Customer Reviews

Woodstock: The Director's Cut (Widescreen)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

i hate unnecessary trinkets and filler and the ONLY way to get the extra songs is to buy either this collector's edition, or the blu-ray. i even went a step further and bought from amazon.COM to get the FOURTH disc (amazon.com ONLY) ....

this fourth disc contains 3 extra songs (& 3 extra featurettes) NOT INCLUDED
in the standard box set.

the main feature is now split over 2 dual layered dvds (instead of a double sided, single layered disc - the previous dvd release)

the color and grain are much improved. the sound is great too, 5.1 for the extra songs disc as well .....

the standard extra songs are a delight, and one WISHES there were more ...
perhaps they're holding off for the 50th annivesary ???

while the 2 disc version (feature film only) is $19.99, THIS 3 disc version is $48.99 .....

what do you get for the extra 28.99 ????

3rd disc of extra songs (EXCELLENT)
a collection of 'featurettes' on the making of (ok, but still your classically 'bad' studio made filler-featurettes) a REAL doc, made in the spirit of the film would've been much more classier ....
a scaled down reprint of the LIFE magazine 'woodstock' issue (VERY NICE)
a 'woodstock' patch (I DON'T CARE)
an envelope with a few reprints of some of the original handwritten notes/announcements that were read over the PA and a reproduction of the 3-day ticket (I DON'T CARE)
a LUCITE display with images from the festival (I DON'T CARE)
i'll mention the 'featurette' on the bethel museum, but it's more like a pathetic COMMERCIAL for the place rather than something genuine that was made for THIS release.....(i believe you get that with the 2 disc version as well)

all packaged in this suede fringed box that contains another cardboard box inside that holds all the elements. i thought it impractical.

so you can decide. other reviewers on the web have noted that it is 'plenty classy' ......

obviously i wish that i could've had the choice to buy ONLY the dvds MINUS the 'trinkets' ..... for LESS.

i don't like being forced to pay for 'stuff'and'packaging' that i don't want, to get the 'stuff' i DO want .....

anyhow, i bit the bullet on this one because this STILL is one of the most important and best made documentaries EVER .....the camera work and editing are still a sight to behold ...... and i've been dying to see more concert footage ....

hope this helps.

it WAS great seeing that CCR footage for the first time !!

Although I was a teenager soon after this concert, I somehow never got around to seeing the moving until this year. (I guess concert films don't get screened frequently on terrestrial TV.) So over the years I've become more familiar with the triple LP of the movie and, of course, the many posters the rock stars in heroic poses that dominated the early 1970s -- i.e. the Who's Roger Daltrey, Jimi Hendrix and Ten Years After's Alvin Lee.

Despite the mud and the squalor, this is an extraordinarily beautiful film, with the screen often breaking up into two or three segments. (Note on the closing credits the name of Martin Scorsese on the production team.)

It's well worth contrasting this movie with the DVD of the 1970 Isle of Wight festival. Only a year separates the two concerts, but the late 1960s idealism of Woodstock gets replaced by prototype British vandalism. The Who perform at both concerts, and make an equally good account of themselves. Daltrey's emotional delivery of 'See Me, Feel Me' helps to explain why 'Tommy' became such a phenomenon in America. Hendrix also performed at both, but his meandering solo at Woodstock was not of the highest standard.

The other highlight of the show was Santana, a Latino band only just beginning to establish themselves in California at the time. As others have noted, the drum solo by Mike Shrieve is impressive for one so young. As with the Who, Santana's album sales will have multiplied as a result of their Woodstock performance.

It's interesting how many great acts weren't at Woodstock -- e.g. Joni Mitchell (despite her song about the concert!), the Doors, Bob Dylan or the Stones. The first two clearly realised how important these festivals were in the breaking of artists into markets, and so they appear on the Isle of Wight DVD.

