The Movie
The three-day music festival on Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York (not the town of Woodstock, as many believe) in August of 1969 took on a far deeper significance even before it began. At a time of great social turmoil at home and The Viet Nam War abroad, the notion of 50,000 young people coming together to celebrate their music, and a decidedly carefree lifestyle, was considered trouble in the making for The Establishment. And yet even when ten times that number showed up, crashed the gates, slept in the mud and ran out of food, no hostility and virtually no injuries ensued. The peaceful communion of young people from all over America made not only for an enjoyablelong weekend, it marked the dawn of "Woodstock Nation" and fueled legends that would last for generations.
Woodstock, 3 Days of Peace & Music is the staggering, Oscar-winning chronicle of that scene before, during and after the mammoth event. Interspersing interviews with the unlikeliest of subjects--from headliners to producers to attendees to the porta-potty guy--with many of the greatest talents of The Sixties doing what they did best, this documentary is an expansive snapshot that must have been revolutionary in its day, and is now a time capsule of cultural history, valuable beyond measure. Expanded from its original 1970 running time of three hours to almost four in Michael Wadleigh's Director's Cut, and packed with split screens to tell an even more densely constructed story, the bigness and controlled chaos is vital to truly capturing the spirit of this singular, defining experience.
Also vital was the R-rating, for the frank language, widespread drug use and uninhibited nudity. Further, 40 years ago, everyone smoked and no one cut their hair! Future Academy Award winners Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker toiled as assistant directors (also doubling as film editors) to make it happen. But in the end, many would argue, it's all about the music. We will never hear The National Anthem the same way again, after Jimi Hendrix's version, and with the likes of The Who and Joan Baez and even Sha Na Na (I know, right?), there is someone on stage for just about everyone. Taken as entertainment, enlightenment, or as sweet nostalgia, Woodstock is nothing short of phenomenal.
The Picture
The compact 16mm film origins yield at times an unavoidably high level of grain which can be most readily apparent over the rolling grassy hills. This isn't a problem per se, in fact it actually preserves the edgy look of documentary films of the time. The frequent dirt, scratches and hair in the gate are all par for the course. Video issues creep in as hard ringing in headlights or a really busy, noisy moonglow or scenes of mist. Visually, the use of the wide frame is still intriguing, as a single image can float windowboxed in the center one minute and later two or more still or moving "multiscreen" scenes can play simultaneously. Although 35mm theatrical prints were shown at 2.35:1 and 70mm (coveted by the filmmakers for its superior multichannel sound, too) at 2.20:1, this disc is framed at 2.4:1.
The Sound
I'm guessing that this disc was prepared in advance of other recent Warner releases, such as Gran Torino, which automatically default to the higher-resolution Dolby TrueHD track. Woodstock has a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 option, but we have to actively select it either from the Languages menu or with the Blu-ray remote's Audio button, otherwise we'll only be hearing Dolby Digital 5.1. In the parlance of the era, "Bummer."
Surrounds are used very interestingly, not necessarily discrete but certainly active and contributing to the feeling of actually being in that vast audience. A bit more work and multichannel creativity appears to have gone into the performances of Jimi Hendrix, whose incomparable stylings on the electric guitar are a truly wicked head trip. Some of the channel changes during the cuts in Sha Na Na's "At the Hop" are a tad abrupt, and the sounds of breathing from behind me during the yoga lesson were a little unsettling.
During intimate Q&A sessions, glimpsing behind the scenes with the musicians or other quiet moments, the mix is very simple, unless there's also pre-recorded music added, or live music in the background. People on-scene keep complaining about the noise of the helicopters, and were this not a documentary the filmmakers might have amped up the rotor sounds a bit, because here they're not especially loud or bothersome. There is definitely an emphasis on fidelity over flash, to the music but to the voiceovers from the stage too, with a realistic tone and an appreciable resonance. The great thing about this being a live convert, we can automatically forgive most distortions as being a consequence of the original equipment, not necessarily any flaw of the Blu-ray. This is typically the ceiling that this track hits, as no one could have predicted the high audio standards to which a counter-culture music festival would be held, four decades on.
The Extras
We will find chatchkes aplenty inside the faux-suede fringe vest in which this Ultimate Collector's Edition is ensconced. Look for a lenticular Lucite block which alternates between the scene of the farm before/during the show, a reprint of a vintage Life Magazine commemorative issue, reproductions of handwritten notes and a three-day ticket, plus a list of interesting facts and figures. About the only thing missing is a pack of Zig-Zags.
"Woodstock: From Festival to Feature" is a string of brief, newly produced featurettes which coalesce to provide a unique view of the festival itself and the creation of the landmark film, every aspect we can imagine plus a few we couldn't. Some terrific interviews with many of the original participants blend with clips and other vintage footage, sometimes for prolonged anecdotes as well as some fascinating insight into the artistic challenges and technical execution of it all. Reality check: Without computers, or "digital" anything, they did it all the hard way. These run about 77 minutes total. A full listing of each segment appears below, under the Product Details: Extras heading.
"Untold Stories" is a collection of additional performances captured on film but which did not survive to the final cut, some never before seen or heard. Throw in about five minutes of deleted scenes, from the opening and closing of the festival, and we're talking about over two-and-a-half hours total, including some undeniable greats ("Evil Ways" by Santana!) and The Grateful Dead's typically unhurried, nigh-38-minute rendition of "Turn on Your Love Light." Again, a detailed listing appears below.
In addition, Blu-ray provides the ability to easily assemble a custom playlist of any or all of these songs, in whatever order we choose. It displays our choices, allows us to save them or reset and start all over. This is an especially neat trick for the iPod generation. Also here is "The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties & Woodstock," a four-and-a-half-minute commercial for the lovely educational mecca built on the actual Woodstock grounds. All of the above is presented in high-definition.
The BD-Live options for this title, accessible via Disc One, are remarkably rich, or at least they will be once they become active. (None were, at the time of my review, two weeks before street date.) Highlights include Media Center; for trailers, exclusive interviews, photos and the like; My WB Commentary, to record and share our own scene-specific Picture-in-Picture comments; and Live Community Screening, to watch together, in synch over the internet, scheduled with friends or taking part in studio-hosted events. This last one is particularly appropriate to the film, since there is much talk of communes, and possibly more than a few Communists shown on camera.
Final Thoughts
On every level, Woodstock is a monumental accomplishment, the extent of which is ably encapsulated by this lovingly assembled boxed set. If you were there, or ever wished you were, this Blu-ray is as close as you're likely to come.
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Product Details
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