Woodstock
Original poster for the Woodstock movie
Directed by	Michael Wadleigh
Produced by	Bob Maurice
Edited by	Michael Wadleigh Martin Scorsese Stan Warnow Yeu-Bun Yee Jere Huggins Thelma Schoonmaker
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Released	March 26, 1970
Running Time	184 min. (original length) 228 min. (director's cut)
Links
IMDb link Wikipedia link

Woodstock serves as an important documention as well as a concert film. It tells the story of a festival that starts quite small with an estimated amount of 50,000 visitors per day, a wooden stage, hardly any security and almost no parking slots. But it is soon overrun by huge crowd of peace-loving hippies who come to party, listen to music and get stoned.

What makes this film so special is the blend of fantastic music with scenes of people from the crowd. You see people bathing, eating and sleeping. You see little children running around, teenagers far away from their homes and adults enjoying the simple things of life as if they were children again.

At the Academy Awards in 1971 the movie received an Oscar for the best documentary. It was also nominated for best film editing and best sound. In 1996 the movie was introduced to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

Outtakes Edit

Of course, there was much more material recorded than shown in the movie. Unedited material is probably still kept under lock and key. Some black/white videos (i.e. Richie Havens, Sweetwater, The Incredible String Band) and short, incomplete cuts of performances (i.e. The Grateful Dead) are making the rounds under collectors.

The bigger part of outtakes was officially released and are a nice companion to the Woodstock movie. These are:

• Woodstock: The Lost Performances
• Woodstock Diaries
• Jimi Hendrix Live at Woodstock

Versions Edit

Original Version Edit

The original version was 184 minutes in length. It was premiered in the U.S. cinemas on March 26^th 1970. During the summer of 1970 the film was released in European countries and Japan.

Director's Cut (25^th Anniversary version) Edit

In July / August 1994 the director's cut version was released. It extended the running length to 228 minutes (more than 3 ¾ hours!) and added the following performances:

• Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young): "Find the Cost of Freedom" (no video of stage performance)
• Jefferson Airplane: "Won't You Try / Saturday Afternoon" and "Uncle Sam's Blues"
• Janis Joplin: "Work Me, Lord"
• Jimi Hendrix: "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" and "Woodstock Improvisation"
• Canned Heat: "Leavin' This Town"

Ultimate Collector's Edition (40^th Anniversary version) Edit

The movie itself was not extended but upgraded to today's standards. This means high definition video with better picture and audio quality (many costumers complained about the bad picture quality of the Director's Cut DVD edition). It was released on June 9, 2009 in North America and a few days later in Europe.

There's plenty of bonus material included^[1]:

• 24 additional performances
  • Joan Baez: "I Live One Day at a Time"
  • Country Joe McDonald: "Flying High"
  • Country Joe & The Fish: "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine"
  • Santana: "Evil Ways"
  • Canned Heat: "I'm Her Man", "Woodstock Boogie" and "On the Road Again"
  • Mountain: "Beside the Sea" and "Southbound Train"
  • The Grateful Dead: "Turn On Your Lovelight" and "Mama Tried"
  • Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Born on the Bayou", "I've Put a Spell on You" and "Keep on Chooglin'"
  • The Who: "We're Not Gonna Take It ", "Sparks" and "My Generation"
  • Jefferson Airplane: "3/5 of a Mile In 10 Seconds" and "Volunteers"
  • Joe Cocker: "Something's Coming on"
  • Johnny Winter: "Mean Town Blues"
  • Paul Butterfield Blues Band: "Morning Sunrise"
  • Sha Na Na: "Teen Angel"
  • Jimi Hendrix: "Spanish Castle Magic"
• A documentary: "The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Story of the Sixties & Woodstock"
• Interviews with Michael Wadleigh (director of the original movie), Hugh Hefner, Eddie Kramer (sound engineer of Woodstock as well as Jimi Hendrix) and others

Artists by Appearance Edit

This is the running order of the Woodstock movie Director's Cut:

Recording Notes Edit

The song "Woodstock" was recorded in the studio by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. It was written by Joni Mitchell who didn't perform at Woodstock. "Long Time Gone" by Crosby, Stills & Nash at the beginning of the movie is the studio version from their first LP.

References Edit

1. ↑ DVDTown News