Starring Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Richie Havens, and many, many others
Directed by Michael Wadleigh
Music and Lyrics by various
Let's jump back a few months to August 1969 and head cross-country to upstate New York for our next iconic concert. This one began simply as a couple of wealthy guys who were trying to build a recording studio and put on a concert to finance it. They expected maybe 50,000 people to show up at the farm field in Bethel, New York after selling almost $200,000 worth of tickets. After they weren't able to set up a fence in time, they changed it to a free event...and that brought over 450,000 rock fans and counterculture flower children on board.
Warners took a chance filming what was seen by outsiders as disruptive or damaging, but the movie ended up being one of the biggest hits that year. Why was it so popular, as a festival and as a movie? Let's begin with the arrival of all those flower children over Crosby, Stills, and Nash's "Long Time Gone" and Canned Heat's "Going Up the Country" and find out...
The Story: It's peace, love, and some of the best rock music ever as those 450,000 rock fans, flower children, and bemused residents and farmers in Bethel speak about what's going on with their generations. Despite the heavy rain storms, traffic jams, drug use, lack of food and sanitation, and just plain poor organization, almost everyone ends up having a groovy time.
The Song and Dance: I've had the first soundtrack album for years, and I still think the performances here are incredible. This is the inverse of Gimme Shelter, capturing a far happier and more peaceful counterculture just before it imploded. The only fights are with Mother Nature and the lack of food. People were probably too caught up in the awesome music to fight. Everyone from The Who to Jimi Hendrix to 50's rock revival group Sha-Na-Na put in some of their best live performances. Wadleigh and his crew managed to capture a moment, when flower children swam naked in clear ponds and the world was all right.
Favorite Number: The first actual performance isn't until 20 minutes in, but it's R&B legend Richie Havens with "Handsome Johnny," the totally improvised "Freedom." and the spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." Canned Heat gives their first actual performance next, "A Change Is Gonna Come." A pregnant Joan Baez wows the crowd and impressed me with "Joe Hill" and "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." The Who roar into action next with two songs from their rock opera Tommy, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "See Me, Feel Me," along with the classic "Summertime Blues." In a bit of serendipity only Mother Nature could plan, "See Me" starts just as the sun comes up, rising like the words in the song.
Sha-Na-Na was an odd choice for this, but that doesn't stop them from tearing up the stage with "At the Hop." Joe Cocker manages to slide in his full-throttle soul version of "With a Little Help From My Friends" right before the rain starts. The audience gets in on the show next with their "Crowd Rain Chant" in an attempt to end the storms.
Once the bad weather passes, the music resumes with Country Joe and the Fish's "Rock and Soul Music." Arlo Guthrie also covers the weather with "Coming Into Los Angeles." We get some literal epic rocking from Crosby, Stills, and Nash with their "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and Ten Years After's "I'm Going Home." Jefferson Airplane also really rocks with their "Saturday Afternoon," "Won't You Try," and "Uncle Sam's Blues."
John Sebastian wasn't originally supposed to play at all - he was at Woodstock for the show - but he got the kids in the audience dancing along as he sung about the "Younger Generation." He and Country Joe covered for missing artists, Country Joe with "Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die-Rag." They even gave the audience a follow the bouncing ball segment for Country Joe's song.
Janis Joplin only has one song on the Director's Cut, but her performance of "Work Me, Lord" remains raw and real. " Santana and his band do equally well with another epic rocker, "Soul Sacrifice." Sly and the Family Stone have a blast with "Dance to the Music" and "I Wanna Take You Higher." Jimi Hendrix is the last act before the movie ends....and what a send off despite the sparse crowds, with his famous version of "The Star Spangled Banner," along with the hits "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," "Purple Haze," and "Villanova Junction." Crosby, Stills, and Nash return over the end credits and the sights of what all those humans did to that field with the title song and "Find the Cost of Freedom."
Trivia: Won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1970 and was nominated for Best Sound and Best Editing.
Among the groups invited to perform who declined or couldn't show were The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Chicago, The Guess Who, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, Tommy James and the Shondells, Joni Mitchell, and Iron Butterfly.
The concert got so big, and they were so short of food and sanitation, the Governor of New York almost called the National Guard in.
Credence Clearwater Revival, Blood, Sweat, & Tears, Sweetwater, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and The Grateful Dead are among those bands who played Woodstock but aren't on the original or Director's cut of the film. (Some of their performances are included in bonus features on the DVD and Blu-Ray sets.)
The organizers of the event didn't make money on the festival itself, but they did finally earn a small profit when the film and its soundtrack were among the biggest critical and financial hits of 1970.
What I Don't Like: Like Gimme Shelter, this concert is for adults only. Bad language, including F-bombs, are tossed around frequently, and drug use and naked bodies are everywhere. We also get a look at the devastation wrought on Max Yeager's farm afterwards, when everyone is cleaning up mountains of trash and refuse from those 450,000 bodies. Not to mention, the movie does run almost four hours in its director's cut.
The Big Finale: If you're a fan of classic rock, concert documentaries, or any of the bands involved and have time on your hands, you owe to yourself to check out this look at a time when peace, love, and the power of rock and roll truly conquered all.
Home Media: The Director's Cut that I based this review on is easily found on all formats, often for under $10.
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