Reel classics: ‘Woodstock’

Fifty-six years ago, in August 1969, an event occurred that became a cul­tur­al ref­er­ence point for a gen­er­a­tion.  Yes, “3 days of peace, music...and love.” What start­ed out as a busi­ness ven­ture to put on an out­door music con­cert became a defin­ing moment in his­to­ry, for­ev­er cap­tured on film, on record, and in the hearts, minds, and spir­its of those who were there. 

Woodstock.

Today’s Reel Classic takes a look at the doc­u­men­tary film released in 1970 that pro­vid­ed us insight into the com­ing togeth­er of the music fes­ti­val, the behind-the-scenes efforts to make it hap­pen, the pow­er and beau­ty of the music that was fea­tured, and the joy, love, and resilience of the hun­dreds of thou­sands in atten­dance.  Named after the event, the film is Woodstock. 

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held in Bethel, New York.  It had orig­i­nal­ly been planned to be held in Woodstock, New York, but the pro­mot­ers could not get local lead­ers to agree to allow it to occur.  A farmer near Bethel agreed to lease his six-hun­dred-acre farm to the orga­niz­ers for the fes­ti­val to be locat­ed there.  The rolling hills and the lake near­by made a per­fect set­ting for the out­door fes­ti­val.  Though now locat­ed in Bethel, the pro­mot­ers kept the name Woodstock.  They had hoped for 200,000 atten­dees but were over­whelmed when twice that num­ber arrived.  The event was sched­uled to begin on Friday after­noon and run through Sunday.  The cost of a tick­et for the three days was $18.  A sin­gle-day tick­et was $7. 

Given the num­ber of peo­ple flock­ing to the con­cert, it is easy to under­stand why there were mul­ti­ple prob­lems to be dealt with.  Roads to the fes­ti­val became choked with vehi­cles, many of which were left aban­doned on the side of the roads as peo­ple began to walk to the gates of the fes­ti­val.  So many peo­ple arrived that the gate­keep­ers could not keep up, and folks were lined up try­ing to get in. 

The large num­ber of atten­dees and the high­way clo­sure enter­ing the area cre­at­ed sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges for the per­form­ers to access the site.  Festival orga­niz­ers had to make some quick and seri­ous deci­sions to ensure the fes­ti­val could go on.  Due to the mas­sive num­bers of peo­ple try­ing to gain admis­sion, the deci­sion was made to make it a free fes­ti­val, and peo­ple were allowed to come in.  Fences came down as peo­ple flood­ed in.  Also, arrange­ments were made to have heli­copters trans­port the musi­cians, as they could not oth­er­wise get to the site.  With the num­bers approach­ing 400,000 atten­dees and the deci­sion to make it free, the hopes for finan­cial suc­cess with the fes­ti­val dis­ap­peared.  However, the film and sound­track would pro­vide lat­er finan­cial achievements. 

Needless to say, chaos ensued as the fes­ti­val opened, with the influx of peo­ple and dif­fi­cul­ties in get­ting musi­cians to the site.  Richie Havens was the first act to appear on stage and stayed on the stage longer than planned to allow time for oth­er per­form­ers to arrive.  He was called on for mul­ti­ple encores and report­ed­ly ran out of songs to per­form.  He picked up his gui­tar and start­ed singing and impro­vis­ing “Freedom.”  That song is seen in the film and pro­vides a clas­sic Richie Havens performance.

At one point, the gov­er­nor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller, was so con­cerned by the size of the crowd that he talked about send­ing in the National Guard to break it up.  Fortunately, that nev­er came to pass.  There were unex­pect­ed prob­lems, how­ev­er, giv­en the mas­sive num­ber of atten­dees.  Medical tents and food dis­tri­b­u­tion tents were set up to serve the mass­es, with folks from the Hog Farm com­mune assist­ing.  Over the three days, there were mul­ti­ple exam­ples of peo­ple com­ing togeth­er and help­ing each oth­er.  Residents of Bethel heard of the food short­age and col­lect­ed dona­tions to help feed those in atten­dance, and food items were heli­coptered onto the site. 

The film­mak­ers were not just film­ing the con­cert but work­ing at doc­u­ment­ing all the efforts that went into mak­ing these three days of “peace, music...and love” a real­i­ty.  The film shows the efforts at get­ting the fes­ti­val set up, the inter­ac­tions of those in atten­dance, and var­i­ous inter­views with res­i­dents of the sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ty.  One par­tic­u­lar inter­view is, in my mind, noteworthy.

