Woodstock

I finally made it to Woodstock this week. I didn't attend the festival 40 years ago (this month), nor was I the Woodstock baby (missed it by a few weeks, a few hundred miles and the fact that my parents wouldn't have been caught dead there). No, I finally caught up with the legendary event via film and documentaries - the next best thing to being there.

I started my Woodstock week by attending a screening of the new Ang Lee film, Taking Woodstock, about how the whole crazy thing came to take place on Max Yasgur's farm. It has good intentions, a stellar cast and some fun moments, but it's nothing like the real thing.

Save your money instead to rent the newly enhanced Woodstock director's cut version now out on DVD. Last night, I attended a screening of Michael Wadleigh's iconic film at my local theatre. The documentary clocks in at nearly four hours, but it was worth the time to see it on the big screen. I had never even seen the theatrical cut all the way through on any medium, so this was a special treat. While I was watching it, I kept thinking how different the Woodstock experience would have been today, in the age of instant media and communication. I loved the scene of concertgoers standing in line at pay phones to call home.

The film won an Oscar in 1970 for Best Documentary Feature, and was one of the early editing collaborations of Martin Scorcese and Thelma Schoonmaker. It combines a fantastic anthropological study of the experience with incredible music and photography. Joe Cocker's kinetic energy, Janis Joplin's raw emotion, Jimi Hendrix's electricity. All unforgettable. These legends and many others all shared the music scene when it was idealistic and authentic. We won't see the likes of them again.

I also checked out the VH1 Rock Docs and History Channel broadcast collaboration of Oscar-winning director Barbara Kopple's Woodstock: Now & Then, which canvasses the event from the recollections of key participants and fans who came together on a farm all those years ago for 3 days of music and peace.

Peace out.