I'm not sure if it could be done any better. It shows the festival from every angle. You see all the highs and lows of the event, enjoy the great music, listen to the interviews with musicians, weird hippies and people who helped organize the event.Its a documentary about the historical woodstock music festival in 1969.

I watched the 224 minute version and that is the one one has to watch. Awesome and more. It was so amazing to see all of the different acts that played. You can't beat seeing Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin perform and get nostalgic on what more might have been with their careers. I always strictly had the stereotype of associating Woodstock with sex only. Of course it was about sex and drugs, but it was about a certain freedom that none of us really truly get to experience in our lives, ever. A certain peace. I learned so much more about what Woodstock really stood for, and it really opened my eyes. Each generation is different obviously. Each generation has their good, their bad and their ugly. But Woodstock demonstrated something so pure, something that can never be recreated again. Each generation has different beliefs and each generation fights for something different. These people at the 1969 Woodstock fought for something that ended up transcending to the world what they were fighting for, what they were all about, and it was absolutely beautiful. All walks of life too, all kinds of people their at Woodstock 1969. It's sad to say with this generation that if we ever had another Woodstock, it would be just like the one of 1999. Fake, phony, people wanting to push the envelope for their own personal gain and agenda, anger, rage, etc. It's sad to say this generation is one of laziness, impatience, anger, and getting fat(see how skinny those people were in 1969. Their bodies were shaped different too. It's got be the different food and medicine we take as the years go by that make our bodies different. Also plastic surgery). The Movie Wall-E has really predicted where our society is heading. It's sad in a way that we can't be more like these people of 1969 from this documentary. Of course, the ultimate sadness is most of the hardcore hippies that were there at Woodstock 1969 probably conformed to the society norms with jobs, health care, insurance, etc. You have too or you just end up dying or living your life as bum. You almost have to conform at some point. I'm sure there's some that never did though.

The 1969 Woodstock concert might very well be the most legendary concert of all time. Not just only because who all performed but even more so the stuff and atmosphere surrounding the entire event. It was held at the height of the flower power craze and the entire event became much bigger and longer than eventually anticipated, resulting in some crazy events, as can be seen in this documentary.Yes, it is a documentary but it doesn't really feel like one. This sounds like a bad thing but it really isn't. It isn't a documentary that gives you any insightful information about the planning and execution of the whole event, with lots of backstage footage but it more is one that simply shows all of the stuff, as it happened. This gives you more the sort of feeling of what it must had been like, on and around the farm fields, the concert was being held on. Nothing about this documentary feels planned, as if they were just simply shooting away as much material as possible, which later got put together in the editing room by none other than Martin Scorsese, among many others.But the main emphasis is really put on its music and artist, with occasionally some footage of the festival attendees and the people living in the area, responding to all of the events. I liked it that it showed all of the events from many different perspectives and wasn't only just focusing on the beautiful and positive things that went on.But really, when the music plays, there are absolutely no distractions from it. The camera is filming the artist from the front only and doesn't ever cuts or swirls away from them. I liked this approach, which is quite different from normal other concert movies that often tend to focus on the audience as well. And there truly is some great music in this movie, played by some big name stars. I was actually surprised how I was able to recognize pretty much all of the artist that were on stage, even though all of them and their biggest hits were far before my time. It should tell you something about how legendary some of the persons that perform at Woodstock were. Janis Joplin, The Who, Santana, Joe Cocker and of course Jimi Hendrix, just to name a few, all make their appearances.The documentary is also really a testament of its time. It shows the atmosphere and the whole state of minds and mentality of youngsters, around that time. Searching for love and peace, with the help of some music..and lots of illegal substances! I can imaging how this bothered some 'older' people and different people around that time but now days, it's actually quite fun to watch all. It putted many of the festival goers into a certain mood, which also made them do some crazy things. One of the craziest things I saw in this documentary was a naked man dancing with a real sheep in his arms, in the middle of a big crowed. Why? Because he could of course! No one that looked surprised or bothered by it, just because it fitted in with the whole ideology and mentality of certain youngsters around that time. Everybody was allowed to do what he wanted and whatever made him or her happy, as long as it didn't involved any aggression.It's a really long and extensive portrayal of the Woodstock events. Depending on which version you are watching, the running time is close to 4 hours. And not only that, it often is using split-screens, so basically there is about 6 or 7 hours of footage to be seen in this documentary. It probably also helps to make it good and suitable for repeated viewings.Simply a must-see for the movie lovers and for those who enjoy a good concert registration, or are curious to find out what all that buzz about that 'old' Woodstock concert event was all about.8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

When "Woodstock" occurred, I was a 15 y.o French teenager. Watching the film again, yesterday, I've been stunned by its quality, its objectivity and its strength. It's much more than a "concert movie" (especially compared to the current ones, with their feverish cranes and cameramen moves). Michael Wadleigh and his crew really captured the spirit of the event, as it became obvious it was creating itself. They seem to be everywhere and give the spectator an incredible range of focuses and points of view. I've never been truly excited by the musical performances during the festival, but there are some great acts and the multi-screen editing set them perfectly off (funny to watch the contrast between the blues-country-rock white bands and the glitter-dance-sexy background singer bound "Sly and the family Stone"!). Glad that Janis Joplin's wonderful and sincere performance has been added in the director's cut... As someone else wrote here, one of the main revelation in this movie is how the attendees are young. It's really about American young people at a peculiar period in western history, when the "baby boom" brought a new, numerous generation "on stage". When western countries were really young, with lot of innocence. One (swimming) girl in the film stresses that. She says "we are gathering in many cities in the world" "we come over". And that's true : 3 days long, young people made Woodstock a unique event. They overcome global media hostility, long walk, crowded and muddy field, food shortage, etc (well, that's what youth is for!). Thanks to Wadleigh to have capture it (and thanks to the perfect re-mastering). PS : I'm sure that no full-of-money-movie-maker filming a musical festival these present days would make an interview of the-man-who-is-in-charge-of-the chemical-toilets (who has a son here and another one piloting a chopper in Vietnam)! A true mark of the 60's-70's era...Thierry Follain