Interviewer:  “What do you think about the kids?”

Police Officer:  “From what I’ve heard from the out­side sources for many years I was very, very much sur­prised and I’m hap­py to say we think the peo­ple of this coun­try should be proud of these kids, not with­stand­ing the way they dress or the way they wear their hair, that’s their own per­son­al busi­ness;  but their, their inner work­ings, their inner selves, their, their self-demeanor can­not be ques­tioned;  they can’t be ques­tioned as good American citizens.”

Interviewer:  “That’s kind of sur­pris­ing com­ing from a cop.”

Police Officer:  (smiling)”I’m not a cop, I’m the Chief of Police.” 

At one point Max Yasgur, the farmer who pro­vid­ed the land for the fes­ti­val, took to the stage to address the crowd before him.  As he flashed the peace sign, he stat­ed “...the impor­tant thing that you’ve proven to the world is that a half a mil­lion kids, and I call you kids because I have chil­dren that are old­er than you are, a half a mil­lion young peo­ple can get togeth­er and have three days of fun and music and have noth­ing but fun and music, and God bless you for it!”  Other note­wor­thy appear­ances were those of Chip Monck, the announc­er, “Wavy Gravy” from the Hog Farm, and Thomas Taggert, the Port-O-San man.

And that brings us to the music.  What an array of per­form­ers, which includ­ed the above-men­tioned Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Country Joe & The Fish, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Arlo Guthrie, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Sly & The Family Stone, The Who, and many oth­ers.  And that is just a list of those appear­ing in the film.  Many oth­ers were there as well, includ­ing Incredible String Band, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Ravi Shankar, and Melanie. 

Melanie’s appear­ance has an inter­est­ing sto­ry behind it.  She was an “unknown” at the time of Woodstock and showed up at the fes­ti­val, report­ed­ly try­ing to get Michael Lang, one of the orga­niz­ers, to let her play.  He kept refus­ing her.  However, the rain­storm caused the Incredible String Band to decide to post­pone their per­for­mance and Lang decid­ed to allow Melanie to take that spot.  Her per­for­mance proved to be very pop­u­lar and she went on to gain fame with her record­ings, includ­ing “Lay Down (Candles In The Rain),” “Brand New Key” and “What Have They Done To My Song, Ma?”

A poten­tial cat­a­stro­phe near­ly pre­vent­ed Crosby, Stills & Nash from per­form­ing.  Graham Nash and the band’s bassist, Greg Reeves, were fly­ing in on one of the heli­copters when one of the rear rotors failed, caus­ing it to go into a spin.  It near­ly swerved into some pow­er lines and came down hard on the ground.  Fortunately, all were okay and the band was able to perform.

One of the mem­o­rable per­for­mances was that of Santana.  They had been sched­uled to per­form lat­er in the evening of day two, but with the mul­ti­ple delays, they were asked to per­form ear­li­er in the day.  Reportedly, Carlos Santana had tak­en some mesca­line and saw the neck of his gui­tar become a mov­ing snake.  Obvious to any who have seen or heard Santana’s per­for­mance from that day, he han­dled that snake very well. 

Another of the mem­o­rable per­for­mances was that of Jimi Hendrix.  He closed out the fes­ti­val with a very pow­er­ful per­for­mance.  An inter­est­ing side note is that Michael Lang, one of the orga­niz­ers, report­ed­ly said that orig­i­nal­ly he had a dif­fer­ent per­former in mind to close out the festival—Roy Rogers singing “Happy Trails.”  I think it worked out fine. 

Along with the impres­sive list of those who per­formed, there is an equal­ly impres­sive list of those who were invit­ed but either could not or chose not to attend.  The Beatles were invit­ed but declined, though John Lennon indi­cat­ed he would like to appear with his band The Plastic Ono Band.  However, Lennon was mired in immi­gra­tion issues with the US gov­ern­ment due to his anti-war com­ments.  The Rolling Stones had to decline as Mick Jagger was in Australia film­ing Ned Kelly.  Joni Mitchell was invit­ed but had to decline as she was sched­uled to appear on The Dick Cavett Show, her nation­al tele­vi­sion debut.   She lat­er wrote the beau­ti­ful song about the fes­ti­val, Woodstock, that was record­ed by Crosby, Stills & Nash. 

Others invit­ed includ­ed Simon & Garfunkel, Laura Nyro, Donovan, The Rascals, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Blind Faith, Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention and The Moody Blues.  One oth­er notable declin­ing per­former was Bob Dylan.  He refused the invi­ta­tion and lat­er was quot­ed as say­ing it was just a bunch of “kids on acid with flow­ers in their hair,” and say­ing it was not his “scene.”

