Woodstock in Review
Joan Baez
By TED ILIFF Campus Editor
"Woodstock," an epic feature documentary on the rock festival last August, has been graciously rated "R." Once again Jack Valenti has demonstrated that he has no talent at judging the worth of a film.
Everyone should be able, yea,
required to see the film. Produced by Michael Wadleigh and
released by Warner Bros.,
"Woodstock" deserves all the
trite phrases used for praise in
film reviews. You walk out of the
theater with ears ringing from
music and a desire to see it again.
The film (as screened for the press in Dallas) is three hours of splendor. A description of the filming process is enough to boggle the mind. Forty crew members manning six camera positions and several sound systems accumulated 315,000 feet of film and 81 hours of sound, and from all that had to create a concise film of three remarkable days.
"Woodstock" is really two films wrapped into one. Oddly enough, the public relations literature from Warner Bros. heavily emphasizes the musical groups who performed at the festival. Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Santana, The Who, Ten Years After, Crosby Stills, Nash, and Young (in only their second public appearance together), Shauna-na, John Sebastian, Country Joe and the Fish, Alilo Guthrie, Sly and the Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix all perform at least one familiar song in the film.
16 KANSAN Apr. 15 1970
Crosby and Stills
Highlights were Sly and the Family Stone, who did a rendition of "I Want To Take You Higher" that had everyone in the theater clapping and grooving with the music, Country Joe's "I feel like I'm Fixin' To Die Reg," which included the amusingly vulgar "Fish cheer," and Sha-na-na's frantic, raucous revival of "At The Hop" which is one of the funniest acts I have ever seen.
As impressive as the music was, it was far overshadowed by the second facet of the film, "Woodstock" is a monumental documentary on the social phenomenon that occurred there.
Performances by the Who and Ten Years After were both sub par. They had similar problems—too long, too repetitious, and frankly, too boring. If the producers decide to cut the film (and I hope they do) these segments should be the first to go.
The interviews with everyone
Arlo Guthrie
from the organizer to the portable outhouse operator, the scenes of the endless lines of traffic, the cops standing around just watching, the pushers, the kids skinny-dipping (there is plenty of skin in the movie for voyeurs, but if that is your only reason for seeing "Woodstock," you're sick) and the comments, praises, and laments of the local natives are mostly well done and interesting. The most notable sections of the film are the scenes of the storm and the resulting activities of the crowd.
The storm scene reminded me of an old buccaneer flick, but was much more powerful. The stage crew hustling to cover the instruments and equipment, the public address system blaring warnings to stay away from the light towers, the crowd trying to cover themselves with blankets, papers, and so on, then the blue-gray hell of the thunderstorm—all was captured on film and tape and edited into one of the most remarkable scenes I have ever seen.
The coverage of the crowd after the storm was equally awesome. The kids playing in the mud, the Hog Farm for kids sick or on bad trips, the cold, the misery mixed with carefree cavorting was all there, and one must see it to really understand the significance
of Woodstock.
music on a four-track sound system that surrounds the audience in sound.
$5,000 gift starts KU
The promoters of Woodstock lost their shirts when the huge crowd forced them to make it a free concert, but the film should help them recover their losses. "Woodstock" is a classic film in terms of cinematic art and content—it should not be missed.
Amos Lawrence, whose gift of $5,000 plus $4,400 accumulated interest, made possible the raising of the first $15,000 endowment.
"Woodstock" is by no means just a cavalcade of popular music. The musical groups in the film must be considered as appendices to a monumental documentary on the capabilities and attitudes of our generation. Older generations should see "Woodstock" to see tomorrow's leaders at their best; youngsters should see it to see how "big kids" really are; those who were at Woodstock can now see what they missed (for no one could have possibly taken in all that happened there) and everyone else should see it to appreciate the magnitude of this event and to hear some good
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