118 of 125 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Film Meets Blu-Ray, Amazing Results, June 10, 2009
3 hours 44 minutes 19 seconds long (edit), probably the greatest music event ever, a remarkable documentary; finally meets the sound and visual treament it always deservered (Blu-Ray and Dolby TruHD).
For those familiar with the movie, you've never seen this film in such perfection. A pristine or incredibly well cleaned print of this film was lovingly transfered to 1080p resolution. The transfer is so good, you can actually see the grain of the film. There is no more that can be done to improve video at home. I'm pretty certain that the theater sound systems were nowhere near up to the level of home theater today. The addition of rear channels and subwoofers, and given the limitations of the original recording, just can't get better. Since this film is all about the music, what could possibly be better? There were times when the couch rattled with the power of the bass. The one nit, the surrounds tend to be a bit loud, so the soundstage gets a little confused. I'll take that any day of the week to hear this music the way it was recorded.
For those new to Woodstock - buy this version. The music: some of the best rock, folk, and blues music ever. Hendrix, The Who, Jefferson Airplane - the gods of rock and roll. Crosby, Stills and Nash, Joan Baez, John Sebastian, Janis Joplin, Arlo Guthrie - the crossover gods of folk music. Canned Heat, Joe Cocker, Ten Years After - crossover blues.
The Jimi Hendrix' three songs are almost worth the price alone - the greatest guitar player ever, playing to a very small crowd at the end of Woodstock (that will teach people that leave early to beat the traffic).
The movie is what documentary film making is all about, capture the moment, render the feeling, place the audience in the event. The opening, pristine fields, interviews with locals, traffic rolling in, and the gorgeous CS&N singing Long Time Gone; followed by Canned Heat Going Up The Country; ending in CS&N Wooden Ships. The feeling is almost surreal as the site gets more and more crowded. Richie Havens opens the concert with his great acoustic guitar playing and protest songs. It's not straight linear time filming, but uses shots from different times to support the story line. Arlo Guthrie sings 'Coming into Los Angeles', a song about flying on an ariplane with a couple of keys (drug running); the visuals are of people enjoying that drug. It's almost a McGyver for how to enjoy that drug. The film cuts back occasionally to Guthrie singing at night. The director Michael Wadleigh uses split screens (twos, threes and fours) at just the right moments. The Who play and what is more important, Roger Daltry singing or Pete Townshend playing guitar? We get both with a 3 screen split, because they are both incredibly important to the performance. Wadleigh knows what is important and gives it to the viewer.
The soundtrack to the main film was reworked in a few places. Santana's Soul Sacrafice is very obviously altered - the marachas emit sound when they are nowhere near a microphone, and the sound is specifically placed in surrounds or specific channels. It's pretty clear when this enhancement was done. Is that a crime? On the one hand, yes - it isn't what was really performed at Woodstock exactly that way. No its not a crime - you can think of these as sound effects that don't alter the feel of the performance. Purists already know what they think about this. Personally, I don't have a lot of problem with the changes.
Disc 2 - Bonus Features. Two parts, more music and a look at behind the scenes / snapshot of life in the late 60's early 70's.
The music - for one reason or another these performances were not included in the movie. Some, the sound wasn't recorded very well, some the film was underexposed, some acts just weren't popular enough, or some just didn't fit the story line. Frankly, pick your reason for the clip you happen to love. The description of this disc includes the play list, it's long. The great part of Blu-Ray, the music is presented as a table and you make your own playlist that you then play. It can be saved, skipped around, whatever. Great way to watch the clips. The three Amazon bonus tracks are excellent.
The Film bonuses. This is a bit less great. In some ways it's a view at television / life in the 60's / 70's. The Hugh Hefner bit was interesting, but there was too much talking head for my taste. Playboy After Dark was an icon of the era, and it would have been way better to just play the 20 minutes of that show - instead there's only about 3 or 4 minutes of super young Hugh Hefner (and glimpses of the gorgeous young Barbie Benton next to him). Mostly these featurettes are like what you see in most movies anymore, talking heads, some clip back to the film or examples. It runs long, it runs deep. If you are addicted to Woodstock - you will enjoy this more than you can imagine. For normal humans, probably pass on this whole featurette section.
