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Ah, Woodstock. Three days of peace and music, 40 years of being a cash cow for the entertainment industry.
Cynical? Maybe. Ironic? Certainly. Depending on your age or your politics, the generation-defining concert event known as Woodstock represents either the best or the worst of the 1960s. But regardless of age or politics, one can still appreciate the documentary that sprang from the event, now on a recently remastered DVD loaded with extras.
"Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music" comes out in advance of the 40th anniversary of the event, which took place Aug. 15-18, 1969, on a farm near Bethel, N.Y. (Woodstock, N.Y., is 50 miles away.) It’s the same director’s cut that originally came to VHS in 1994 and then to DVD in 1997, adding 40-some minutes to the original three-hour theatrical release. This time around, however, the picture and the sound are gorgeous, much better than the grainy footage that seems to circulate when clips of this event are shown.
The 40th anniversary edition comes in two DVD versions and one on Blu-ray. There’s a two-disc set (retailing for $24.98) with the sole extra being a featurette, "The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties & Woodstock," that is more a tour through the museum that opened last summer than a documentary of the ’60s or the concert.
The Ultimate Collector’s Edition, available in a three-DVD ($59.98) or Blu-ray ($69.98) set, is where the goodies live. The third disc includes 18 performances that didn’t make it into either the original film or the director’s cut. They add up to nearly two hours of music, and include some acts that previously weren’t seen on screen: the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Grateful Dead, Johnny Winter and Mountain.
There’s also a reprint copy of a 60-page Life magazine commemorative issue and an iron-on patch with the festival’s iconic dove and guitar emblem. The Blu-ray has various interactive features, like the ability to create a "virtual screening" where friends with Blu-ray players can all connect up and watch and discuss the film together.
Another featurette, just over an hour long, collects vignettes of the making of the film. Director Michael Wadleigh and associate producer Dale Bell discuss making the film, with some comments from a director who assisted them, Martin Scorsese. Some vignettes are more for film students about film stock or camera choices. Many of their recollections are all the more amazing 40 years on when one considers the monstrous project was pulled off in a world pre-cell phones, laptops and other modern technological conveniences.
It’s easy to think of "Woodstock" as a concert film, but Wadleigh and his crew capture the feel of the event beyond the music. Even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized this and awarded it the Oscar in 1970 for best documentary.
For instance, it was a stroke of brilliance to shoot the portable toilet cleaner, who had to have the worst job there. The announcements also were legendary, and give as much a sense of the event as the music does. ("The brown acid that is circulating is not specifically too good. ... It is suggested that you stay away from that. Of course it’s your own trip.") The bleak ending that combines the music of Jimi Hendrix with visuals of the trash left behind was one that studio executives at Warner Brothers wanted changed (presumably because it was a bummer, man).
Hippies and stoners aside, "Woodstock" shows a far more genteel world than a gathering of 400,000 might create. It doesn’t portray the "us vs. them" attitude that seems to be the stereotype of the era, and it certainly exudes way more goodwill between the concertgoers and the townspeople than would likely happen today.
Time and time again, residents of the area smile through their inconveniences and talk about how nice the kids are and express concern that they’ll get enough to eat. Even the guy cleaning the portable toilets says, "Glad to do it for these kids."
The hippies might like to think they were all about peace, but this film shows the folks in upstate New York were pretty good about showing some love, too. And that’s pretty far out, man.
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