Those interested in seeing 40 minutes of brand new footage performances of ‘Woodstock’ will surely be happy to have this DVD disc. With the help of Martin Scorsese, filmmaker Michael Wadleigh utilizes wide- and split-screen maneuvers to reproduce the free spirit experience of legendary Woodstock, that had performances by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and the Who and a host of others.

More than a concert film, this is a great piece of filmmaking. They say the best is always better and this film that won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and was nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Sound, captures the zenith of the hippie era. This film has never looked or sounded better than in this director approved edition with its sights restored and its sounds revitatlised. Seen in its ground breaking widescreen multi image format it’s a once in a lifetime celebration that captured its era like no other movie before or after.

Spread throughout the film are interviews with local townspeople complaining about how they’ve been negatively impacted, relating anecdotes about their encounters with the incoming hive of hippies. There’s also concertgoers orchestrating about peace and love.

‘Three days of peace and music’ became the tagline for an epoch. Almost 50 years later, there could be no better way of exploring this experience with the director’s cut of the movie that did everything to cement it. As pure documentation, it’s surprisingly clear-sighted, beautifully shot, richly textured, informative and often funny.

We see so many of these musicians are long gone, but this DVD is a reminder of the fun that the festival brought together. Director Michael Wadleigh and his team flood the screen with images, using double and triple split screens, irresistible music and almost hallucinogenic crowd scenes to light up a convincing portrait of ecstatic chaos.

Going back to the event, though figures vary, it’s believed that as many as half a million people attended Woodstock, and while it brought many music acts onto the same stage, the event was a disaster for the local community.

Over four days in August 1969, 400,000 young Americans travelled to a farmland in NY State for a music festival. Facilities could not cope with the surge, reports and videos reveal that The Who, Janis, Sly and the Family Stone and Jimi were on fire. It rained, but the music went on. There was mud. There were sex and drugs galore. No violence was reported. 

There is no need at this point to debate the almost universally acknowledged quality and significance of Wadleigh’s film, or its cultural importance to a certain generation. Nor is there any need to talk about the audio/video quality of these discs: “Woodstock” was shot over half a century ago, on three different kinds of 16mm stock, so the reproduction has always been (and always will be) inconsistent, but serviceable.

Woodstock — the most famous of all rock festivals still never fails to garner interest.

Details:

Year: 1970,

Duration: 216 minutes approx

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira