Notes: | The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, Bethel, NY was presented by Michael Lang, executive producer, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Arthur Kornfeld. Originally produced as an American motion picture in 1970; director's cut produced in 1994. Editor and assistant director, T. Schoonmaker ; photography by Michael Wadleigh, David Myers, Richard Pearce, Don Lenzer, Al Wertheimer ; sound and music, Larry Johnson ; music advisor, Eric Blackstead ; sound engineer, Lee Osborne ; music mixer, Dan Wallin; ; additional editing, Martin Scorsese, Stan Warnow, Yeu-Bun Yee, Jere Huggins ; additional photography, Ed Lynch, Chuck Levey, Ted Churchill, Fred Underhill, Richard Chew, Bob Dannerman, Stan Warnow. Directors cut restoration: sound supervisor, L.A. Johnson ; film editors, Jere Huggins, Hubert De La Bouillerie, Stven C. Brown ; research, Bill Rush. Performances by Richie Havens, Joan Baez, The Who, Sha Na Na, Joe Cocker, Country Joe and the Fish, Arlo Guthrie, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Ten Years After, John Sebastian, Santana, Sly & the Family Stone, Canned Heat, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix. Filmed at The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, Bethel, NY, August 1969. DVD; Region 1, NTSC; 5.1 Dolby Digital surround; widescreen presentation in a 'floating matte' format preserving the aspect ratio[s] of its original theatrical exhibition. Matte varies due to the original single-, double-, or triple-panel image composition; enhanced for widescreen televisions. In English with optional subtitles in English SDH, French, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, or Thai; song lyrics only subtitled in English.
|
Summary: | For three days in the summer of 1969, a rock concert was held on an upstate New York farm, and 400,000 people attended -- far more than were anticipated, far more than paid, far more than could be fed or sheltered or cared for after injuries or drug overdoses. It rained, there was mud, all traffic in and out was gridlocked, and the music continued, night and day. "Woodstock Nation" existed for three days and was absorbed into American myth. As depicted in this film, in roughly chronological order, the elusive memory of that nation is cemented into a pungent social documentary. Few documentaries have captured a time and place more completely--in the full flower of its moment, youth, and hope--than this one. It is also one of the finest musical documentaries ever made--if not the best--utilizing adventurous camera work, daring editing, frame mirroring, freeze frames, blackouts, and multi-angle perspectives widening the 1.33:1 image to 2.20:1 to capture flamboyant, riveting, career-defining performances, within an amazing chronicle of how the musicians interact onstage as audience members react to the musicians' performances.
|