The film is rated R for good reason. Strong language, drug use (almost a how to film), and nudity are all there. No, younger viewers should not see this. Up until the Arlo Guthrie song, would be acceptable (almost the first half of the film).
This edition with all the funky packaging. I've posted some pictures of a more or less unboxing. The pictures inside the acrylic frame is lame - the frame is actually kind of cool (use it for another picture - it's held together with magnets). The reprinted Life Magazine is sweet. The best, in my view, is the reprinted ticket on heavy ticket stock. Frankly, all the extras aren't really worth much extra money. I would have gladly bought this as a straight no extra stuff, blu-ray edition with the two discs alone.
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39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Complete Content, June 19, 2009
Since Amazon is ALWAYS very lacking in details about their DVD or Blu-Ray products, here is the press release that gives more detail (was on The Home Theater Forum):
WHV Press Release: Woodstock 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition (DVD/BD)
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"Few documentaries have captured a time and place more completely, poignantly, and ... entertainingly." -- Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert
"Not just a great slice-of-time documentary but the ultimate rock concert movie."
-- Los Angeles Times, Chris Willman
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music
The Director's Cut
40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition
Celebrating the Greatest Rock Concert in History!
On Blu-ray and DVD June 9 from Warner Home Video
Three hours of enhanced content includes two hours of
bonus performances, some unearthed after four decades,
with five groups who performed but never appeared in the film
Burbank, CA, March 11, 2009 - Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music - the four-hour director's cut of the 1970 Oscar®-winning documentary about the landmark music event that featured some of the greatest rock 'n' roll performers in history -- will be released June 9 in a spectacular new limited, numbered Blu-ray and DVD Ultimate Collector's Edition (UCE). With two extra hours of rare performance footage -- some of it newly-discovered, some only seen in part and some never seen at all -- the UCE is destined to make its own history. Details of the new releases will be featured at the South by Southwest Music + Film Festival where Warner Home Video will offer festival goers a first look at the new high definition picture and sound on March 21.
Today, four decades later, Woodstock still resonates deeply with those that attended and those that wished they had. Director Michael Wadleigh notes, "Based on the vast e-mails and calls I've received, many from young people, it's very evident that people still relate so much to the film and view the '60s as an age when anything and everything was possible, mostly good. Many hope for a new Woodstock generation since what people loved back then was spontaneity, originality, innocence and honesty - even in superstars; that's why Woodstock, with its open and natural philosophy, has become timeless."
The two extra hours of rare performance footage features 18 new performances as never before seen from 13 groups, including Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald, Santana, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker and five (Paul Butterfield, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead, Johnny Winter and Mountain) who played at Woodstock but never appeared in any film version.
A third hour of bonus material also on the UCE includes a featurette gallery showcasing interviews with Martin Scorsese, producer Michael Lang, director Michael Wadleigh, Hugh Hefner, Eddie Kramer (the concert's original chief on-site engineer and producer-engineer for Jimi Hendrix) and others who chronicle the making of the festival and the film. Included are such segments as 3 Days in a Truck, No Rain! No Rain! and Living Up To Idealism. Additionally, exclusive to Blu-ray a Customize Your Own Woodstock Playlist from the 18 bonus performances and other special features like Media Center, My WB Commentary and Live Community Screening.
The UCE will be packaged in a unique giftbox, numbered as part of a limited run with an array of collectibles that include a 60+ page reprint of a Life magazine commemorative issue, a lucite lenticular display of vintage festival photos, festival memorabilia and an iron-on patch with the classic dove and guitar Woodstock emblem.
Jeff Baker, WHV's Executive VP and General Manager, Theatrical Catalog, stated, "As I reviewed Woodstock interviews and some of the newly discovered concert footage, it struck me how historically relevant this project has become to all of us who have been privileged to be a part of it. The new 'content' we have created, almost 40 years later, and the live performances we've restored in high definition, some in extended cuts, will live on as studio assets forever, and as a testimony to a time and a set of circumstances which will never again repeat themselves."
