Taking Woodstock

“The fact that half a million people were there and there was no violence is amazing. Something like that will probably never happen again. The idea that the world can be changed overnight, that’s the naïve part. But the heart and the intention that held it together was quite incredible.”

                  —Taking Woodstock filmmaker Ang Lee

                 quoted in a national magazine

1969. It was quite a summer. A man walked on the moon for the first time. Judy Garland died in June in London. A few days later the legendary Stonewall Riots occurred in Manhattan, as did Garland’s funeral. Wikipedia: “A connection is frequently drawn between the timing of (gay icon) Garland’s death and funeral and the Stonewall Riots.” And on August 15th to 17th what was billed as “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Love and Peace” took place on Max Yasgur’s farm in upstate New York’s rural town of Bethel, in Sullivan County, 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock. Although called the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, it was scheduled for the town of Wallkill at the 300-acre Mills Industrial Park. However, permits were pulled when the Wallkill Zoning Board banned the concert on the basis that the planned portable toilets would not meet the town code.

This is where Elliot Tiber (author of the book Taking Woodstock on which the film is based) stepped in. Elliot, with his parents, owned the 80-room El Monaco Motel on White Lake in Bethel, and Elliot offered to host the festival on their 15 acres of land, having read that Wallkill had banned it. Elliot, you see, already had a permit for a music and arts festival in Bethel. His homosexuality is largely unaddressed in the film, though not totally glossed over, and as it turns out he was at the Stonewall Inn when the riots broke out. I guess you could say it was a really remarkable summer for him. Some parts of it probably felt as if he were walking on the moon.

Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee’s masterful film, astutely written by screenwriter and Focus Features CEO James Schamus, chose not to use the Stonewall information and Tiber’s Manhattan gay lifestyle, but to include gays and Tiber’s blossoming as part of the free-love hippie lifestyle of the 60’s. An acid trip set-piece where Tiber (Demetri Martin) and actors Kelli Garner and Paul Dano all get high in a van near the concert is excellently dramatized and a highlight of the film. The real standout performance, however, is given by Imelda Staunton (who had previously worked with Lee on Sense and Sensibility) as Elliot’s no-nonsense mother, followed by Liev Schreiber’s portrayal of a tough transvestite named Vilma. Jonathan Groff makes a notable and charismatic screen debut as Michael Lang, one of the festival’s main producers, and British thesp Henry Goodman scores as Elliot’s father Jake. Eugene Levy is effective in the smaller role of farm owner Max Yasgur. In the film’s largest role, stand-up comedian Martin is quite good in what turns out to be a largely passive role.

Director of Photography Eric Gautier does a stunning job of bringing us back to this specific moment in time, and the costuming by Joseph G. Aulisi hits a bulls-eye without caricaturing the period.

Michael Wadleigh’s Academy Award-winning documentary Woodstock (1970) (one of the best nonfiction films of all time) is a sensational look at this live and iconic event that ended the summer of 1969 on a serene note. Taking Woodstock shows you mostly what was happening at the periphery and events leading up to the festival. Not having attended Woodstock as many who were not there claim to have, I was captivated by it from the moment I saw Wadleigh’s film. Lee’s new film enhances the entire Woodstock experience and for me is a wonderful companion piece to the 70’s documentary. I look forward to seeing both again.

                                             Jim Baldassare