Review of Woodstock (1970) by Dan S — 08 Apr 2012

A beautiful, transcendent, enormously important film about music, culture, passion, and people, and how for three days in 1969 more than 500,000 people came together to celebrate music and each other in the prime days of the hippie age.

Director Michael Wadleigh has compiled some of the most layered, genuinely powerful music from the age in which music mattered (unlike today's generation which is buried by artists who exemplify misogynistic, narcissistic, and selfish traits), and when a group of people this large felt like family.

This movie has a "Dazed and Confused" sort of feel to it in the sense that you feel like you are part of this crowd, watching Jimi Hendrix shred his guitar, or a heroin-addled Janis Joplin screech and holler as the crowd stands in awe of the kind of music that existed during these days.

More importantly, this film serves as a unique time capsule that fully encompasses a culture paranoid about the Vietnam War and its affects, but still at ease with their lives and open to creating new friendships.

One of the best documentaries ever made by far, and a film I will probably want to re-visit numerous times just so that I can wish my generation knows how far we have fallen in what is considered to be "good/great music".