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Woodstock Movie Review

Woodstock is a 1970 documentary film directed by Michael Wadleigh. This is a very overrated movie that did not quite stand the test of time.

This documentary captures the three-day rock concert and celebration of peace and love that became a capstone for the sixties. Apparently, the concert was attended by around half a million people and it was a seminal moment in music history and the hippie movement in general. Watching this movie as a time capsule was interesting as it very much captures this highly unique moment in time that would never be repeated.

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But my main issue with this project is that it employs the lesser of the approaches to documentary filmmaking. You can either go the insightful or the chronicling route and they went for the latter one unfortunately. This is just a concert documentary that captured what was going on, but mostly the singing and not behind-the-scenes events.

Why did we not get any interviews with the attendees? That was a crucial element that was sorely missing here. Not only is the film lacking in that area, but it also has nothing clever or interesting to say about any of this. How did this event come to be and what did it represent are the questions that will never be answered to you in this vapid, pointless film.

Woodstock definitely earns its praise when it comes to its technical aspects. The sound is stellar, the editing is remarkable and the movie captured the feel of the concert and this era so well. There is no denying the power of those musical scenes, but they were never-ending in this movie that was over three hours long needlessly so. For such a staggering length I need at least to learn something, but here I never learned anything, which was frustrating to me.

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