By Merlyn Mathew
This
year marks the fortieth year since the legendary Woodstock Music & Art Fair
occurred in Bethel, New York. Director Ang Lee, the man also
behind famous films such as Brokeback
Mountain and Hulk,
has created a film that attempts to narrate the background of the Woodstock legend.
Taking
Woodstock takes place on
a dairy farm in upstate New York
belonging to Max Yasgur. The film concentrates on the event’s organizer Elliot
Tiber and how he offered the Woodstock
coordinators space at his parent’s dilapidated Bethel motel for the event.
If
you think this movie is a pure documentary of the music festival, you will be
mistaken. Taking Woodstock is labeled as a comedy-drama and deals mainly
with the people organizing the event rather than the actual music and
performers who made the show a success.
The
small film is filled with new, fresh faces including comedian-actor Demetri
Martin as the ambitious Elliot Tiber. Familiar actors such as Liev Shreiber and
Imelda Staunton have hilarious roles in the movie as Schreiber plays a
transvestite who comes to the area for the concert and Staunton portrays the wild mother of Elliot
and the owner of the motel.
A
downside to the film is that the characters are often coming in and out of the
scenes and exemplifying the chaos behind the last-minute planning at the Bethel site. However, it
is important to note that the film did portray the characters of the organizers
well and showed their frustrations and their desires in an efficient manner. At
the end of the film it is clear that the concert was a success and a symbol of
the love and peace of the era and that it did usher in the same-sex liberal
movement.
Perhaps
another Woodstock
film or documentary would wisely include the musical component of the event
because that is what Woodstock
was all about. Ang Lee’s film was certainly lacking in that respect, but for
his skill as a director telling the story of Elliot Tiber, a gay man who was
struggling to find himself amongst a curious and experimenting generation, is
well done.
Try
and see if this flick is for you, but don’t go to the movies expecting to see a
play by play of all the music and performers that came. Taking Woodstock is
all about the story of how the music festival randomly occurred in an unusual
spot and the struggle of the organizers. If you’re into hippies, the 60s and
70s, or simply curious about Woodstock’s
origins, this is the film for you!
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