Taking Woodstock – Review

Reviews, Top Story

taking_woodstock

Director: Ang Lee
Notable Cast: Demetri Martin, Imelda Staunton, Henry Goodman, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, Dan Fogler

Early into Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) is reading an article about the Woodstock festival that lost its permit in a nearby town. Some of the acts were set to include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and The Who. When someone behind him says that maybe Dylan will show up, there is a moment of revelry. That was in 1969. Forty years later, Bob Dylan is arrested in New Jersey by a police officer unaware of who Dylan was. Even the second officer who assisted in the arrest didn’t know of Dylan.

This has no bearing on the film itself, but it is a fun observance at seeing how the landscape of music has changed in four decades. Then the name Dylan meant something. Today, not so much.

Woodstock, by all accounts, is probably the defining moment in the age of peace and free love. It is most remembered as a three-day summer festival bolstered by more than thirty musical acts. Michael Wadleigh’s Academy Award winning doc captured it all, with plenty of footage of the concert and interviews from those witnessing something truly “far-out.” In August ’69, a “Woodstock nation” was born. Hundreds of thousands congregated to the farming community of Bethel, New York, for music, a profusion of drugs, promiscuous sex, and mud sliding – the last of which came about by torrential rainfall.

Taking Woodstock centers on Elliot Teichberg, who is based on the real-life Elliot Tiber, and his efforts to bring Woodstock to Bethel. His modus operandi is to keep the bank from foreclosing on the ramshackle motel owned and run by his immigrant parents, Sonia (Imelda Staunton) and Jake (Henry Goodman). He figures an influx of people would stimulate the motel’s earnings. But what began as a simple business enterprise to save the motel quickly escalates as more and more hippies begin clogging the streets.

Lee’s film acts as a companion piece to Wadleigh’s doc, essentially a backstage pass on how Woodstock came to be. Along with longtime collaborator James Schamus, Lee concentrates on the concert, but the film is constructed in such a manner that it makes you wonder about the music. We hear it in the background, but never get up close to the stage.

Without the musical anthems, the story focuses on those who ventured to Woodstock just for the experience. Elliot shares some of those same experiences, dropping acid and sliding down mud coated hillsides. However, the film progresses better without Elliot’s presence. This is because of Demetri Martin’s one-note performance. Well-known in some circles for his standup and prop comedy, his skill set doesn’t make the translation to that of a starring vehicle. Martin’s character lacks personality, and is therefore the least interesting person in each scene. Watching him, I started to think of Tom Cruise in Risky Business. His Joel Goodsen character was just as insecure as Elliot, save for a few peccadilloes, but his transformation is the definition of star in the making. He had the charisma that Martin lacks.

The supporting players are the ones who lift up the film, doing their best with thinly written material. An interesting casting decision is Eugene Levy. He hasn’t had many roles of note since being cast as Jim’s Dad in American Pie, but as Max Yasgur, the dairy farmer who allocates his fields as the concert venue, he plays a straight role convincingly. Liev Schreiber as the cross-dressing ex-Marine Vilma, who provides security for the motel, is a supreme talent; something about his character draws us in. It could be the blonde wig and bandana or the gun he keeps strapped around his thigh for protection, but he has an intrinsic quality about himself, fully aware of what he is. When he tells Elliot to “go see what the center of the universe looks like,” we want to follow.

The lack of certain musical anthems make the film seems incomplete, but probably a wise choice by Lee. Had he followed through and captured at least one musical act, it would be him trying to one-up those real performances from Wadleigh’s documentary. Lee, however, instead uses split screens and faux documentary footage that looks like it was captured by Wadleigh and his crew; including a recreation of the famous “three nuns giving the peace sign.” These are nice touches that help to encapsulate the summer of love.

Like an old 45, Taking Woodstock would be the B-side to a hit single. Since Elliot is the central figure, we are mostly watching him and his interactions. The only insight we gather is from him and his experiences. Taking him out of the picture and it becomes more enjoyable as a whole. Then the entire film would be a canvas of counterculture. Just imagine a film of little stories of the hippies in attendance, the camera going from the clogged streets to hills before ending at the concert’s stage. It would be, well, “solid."

FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):



Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!