Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970)

Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970)
Rating: 9.5

Michael Wadleigh's 3 hour cinematic chronicle of the legendary three day New York music festival in 1969 filled with sex, drugs, and of course plenty of rock n' roll, beautifully captures the spirit of the 1960s youth counter-culture. For a fan of music history, this is an absolute must see as it presents rare chances to experience or relive performances from musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Joe Cocker, Joan Baez, Ritchie Havens, Sha-Na-Na, Crosby Stills & Nash, John Sebastian, Country Joe McDonald, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and others. The film is very thorough; collecting interviews from all perspective's including the promoters, kids attending the concert, musicians, the media, the police, and the townspeople. The film begins with the construction of the stage, goes onto the invasion of the small town (over 300,000 in attendance), takes us through the rain, the music, the hippy shenanigans, the drug use, the quest for peace and love, and eventually ends with Jimi Hendrix's iconic performance and the conclusion of the festival. The filmmakers use helicopter shots to show the traffic jams and overall enormous scope of the festival. The camera work and cinematography is impressive throughout, as the filmmakers create some tastefully artistic imagery. One specific scene that comes to mind is the dancing silhouettes against the dark blue sky. The cameras also interact with the stage lighting to create some interesting images. The splitscreen editing and multiple soundtracks which can come across as somewhat tacky when used improperly was somewhat innovative at the time and I thought worked very well for this film. Martin Scorsese actually was one of the editors for this documentary and the film won an Oscar for best documentary feature in 1970.