A movie about Woodstock with no Woodstock music. For the musicians & serious music lovers out there, that's all you need to know. Rent Jimi Hendrix - Wild Blue Angel instead.
While this isn't a bad story on its own, I wanted to warn those of you who, like me, may be fooled by deceptive marketing into thinking this is a true story about the famous Woodstock concert. First, it's not true (we'll get to that later). But even worse, it has very little to do with the great concert and totally drops the ball by featuring no music from the event advertised in the title of the film.
So if you're expecting to see/hear a nostalgic trip featuring music by Janis, Jimi, Ravi, The Who, The Dead, Jefferson Airplane, or any of the other entities that made up the soul of Woodstock, you'll be sorely disappointed. They aren't even a footnote.
So what the heck is "Taking Woodstock" about? It's about a guy named Elliot Tiber who published a book in 2007 claiming that he was the one who made Woodstock happen. This claim has been subsequently refuted by the true concert organizer, Michael Lang, and the man on whose farm the concert was held, Max Yasgur. Both Lang and Yasgur are depicted in the film as friends of Elliot Tiber, but in reality they didn't know him, and Max has stated that he never met Elliot.
All this is tolerable because, after all, this is a movie not a documentary. Some of the greatest films ever made took wild liberties with the truth, such as "Amadeus". But unlike "Amadeus" which is a powerful depiction of a man's vindictive struggle against god, "Taking Woodstock" is simply about some loser claiming he's more important than he is, giving us an autobiography of a rather uneventful existence by attaching himself to a grand event such as Woodstock.
I repeat, the Woodstock concert is barely a footnote. Instead we get the rather common story of a boy who's coming to terms with his selfish mother, coming to terms with his homosexuality and coming to terms with drugs and hippy freedom. Director Ang Lee tries his best to keep us on the Woodstock topic by showing oodles of disorienting, 8mm hand-held shots of hippies and miscellaneous 60s chaos, but it can't cover up the fact that this is basically just an autobiography of Elliot Tiber.
I'm told that this is a comedy. I suppose there were a few swats at humor, cutting to random weird scenes like a bunch of hippies stripping their clothes off and praying to a helicopter, or a bunch of hippies stripping their clothes off and shouting at a crowd of people. There's also a "comic relief" character who is a Vietnam vet suffering flashbacks of the jungle (yeah possibly disrespectful to Vietnam vets).
If you want to see this movie you should head to your local Blockbuster where you can find this DVD for sale in the bargain bin for $2. It's entertaining enough to warrant 2 bucks but not much more.
========ALTERNATE RECOMMENDATIONS========
If you want to see a funny hippy movie, check out "Grand Theft Parsons", a dramatized "true story" of what happened to singer Gram Parson's body after he died.
If you want to see an entertaining movie about an unsung hero behind the scenes of a famous event, look for the obscure Australian comedy "The Dish" about the lonely radio outpost that broadcast the moon landing in 1969.
If you want a movie with some cool 60s music, see "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" or "Pirate Radio".
And lastly, if you want to see a movie about a guy who wrote a book claiming to be something he's not, check out "The Hoax" about the man who claimed to have interviewed the mysterious Howard Hughes.
"Taking Woodstock" doesn't fit into any of the above categories, despite what the DVD cover promises. Instead it's an OK coming-of-age flick about a boy realizing his independence.
While this isn't a bad story on its own, I wanted to warn those of you who, like me, may be fooled by deceptive marketing into thinking this is a true story about the famous Woodstock concert. First, it's not true (we'll get to that later). But even worse, it has very little to do with the great concert and totally drops the ball by featuring no music from the event advertised in the title of the film.
So if you're expecting to see/hear a nostalgic trip featuring music by Janis, Jimi, Ravi, The Who, The Dead, Jefferson Airplane, or any of the other entities that made up the soul of Woodstock, you'll be sorely disappointed. They aren't even a footnote.
So what the heck is "Taking Woodstock" about? It's about a guy named Elliot Tiber who published a book in 2007 claiming that he was the one who made Woodstock happen. This claim has been subsequently refuted by the true concert organizer, Michael Lang, and the man on whose farm the concert was held, Max Yasgur. Both Lang and Yasgur are depicted in the film as friends of Elliot Tiber, but in reality they didn't know him, and Max has stated that he never met Elliot.
All this is tolerable because, after all, this is a movie not a documentary. Some of the greatest films ever made took wild liberties with the truth, such as "Amadeus". But unlike "Amadeus" which is a powerful depiction of a man's vindictive struggle against god, "Taking Woodstock" is simply about some loser claiming he's more important than he is, giving us an autobiography of a rather uneventful existence by attaching himself to a grand event such as Woodstock.
I repeat, the Woodstock concert is barely a footnote. Instead we get the rather common story of a boy who's coming to terms with his selfish mother, coming to terms with his homosexuality and coming to terms with drugs and hippy freedom. Director Ang Lee tries his best to keep us on the Woodstock topic by showing oodles of disorienting, 8mm hand-held shots of hippies and miscellaneous 60s chaos, but it can't cover up the fact that this is basically just an autobiography of Elliot Tiber.
I'm told that this is a comedy. I suppose there were a few swats at humor, cutting to random weird scenes like a bunch of hippies stripping their clothes off and praying to a helicopter, or a bunch of hippies stripping their clothes off and shouting at a crowd of people. There's also a "comic relief" character who is a Vietnam vet suffering flashbacks of the jungle (yeah possibly disrespectful to Vietnam vets).
If you want to see this movie you should head to your local Blockbuster where you can find this DVD for sale in the bargain bin for $2. It's entertaining enough to warrant 2 bucks but not much more.
========ALTERNATE RECOMMENDATIONS========
If you want to see a funny hippy movie, check out "Grand Theft Parsons", a dramatized "true story" of what happened to singer Gram Parson's body after he died.
If you want to see an entertaining movie about an unsung hero behind the scenes of a famous event, look for the obscure Australian comedy "The Dish" about the lonely radio outpost that broadcast the moon landing in 1969.
If you want a movie with some cool 60s music, see "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" or "Pirate Radio".
And lastly, if you want to see a movie about a guy who wrote a book claiming to be something he's not, check out "The Hoax" about the man who claimed to have interviewed the mysterious Howard Hughes.
"Taking Woodstock" doesn't fit into any of the above categories, despite what the DVD cover promises. Instead it's an OK coming-of-age flick about a boy realizing his independence.