, it will send you back and leave you with a sense of feeling younger while planting a permanent smile on your face. Rock on!!

I just loved this movie!! It took me back to a time in my youth when everything was so simple. I thought it was so funny that it kept me laughing. I didn't want the movie to end! Great memories!

You know when we saw taking Woodstock I had expected something I guess different that what was brought to the screen.What I had expected to see was the concert acts rehashed throughout the movie,what I got was something even better a movie that brought a good feeling and made me really feel good when I left the Movie Theater.Everything in the movie just fit in so well,from the towns people who hated the rush into their town but found that all those kids were genuine and caring,to a dreamer who was in fact gay and found his own being throughout the movie.I felt this movie was sort of like many other movies in the past like Goonies and nanny Mcfee that were never really given there push when they came out,but make everyone feel good every time you see them.Taking Woodstock should have enjoyed so much more critical acclaim but if you saw the movie you know it did not need that to take away from the movie something good inside yourself,and always carry with you that maybe we cant always judge people by their outright appearence but should take from them what they have inside of themselves...i wish the company would have did the blu ray with the regular version disc like disney does,but well see which one I buy.Incidently just to see the brownie seen in the movie is worth the whole trip,if you dont know what i mean by that buy the movie..
Scott denny

I normally can't stand nostalgia. Who wants to think about all those years wasted smoking pot and being a "hippie". But for some reason, I took the blu-ray out of the library. I started watching and got hooked. I was 21 when Woodstock happened. I wasn't there, but I was there, if you know what I mean. When the helicopter lands in the beginning, it really sent chills up my spine. You kind of know what's about to happen. There were some fun times, and it brought it all back. If you were part of that generation, you might enjoy this. I thought it was a good representation of that period. And the story of Elliot and his family is interesting. That's my opinion.

I like the movie, it has for sure a good direction, good cast and wonderful setting. But I had a feeling that some side of the story was only hinted and purposedly downplayed. Like, I really had the impression that something between Elliot and Michael was let to imagination, like Elliot wanted to suggest something but being both of them real life characters, he hasn't the courage to say it aloud. Then Elliot's story with Paul, it was nice, and good romance material, but then we realize something really happened, and we weren't allowed to know until the end... it was frustrating, we witnessed to all the teasing and neither a bit to the main plate. Finally a very big compliment to Vilma's character, it is probably the best of all the movie. I really wouldn't mind to see a story all about her... him.