For most of my life, Woodstock has been a set of static images, largely taken from the cover of the album. But as this film reveals, there is so much more imagery than pictures of beautiful women bathing in the lake. Quite apart from all the idealism of passing whisky bottles and reefers around, of sliding in the mud, the film shows the flip side: of people queuing in the mud to phone home, of helicopters rescuing the sick, of helpers cleaning toilets, and of barefoot stragglers looking for a pair of shoes amid a post-concert site that looks more of a wasteland than the trenches of the First World War.

Enjoy it in all its glory and all its grime.

A previous reviewer has made mention of the fact that so much of the best music from the concert doesn't appear in the documentary footage. I concur, and I advise anyone who owns the motion picture to buy the soundtrack as well. There were tremendous performances by Sly and the Family Stone, Paul Butterfield, Melanie, Mountain, Johnny Winter, Creedence Clearwater Revival and others that ended up on the cutting room floor. Time couldn't possibly allow all three days' worth of music, but the film was about so much more than the musical performances.

Aside from the atrocious weather that plagued the event, some of the performances were awful, including the Who's set, which sounded like they were playing in a cardboard box; Arlo Guthrie's, who stormed off in anger after constant helicopter interruptions; CSNY's, with their out-of-tune guitars and off-key vocals; and the Grateful Dead's (absent from both the film and the soundtrack), which ended when a rain-soaked Jerry Garcia was electrocuted by a mike-stand. Ironically, the thrilling conclusion to the festival, given by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was witnessed by only a few thousand stragglers, as many people had already gone home -- or never even made it to the show because of all the abandoned cars on the highways.

Some very poignant and very human moments were included in the film, especially those with the chief of police and the Port-o-San cleaner, as well as some difficult moments, such as the irate farmer who lost his milk supply and had his fences broken due to the massive crowds and blocked highways("It's a sh*tty mess!" he says). Joan Baez' protest-laden set was equally poignant, and Country Joe MacDonald's exhortation "How do you expect to stop a war if you don't sing?!?" epitomizes the attitude of the Nation's youth towards an unpopular conflict and "the establishment."

Most wonderful in all the film were the interviews with festival-goers and the impromptu stage announcements, interspersed between the concert footage and the stylistic, multi-screened editing. How they managed to dub all those various performance clips with the soundtrack is amazing in itself.

This tremendous work of art won an Academy Award, and gives great snapshots of popular culture of the late 1960's. It's an important piece of American film and also of American history. But once again, if you really want to experience the MUSIC, buy the film AND the soundtrack.

I'm very happy everytime I listen to this DVD, this is a very good concert with good sound for that time. If you're a Baby Boomer, this will bring memories in time, excellent.

An incredible package of Woodstock music and information. Watching the DVDs and reading the LIFE reprint gave me a small chance to revisit a milestone time from my teenagehood. I shared this with my 13 year old to give her a sense of what was going on when I was growing up and that was a thrill.

I think it was worth the money.

It's inevitable that arguments will take place, as they do in these reviews, about what the meaning of Woodstock really is -- many have evoked peace and anti-vietnam sentiments and a great social movement, while others take a more mocking tone and dismiss it as a kind of upper middle class fantasy camp, a sewing of the oats before beginning corporate life.

Not having been alive in the 60s, I only know what I've read and been told by those older than myself, but I'd guess that the first assessment is a bit idealistic, while the second is unfair, and that the truth is "somewhere in between," to fall back on the cliche.

What the film does successfully document, I gather, is what it felt like to be young and hippie and excited about music and social protest and all the things Woodstock at least appeared, at the time, to represent. The feeling is what's embodied in the filmic techniques, the scenes chosen, and the performances themselves, and this makes Woodstock a successful documentary.

The 60s were many things, and no film could capture all of them. Actually, in spite of the fact that it allows itself to get very much caught up in the excitement, I think the film has its moments of ironic distance and sobering reality, such as the port-a-san scene (particularly the extended shot of the average joe cleaning the things).

