En 1969, un joven ofrece los terrenos del hotel de sus padres a los organizadores de un concierto de rock, sin saber que el evento es Woodstock.En 1969, un joven ofrece los terrenos del hotel de sus padres a los organizadores de un concierto de rock, sin saber que el evento es Woodstock.En 1969, un joven ofrece los terrenos del hotel de sus padres a los organizadores de un concierto de rock, sin saber que el evento es Woodstock.
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
- Premios
- 8 nominaciones en total
- George the Doorman
- (as Takeo Lee Wong)
- Dirección
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- Todo el elenco y el equipo
- Producción, taquilla y más en IMDbPro
Opiniones destacadas
Sadly, as much as I, and about 50% of Americans in my age demographic, longed to be present, we formed part of the 98%(of the half) who couldn't make it. The other 50%, incidentally, were probably praying for the earth to open up and swallow those 1/2 million music, marijuana and peace-loving souls. ("Nearly 500K attended Woodstock" -Wikipedia) Director Ang Lee has really amazed me. He has made...
A) The film that best encapsulates, captures the true essence, of this great cultural benchmark concert and most extremely divisive moment in our nation's history since the Civil War!
B) He did this despite being someone from outside our American culture!
C) He has managed to serve up what was, for me at least, the one of most entertaining and vibrant movies of 2009.
Laughed so hard at times, I cried! I can't even REMEMBER the last movie that did that for me!!! Isn't that what movies are supposed to be all about?
Demetri Martin is the late-twenty-something-good-Jewish-Still-living-at-home-son, who serves as the concert's catalyst. Martin renders his role with great finesse, aplomb and stand-alone chutzpah! (Check out his resume on IMDb: What a multi-faceted talent)
But the real scene-stealer was a TOTALLY unrecognizable Imelda Staunton, as the Jewish mother from Hell! She should have at the very least received an Oscar nomination! Fascinating "Woodstock" dichotomy: Martin's character is right there, in the center of the firestorm...and yet, NOT! What a great metaphoric irony for the millions of us, who were and weren't there, either!
Despite a few flaws, a Resounding 9*********
..... ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!
But if you want to get a feeling of what Woodstock meant on a personal level, then Ang Lee's your man and you've come to the right place.
How Lee managed to film this recreation without using real footage, I have no idea. That's apparently what he did.
There in a number of shots is the hillside, mud and slop, with the stage below. The few food stands and portable johns at the top of the hill. The winding pathways through the side venues of jewelry, art, a class for this and a political table for that. The long narrow road that still leads off of New York State Route 17B to the Yasgur hillside where it happened.
It rained a lot, but there was sun, this was mid-August and Lee bathes us in the warm glow of peace. Especially true to the event as I remember, the state cop who returns a peace gesture, the locals making sandwiches and offering water from hoses.
Everyone who was there and lucid has a personal remembrance. Mine began on Friday evening with air mattresses not more than 50 feet from the stage and ended with the sacrifice of a blanket abandoned on the mudslide the hill had become by early Sunday morning. In between, I managed to shuttle down state route 55 and into New Jersey the back way, after the music ended Friday night, Saturday morning. Then back from New Jersey up the same road and finally ending about two miles the other side of the concert where the vehicle stayed untouched until it was reclaimed near dawn on Sunday.
By that time, all though I'd only had a few generous puffs of weed, freely offered by those who had some, I was hearing double and it was time to pack it in.
Yes, the brown acid warnings from Chip Monck (name?), the event "voice" echo'd in the acid trip of Demetri Martin, the young son who blunders into inviting the event to White Lake. The colors and details are incredible as seen from his eyes, slowly beginning to shift and then expanding until the hillside is undulating in waves around the lit stage below. A remarkable shot.
Martin won't win any academy awards; Imelda Staunton might for her portrayal of his paranoid Jewish mother who has hidden a fortune while her rundown motel is nearing foreclosure. And an honorable mention should go to Liev Schreiber as the cross-dressing former Marine who provides security at the motel.
Stereotypes? Sure. Few hippies ever were as mentally vacant as the Earthlite players. Did anyone buy Emile Hirsch's early post-Vietnam anguish? Fortunately, it was left on the doorstep of the main film and Hirsch's character later rings true. Just a high school buddy come home.
But see the film for its personal feel, very true to the event. The wish that Dylan would arrive. The helicopter flights to the medical tent. (only a small number of half-a-million needed any treatment at all.) The question, what about the boys in Vietnam. As one girl says on 17B, "Wish they were here." I was back just a little more than a week. Went with an Army buddy I'd never see again. Yet no one gave us grief for our short hair, mandatory to get out of Vietnam.
