Director: Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, Hulk, Lust Caution)
Story: Elliot Tiber, Tom Monte
Screenplay: James Schamus
Producers: Ang Lee, James Schamus
Starring: Henry Goodman, Imelda Staunton, Demetri Martin, Emille Hirsch, Jonathan Groff, Liev Schreiber
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 100 min.

(4/5)

Peculiar that a director as high profile as Ang Lee is getting such an “under the radar” release as Taking Woodstock. Perhaps the subject matter is a little old hat as in “been there, done that” or maybe the mainstream movie goers are still in the throes of summer blockbuster season and a little event biography just isn’t quite the excitement they’re looking for. Or it may simply be that the film isn’t being marketed… at all. Whatever it is, it’s really too bad, because Taking Woodstock is a fine film with heart, warmth, comedy and full of good vibes.

“Sorry everyone in town hates you now.”
“Are you kidding me? I’ve heard more please and thank you’s from these kids in the last three days than in the past twenty years from those schmucks.”

There are quite a few characters that all have a little bit of a story to tell and each one is given just the right amount of screen time to tell said stories and to further their development as much as they need to be delved into. It’s a perfect blend of main characters while simultaneously including many character arcs. Under a less capable director like Woodstock itself, this could easily have turned the film into a giant muddy mess, but Ang Lee blends these character’s stories just swimmingly and the story ebbs and flows perfectly amongst them all. Still, our focus is on young Elliot who sacrifices his dreams in lieu of staying in the tiny town to help his parent run a dingy motel that is on the brink of foreclosure. Chairman of the City Commerce Commission, it is Elliot’s idea to get this festival to come to his tiny town of White Lake, NY. As the pieces start to fall into place for the show, things become more and more complicated and more and more of a whirl-wind. Luckily for Elliot, several key players arriving in town (an ex-military transvestite, a delusional Vietnam Vet, a stoned out optimistic young lad with a dream and wealth, a homosexual phone repair-man, a whacked-out traveling theater troupe and even a couple of unnamed LSD dropping hippies) help keep things in perspective (or distort perspective) and both Elliot and his parents are able to realize their dreams and after years and years of in-fighting and trepidation, discover who they really are and how they fit into this suddenly crazy world – for better or worse. Not to mention be major players in the cultural event of the decade.

Clearly influenced by the documentary, Woodstock (1970), Ang Lee decides to go with the use of archival footage* from the actual event in several sequences during Taking Woodstock to punctuate its messages and general aura of the culture, excitement and substantial euphoria that inhabited those few acres for a magical three+ days. Beyond just using authentic footage, Lee even goes so far as to split the screen into “panes” in which we see various goings-on at different places around the farmland. Geniously juxtaposed are the authentic splices of film along with newly shot footage of the actors to make it appear seamless. Of course the original documentary used this technique as well and Ang Lee is no stranger to a slightly more bombastic use of the split screen tactic in Hulk. For Taking Woodstock it works like gangbusters; so much to take in at Woodstock that there’s really no other way to even begin to see it all.

Interesting enough, the movie never cares or bothers to get around to actually showcasing any of the bands or music from the historic festival. Lee is much more content to follow his lead characters and how the “biggest event in the universe” (at that moment in time) affected their livelihood, their perceptions of humanity, their futures and even their past. It’s quite remarkable to see the change and development of our leads throughout the picture.

Maybe half of the film focuses on these coming of age and familial relationships while the other half focuses on the logistics of putting together such a monumental event at the ass end of nowhere. From the spark of an idea to convincing a town of commoners to go along with it. Though that task is never 100% accomplished (at that point it’s too late as it’s obvious the music is coming to town whether the people want it to or not) the hundreds of details that need to get done are scoured over and actually made interesting by the detail and even humor. From the building of a stage to the landscaping of a hillside to the installation of phone lines to the more menial tasks of simply finding enough soap, water and food for the thousands of kids currently putting a standstill to the NY expressway. Some of the beginning bits of character introductions can get a bit tedious and slow within the first 15-20 minutes, but once the event begins to get rolling it’s no stopping the spectacle that hits the screen.

Admittedly this is a little bit more of a personal film for me as I am captivated by the hippie culture and indeed the idea that a policy of simple random acts of kindness can keep half a million stoned, starving teenagers from not only tearing each other apart, but living in pure harmony with one another and their environment. Watching a tiny town with a population of about ten people boom into a metropolis literally overnight and the impact that has on its limited infrastructure and its citizens is a sight to behold and one of the most interesting social experiments ever performed. If you’ve seen and liked the original Woodstock documentary, and get off on all the good vibes that film gives off, this is a nice, pseudo-fictional companion piece to that story; sans live musical performances.

* I actually don’t know if it was archival footage. It could’ve simply been director artistic license, but I highly doubt this as it just looks far too authentic. Though there is one scene with Emille Hirsch in it that has me doubting this hypothesis.