For a good counterpoint, I recommend the Isle of Wight festival film, which captures the darker, more selfish side of the hippie generation.

The original Woodstock without a doubt is the most important musical event of all time. After Woodstock, many festivals have tried in vain to copy this event, some of them have had a very good quality, but none has been as important as Woodstock. So this outstanding event deserved a high quality documentary, and Michael Wadleigh made the best rockumentary "Woodstock: Three Days of Peace & Music".

One of the best things that can be found on this Rockumentary, is the close attention to the details: we can see how the young people in 1969 were, their ideology, their habits and their way to dress (or undress). Michael Wadleigh also did that all the event details were recorded by his army of camera men: the concert organizers, the portable bathrooms used in the concert, the thoughts and commentaries made by the neighbors and owners of the nearby stores, the mud baths, the use of illegal substances, the rain delay, the nudity, etc.

But the most interesting thing in the Rockumentary without a doubt are the performers in Woodstock: Jimi Hendrix, Santana, The Who, Canned Heat, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, among many others. Some performances are amazing, other performances are very eccentric, and in other performances the use of illegal substances is really obvious, but overall most of the performances are very good.

"Woodstock: Three Days of Peace & Music" is the best Rockumentary of all time, and also it's one of the best Documentaries overall. If you are a music fan, this is an essential video.

I just recently purchased this on DVD, and it's the most stunning piece of music video, I have ever seen.

We are treated to 2 things about the 60's, in this video alone...

1. We are shown amazing performances of music from the era's greatest music performers: Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Country Joe & The Fish, Santana, The Who, Ten Years After, Sly & The Family Stone, etc.

2. We are shown a deep look at the counterculture. Whether it be a bunch of hippies trippin' out on Marijuana & LSD, people who enjoyed skinny-dipping, the spiritual side of it with Yoga and Trancendental Meditation, and what to do in the rain... Strip naked and roll around in the mud.

And nobody cared about it, because it was a place of peace. And peace what all that they wanted, and for 3 days everybody received peace.

There are a few downsides to this film, though...

1. No Performance from The Grateful Dead, just Jerry Garcia rollin' a few joints.

2. They don't have Sly & The Family Stone's Dance To The Music in the video, that was a song that got the whole crowd up and going, but all we get is "I Want To Take You Higher."

But they're only miniscule things, the video is amazing. The spirit of the 60's, will live on forever, thanks to this festival and movie.

And DAMN RIGHT! This movie did deserve to win the Oscar!!!

Buy the video if you want, but be warned, there will be an everlasting effect to wear tie-dye and put up the 2-finger salute.

-Peace-

Hey, folks, don't give up on this DVD based on the review from New Jersey Jeff. If he really saw Woodstock when it came out, that means he was alive in 1969, but he sure wasn't aware of the music scene in those days. The blues ruled--look at the bands from the late 60's that were making waves--Hendrix, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Steve Miller, Big Brother, Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Winter, and so on. These were bands whose sounds had blues at the roots. Look at the first Grateful Dead album: "Good Morning Little School Girl" is as blues as you get. Cheap Thrills? My God, Turtle Blues? Ball and Chain? Jeff liked Joplin, but he didn't like blues from Canned Heat. Jeff, the director didn't add blues for modern viewers. Blues music informed almost everthing that was being played at the concert that summer! Listen to Joe Cocker. You don't think he added blues to "A Little Help from My Friends'? Listen to "Red House" if you don't think Hendrix played the blues.
If you want a documentary of the most important concert of the 60s, buy this. Then get "Gimme Shelter" to see how the Woodstock dream ended

I love janis joplin and seeing her preform 'work me lord' is the most wonderful thing I've ever seen. It sends chills up my spine, I love the song and watching her is like watching an angel. If you love janis half as much as I do, you've got to buy this. I rented the video, and had to buy the dvd because I can watch her over and over again and it never loses its magic. BUY IT!!!!