The music? Well, Arthur Lee and Love are the perfect accompaniment to the acid trip inside the bus (they never played at the festival.) When the early strains of Friday night's music begin to waft over an idyllic lake where dozens of kids bathe nude, it's Arlo Guthrie and I caught myself thinking, damn, it was dark when Guthrie appeared. But that was forty years ago and the memory can't be trusted.
Just the personal feeling. And despite some of the weaknesses in the subplot, Ang Lee did get the feeling right.
For the personal memories, he absolutely nailed it!
I was reminded of the film "Dirty Dancing" not just in the setting but in the tone. Ang Lee keeps the humor from becoming too broad in depiction of the locals whose lives were about to up-ended in a way that no one anticipated but few would not welcome. The actors in particular find a common level to play with that draws the audience into the excitement. We know what will happen, but as the momentum builds to the actual event the audience is swept away just as the characters in the film are.
The key character, a very unimposing Demetri Martin, never falters in this coming-of-age story that mirrors the culture changes swirling around him. He gives a very strong performance and is virtually never off the screen.
I had read that the "main event" isn't recreated, and that's partially true. However, we "see" what most of the actual participants of the event saw of the performances on a stage set up in a cow field. It's a stunning moment in the film and as magical as the experience must have been. I was roughly the same age as the character, struggling with the changes of adolescence at a moment in time when there really weren't road-maps for the future. While I was far away from the East Coast, this event reached me in many of the same ways as the characters in the film. I suppose for most people my age that was also true.
While I flinched a few times when a "plot" would intrude into this whole dazzling work, it served the purpose for the power and point of the final moments: Standing in the muddy aftermath the hope of what was going to happen next was palpable for a whole generation, but the next event, Altamont with the Rolling Stones, ended it all with crushing horror. Yet, the optimism is still alive, I think. Equality for many racial and sexual minorities were fulfilled or are being so fulfilled at this time and one of the more ironic points of the film was actually scored during the trailers that preceded the feature: the previews for Michael Moore's "Capitalism" and that subject is what really ended the counterculture.
But for Ang Lee he gives the 40th Anniversary of the Woodstock festival an original and unsentimental celebration. (And if hippies annoy you, this isn't the film you need to see.)
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaAccording to the Washington Post, screenwriter and producer James Schamus told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival that the biggest challenge in casting extras for the movie was to find people "who were not working out all the time, and who still had pubic hair."
- ErroresArlo Guthrie was heard singing "Coming Into Los Angeles" in daylight. When the 1969 Woodstock concert first took place, Arlo came on stage at midnight right after Melanie.
- Citas
[the Chamber of Commerce discussing tourism ideas]
Frank: Well, okay. We got a lot of dairy farms around here, right? And a fair number of bulls. Okay, you've all heard of the running of the bulls in that town in Spain, Pampoona.
Elliot Tiber: Pamplona.
Frank: Well, no one's doing one in the Catskills. Seems to be a big draw over there.
Annie: It would be very amusing to see all those Jews from Levitsky's summer colony, you know, the ones with the black top hats and the curls, running for their lives chased by our local livestock. Wouldn't that be a wonderful sight!
- Créditos curiososThe Focus Features logo has a psychedelic kaleidoscope design and plays a rock version of the theme music.
- ConexionesFeatured in At the Movies: Cannes Film Festival 2009 (2009)
- Bandas sonorasHow Could We Know
Written by Jamie Dunlap, Stephen Lang and Scott Nickoley
Performed by Lori Mark
Courtesy of Marc Ferrari/Mastersource
Selecciones populares
- How long is Taking Woodstock?Con tecnología de Alexa
- What is the song playing in the second half of the trailer?
- Who plays the musicians at the concert?
- Do they use any of the music from Woodstock?
Detalles
- Fecha de lanzamiento
- Países de origen
- Sitio oficial
- Idioma
- También se conoce como
- Destino: Woodstock
- Locaciones de filmación
- Valley Rest Motel, New Lebanon, Nueva York, Estados Unidos(El Monaco Motel)
- Productora
- Ver más créditos de la compañía en IMDbPro
Taquilla
- Presupuesto
- USD 30,000,000 (estimado)
- Total en EE. UU. y Canadá
- USD 7,460,204
- Fin de semana de estreno en EE. UU. y Canadá
- USD 3,457,760
- 30 ago 2009
- Total a nivel mundial
- USD 9,975,737
- Tiempo de ejecución2 horas
- Color
- Mezcla de sonido
- Relación de aspecto
- 1.85 : 1