TAKING WOODSTOCK
US, 2009, 129 minutes, Colour.
Demetri Martin, Henry Goodman, Imelda Staunton, Liev Schreiber, Emile Hirsch, Mamie Gummer, Eugene Levy, Dan Fogler, Paul Dano, Kelli Garner, Jeffrey Paul Morgan.
Directed by Ang Lee.
Ang Lee always surprises: great Chinese films, Jane Austen adaptation, graphic novel and a survey of US society and culture from the Civil War (Ride with the Devil) to specialist films about the 1960s and 1970s (The Ice Storm, Brokeback Mountain and now, Taking Woodstock).
2009 is the 40th anniversary of the momentous cultural (and counter-cultural) event which drew half a million Americans to a concert where the stars of the time played and hippiedom reached its peak. The first television interview this reviewer ever did was in 1970, talking with director Michael Wadleigh about his cinema covering of the event, Woodstock.
What has Woodstock to say to audiences in the West today? What does Ang Lee think and James Schamus the writer of this film and several other Lee films?
For those over 60, it is a memoir, a nostalgia trip (for or against), a reminder that there were causes in those days, that the 1960s saw some of the greatest changes in the way we behaved and thought. It was the time of the Vietnam War and what that did to the consciousness of the United States. It was Richard Nixon's first year as president, the year after student riots in Paris and other European cities, of the Russian spring invasion of Prague, of the Catholic Church's encyclical letter on birth control. Midnight Cowboy won the Oscar for 1969. The times were definitely a-changing and the flower-power movement and similar stances for free love, for drug induced states, for protest, for same-sex relationships. Much is taken for granted now. And the question always rises: what are the movements now, what are the causes, and do they generate the enthusiasm and energy these days that they should?
Are young people today as liberated as they think they are? Do they take causes to heart as they might? There was hedonism then. How does it compare to the more knowing and self-indulgently affluent hedonism now?
Which are questions for the under 20s who may be made aware through this film of stances of their parents and grandparents.
This story takes in the concert, but at a distance. It is interested in the more personal story of the family that took on the project and the locals who let out the land – and all the consequences, the 500,000 who came, the attitudes and behaviours, the logistics for control and security, for food and drink, for hygiene facilities, the rain and the mud.
At the centre is a young man who is trying to help his parents run a run-down motel. The screenplay spends a lot of time on his story. He is well played by Demetri Martin and his parents by British Henry Goodman and Imelda Staunton (doing a caricature of a Jewish mother that demands attention). Also featured are Eugene Levy as the owner of the land, Emile Hirsch as a returned Vietnam veteran with problems and Liev Schreiber as a transvestite security guard.
Very American but brought to life by Ang Lee.
1.Woodstock as an event, the end of the 1960s, changes in the United States, world consciousness, manners, language, freedoms? The occasion of the music, the concert? Hippie freedom, drugs, liberation? Hedonism and causes?
2.The forty-year anniversary, the impact for older audiences, nostalgia, causes, better days or not?
3.The film for younger audiences, challenge, understanding their parents and grandparents?
4.The highlighting of the personal story, typical Americans, migrants, tight, experiencing some freedom?
5.Ang Lee and the variety of his work, his particular perspectives on American history and society?
6.Eliott as the central character, his writing the book, his memoirs and perspectives on the times, on Woodstock itself, on his family, on himself?
7.The small towns, rural, the farms, the small community, enclosed? The reactions to the concert and plans? Their being ejected from different towns? The meetings, the chamber of commerce, the issues, the small number of people, folksy, the permits? The friendliness of the diner and Eliott going there for the usual? The later hostility, the townspeople against the hippies, suspicions, thinking they would rob them? The gradual coming round to the concert? The financial profit, the concert for them – with the upset by the Earthlight Players? Acceptance?
8.The family and the motel, rundown, the English visitor and his disgust, Sophie and her tough stances and words, Father and his quiet compliance? Eliott arriving, helping out his parents, handling situations, doing the work, his income going to help his parents? His own artwork and design in New York, his discussions with his sister, his sister out of favour with his mother? Intimations of his sexual orientation?
9.The news of Woodstock, the town’s ousting the group, Eliott and his inviting the group, Michael Lang and the bonds( from Brooklyn days? The entourage and their visit, the motel, going into the swamp, not wanting to stay with the motel? Going to the Yasgur farm? Max and his doing deals, the five thousand dollars? His later changing his mind? The realisation of more money? The lawyers and their opinions? The money being available? The inspectors at the motel, the infringements and Michael Lang wanting to pay?
10.The issues of logistics, installing the phones, dividing the rooms, the amount of food, drink, toilets, the security and the Mafia turning up and the father ousting them? The police – and their change of heart? The press conference, Eliott’s nervousness, mistakenly saying the concert was free, the hundreds of thousands of people turning up?
11.The concert kept in the distance, the effect for the impact of the film? Yet songs on the soundtrack? People’s behaviour, their dress, undress, sexual behaviour, drugs, dancing, bathing, nudity, the Earthlight performance and the upset, Billy rushing onto the stage? Their living in the barn, hungry, rehearsing, performance?
12.Eliott and his work, in the bar, talking with people, the man building the stage, awareness of his orientation? His going to the concert, going past the van, the hippies, offering him acid, his psychedelic experience, the visual effects, the sea of people at the concert? His feeling liberated, change of clothes?
13.His parents, their story, Sophie and her story of walking through Siberia, allusion to the gas and the Nazis? The discovery of her hoarding the money? The rainy day? Hard and hardworking? The father, quiet, devoted, coming to life with the people, his love for Sophie, for his son, friendship with Vilma, the Brownies, their cutting loose? Eliott and his farewell to his father?
14.Billy, his family, locals, hard, permits? Billy’s experience of Vietnam, his hallucinations, revisiting the campaigns? His talking with Eliott, the performance and his running naked on stage, the effect of the concert? Saying that he was normal in Vietnam?
15.Vilma, the story, cross-dressing, service in Korea, the death of the friend, sexual orientation, work, security, with Eliott’s father, the friendship? The Brownies?
16.Michael Lang, his wealth, sponsoring the concerts, riding around on the horse? Tisha, her hard work, friendship with Eliott?
17.Woodstock event, the sun and the rain, the joy, the campaign for peace? Causes?
18.The significance of Woodstock for the United States, the first of the major concerts and gatherings, the issues of the 60s, Vietnam, freedoms, drugs, change? The prelude to the 1970s?