The film was released in 1970 and was high­ly acclaimed by crit­ics, as well as being a box office suc­cess.  It grossed over $50 mil­lion and was one of the most prof­itable films of that year.  Roger Ebert rat­ed it at four of four stars, say­ing it was “maybe the best doc­u­men­tary ever made in America....The remark­able thing about Wadleigh’s film is that it suc­ceeds so com­plete­ly in mak­ing us feel how it must have been to be there.” 

A review from the mag­a­zine Rolling Stone stat­ed:  “As much as per­for­mances by Sly and the Family Stone, the Who and Jimi Hendrix, it’s the non­mu­si­cal moments that make Woodstock the defin­ing moment of the coun­ter­cul­ture at its zenith.  Smiling nuns flash peace signs at the cam­era, police­men eat pop­si­cles along­side hip­pies, and elder­ly towns­peo­ple band togeth­er to help feed the army of fans.  And like every aspect of Woodstock, the doc­u­men­tary’s very exis­tence is a minor miracle.” 

Woodstock was nom­i­nat­ed for three Oscars, includ­ing Best Sound and Best Film Editing.  It won the Oscar for Best Documentary.  Woodstock had mul­ti­ple edi­tors, includ­ing Michael Wadleigh, Thelma Schoonmaker, and a young Martin Scorsese. 

This leads me into a per­son­al sto­ry.  One of the edi­tors was Yeu-Bun Yee.  He was also one of the edi­tors for The Band’s epic film The Last Waltz.  Yeu-Bun Yee lived in Los Angeles, and at the time of the film’s release, I was liv­ing in California.  One of my best friends at the time was Yeu-Wei Yee, Bun’s broth­er.  When the film was play­ing in Los Angeles, we all attend­ed the movie togeth­er.  I picked up a copy of the poster for the film and it still hangs on my kitchen wall today. 

In 1994, a sec­ond edi­tion, an extend­ed direc­tor’s cut, was released, adding anoth­er forty min­utes to the film, which includ­ed per­for­mances by Canned Heat, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and addi­tion­al music by Jimi Hendrix.  Additional re-releas­es with addi­tion­al fea­tures were released in 2009 and 2014. In 1996, it was select­ed for preser­va­tion in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. 

A quote from Michael Lang sums up the expe­ri­ence of Woodstock:  “Everybody pulls togeth­er and every­body helps each oth­er.  And it works!  It’s been work­ing since we got here, and it’s going to con­tin­ue work­ing.  And no mat­ter what hap­pens when they go back to the city, this thing is hap­pen­ing, and it proves that it can hap­pen!  That’s what it’s all about.” 

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) gives Woodstock a rat­ing of 8.1 of 10.  Rotten Tomatoes gives it a Critics Score of 100% and an Audience Score of 92%. 

In search­ing my Roku device I could find no free stream­ing but it was avail­able on mul­ti­ple sites for a fee.  There is a copy of the Director’s Cut on the shelf at the Clark County Public Library.

If you haven’t seen Woodstock I encour­age you to do so.  It is a won­der­ful dis­play of the music of that time, but it is also a cap­ture of a moment in time for a gen­er­a­tion focused on peace, love and music.  It doc­u­ments accep­tance and com­mu­ni­ty as we would like to see it—people com­ing togeth­er to enjoy each oth­er and assist each oth­er when and where needed. 

Below is the icon­ic pho­to from Woodstock of the cou­ple stand­ing togeth­er, hold­ing and lov­ing each other—a true sym­bol of the cul­tur­al event tak­ing place at the time.  And, to you, the read­ers, I wish you peace, I wish you music, and I wish you love. 

Information for this Reel Classic review was gath­ered from Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb), Rotten Tomatoes, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Wikipedia.

If you enjoy these clas­sic movies, please join me on the sec­ond Tuesday of each month at 6 PM at the Clark County Public Library for “Ron Kibbey’s Comedy Classics.”  I present a clas­sic com­e­dy film, usu­al­ly accom­pa­nied by a vin­tage car­toon.  Popcorn and drinks are pro­vid­ed.  More infor­ma­tion about the next movie is avail­able on the library’s web­site and Facebook page, as well as the WinCity Voices Facebook page.

The trail­er for this film is age-restrict­ed and can­not be embed­ded. You can watch it on YouTube via this link: https://youtu.be/Ok9941BTzVg.