Woodstock

Never mind the music here, that is a given so let us focus on WOODSTOCK as a documentary. The fact director Michael Wadleigh was even able to make it is just astounding. With the size of the crowd, the conditions under which they had to shoot I am constantly blown away with his achievement here. His eye for detail and the way he splices crowd footage and interviews with the musical acts is masterful to say the least. One scene in particular sticks out in my mind and that is when he uses Jimi Hendrix solo as the backdrop for the scenes showing the end of the concert when those remaining look like they are walking off a battle field....it is a powerful image considering this was billed as three days of peace and music....simply genius this sequence was. It's an amazing slice of time and I'm shocked Wadleigh has only made one non-documentary film to date that happening to be WOLFEN. Another thing I've always been shocked about is the modern day Woodstock. I'll be the first to agree that the only things the two events had in common was the name, location and the mud, but to listen to the hippies yowl about the corporate angle on the new Woodstock was the biggest load of shit I've ever heard as it was the very crowd from the original Woodstock that BECAME the damn corporate suits sponsoring said event. In closing, Woodstock is required viewing and my only complaint against Wadleigh is he either didn't capture or chose not to include the footage of Pete Townshend kicking the late Abbie Hoffman from the stage...I would have loved to have seen that!