Woodstock

Woodstock
March 26, 1970
Warner Bros.
Documentary, Musical
VHS
B+

Three hours of peace, love, and music.  And, yes, mud.  Although of course I wasn't there (I was a baby with parents over 30), this documentary seems to do a fine job of capturing the good and the bad of the (in)famous concert, mostly the good.  I like how we see not just the musicians, and all those hippies in the crowd, but the people who helped keep things running, from the middle-aged people providing food and Porto-Sans to the shirtless long-haired carpenters and litter-picker-uppers.  Although this isn't the first of my movies to use split-screen (it pops up in How to Commit Marriage, which is much squarer of course), the technique is used well, sometimes telling two (or more) stories at once.  It also provides visuals that underscore the music, as if you could watch every band member at once, or see simultaneous close-ups on a fast-strumming hand and a straining face.

The movie is mostly about the music, which ranges from competent to amazing.  My top three are CSN, Sly & the Family Stone, and Ten Years After.  I'd drop the Who and two or three other acts to make this a more manageable length.*  Yes, I know how important the Who were in rock history, but I've never cared for their sound.  Nonetheless, I'm tagging Keith Moon, because he gives an unforgettable performance in a movie eight years later, acting rather than singing, in Sextette.

Note: my copy of this movie is from the MTV showing for the 20th anniversary of the concert.  As such, it's book-ended by commentary before and after the movie, actually quainter than anything in the movie.  ("There was no MTV then," gasp!)  Also, every commercial break (of which there were of course many) had a disclaimer that MTV didn't condone the use of illegal drugs or the abuse of legal ones.  Since I haven't had cable in about 20 years, I have no idea if they still do that.  Or if they even show this movie anymore.  And, yes, more time has passed since that airdate than had passed between '69 and '89.


*No, I haven't seen the four-hour version of this movie, or the bonus two hours.  I'm not sure I want to actually.