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music was newly remastered from original elements and scanned at 2K with an audio 5.1 mix. Eddie Kramer, Woodstock sound engineer, assisted with the 5.1 audio mix of recently found additional footage. The Ultimate Collector's Edition will be available in Blu-ray(tm) Hi-Def ($69.99 SRP) as well as DVD ($59.98 SRP). Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music will also be available on DVD as a Two-Disc Special Edition ($24.98 SRP).
About Woodstock and the Film
Woodstock alumni David Crosby noted, "Woodstock was more than just a concert; it was an event. It was a time for our generation to speak up and let everyone know we had a voice. Whether you were there or are discovering the film for the first time, it still holds up 40 years later and now will speak to a whole new generation."
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York on a sometimes rain-soaked weekend from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Half a million people of all colors, shapes, sizes, ages and sexes attended this historical event. They came by car, by truck, a few even by helicopter, but the majority walked to what turned out to be the most famous festival in history, an event that was hailed by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the "50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock 'n' Roll."
Created by promoter Michael Lang with Artie Kornfeld, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman, 32 legendary musical acts appeared which, in addition to those mentioned above, included Crosby, Stills & Nash, Santana, Joan Baez, The Band, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, Country Joe McDonald and The Fish, Richie Havens, Jefferson Airplane, John Sebastian and Sly & The Family Stone.
Said Michael Lang, "It's gratifying to me that Woodstock remains so relevant today as does the great work that documented it. Artie and Joel join me in congratulating Warner Home Video for putting together this brand new and exciting look at our event and for unearthing more of the historic performances that electrified us all at the time."
Winner of the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature (and nominated for Best Editing and Best Sound), Woodstock was produced by Bob Maurice and directed by Michael Wadleigh, who assembled an outstanding crew that included young filmmakers at the start of their careers Academy Award® winners: director Martin Scorsese (The Departed) and editor Thelma Schoonmaker (The Aviator).
The critically acclaimed Museum at Bethel Woods, located at the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival in Bethel, NY, tells the story of the Sixties and Woodstock through state-of-the-art multi-media exhibits, engaging programs and educational events. The Center provides artists with the opportunity to perform on one of music's most legendary grounds, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is committed to being a world-class cultural destination in the heart of New York State. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts | Official Site
WOODSTOCK Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD Contents:
Disc One
· Film (Director's Cut), Part 1 128:38 min
· The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties & Woodstock
Disc Two
· Film (Director's Cut), Part 2 95:34 min
Disc Three
· Woodstock: Untold Stories 18 Performances as never before seen
· Woodstock: From Festival to Feature Interviews of the sights and sounds of the 3 day event, from concert goers, promoters, crew and musicians
Blu-ray Hi-Def Exclusive:
· Customize Your Own Woodstock Playlist (from the18 bonus performances)
o This feature allows you to customize your own personal jukebox playlist from more than a dozen live Woodstock performances as never before seen.
· BD-Live features include Media Center, My WB Commentary, & Live Community Screening
o Media Center is a hub for trailers, features and content
§ You can get sneak peeks of upcoming Warner Bros. films, and rate trailers
§ You can access to Exclusive Content such as interviews, featurettes, and more only seen through WB BD-Live
§ You can access Photo Galleries and other special features
o Live Community Screenings allow you to send invitations to fans and friends across the country for virtual screenings at a specified time and chat online with each other as the movie plays on each person's Blu-ray player. You can host your own Live Community Screening with your buddy list or participate in a WB hosted Warner Bros. BD-Live community event
o My WB Commentary lets you record and post a Picture-in-Picture commentary right over the film, then share it and rate it. Using a web-camera, you can record your own comments and play them back as a Picture-in-Picture feature over the film scene you have chosen and share it with your friends or the entire Warner Bros. BD-Live Community
See below complete description of new performances and featurettes
Woodstock 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition will be supported with promotional partnerships and a national media and publicity campaign spanning TV, print, online/viral, events and grassroots efforts targeting music fans of all ages.
VH1 Rock Docs and History are co-producing the definitive two-hour documentary, "Woodstock: 40 Years Later."...
Read more ›
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