MovieChat Forums > Woodstock (1970) Discussion > Watching this for the first time ever - ...

Watching this for the first time ever - It is amazing.

posted 14 years ago by zeeboe82
12 replies | jump to latest

I am a 28-year old man, going on 29, and I have always loved classic rock, especially The Who, and I've always been a hippie at heart, yet I've never seen "Woodstock". Well, I watched the first two hours of the Director's Cut last night, and I am very impressed, but I wanna be there! :-( lol.

I think watching the film is the close's I'll get to being there. Movies are great, but in my opinion, documentaries, right next to books, are some of the best sources you can use to explore the past because it's the real deal with real people during the real time period. It's like getting into a time machine and going back in time.

What's groovy about films like "Woodstock" (and another favorite documentary of mine I recently watched for the first time too is "When We Were Kings") is that they are "hang-out" movies. The primary attraction are the people. Real people. They are the type of films I can see myself watching over and over again, just to spend time with the people, and listen to the music.

[–] abbeyhrpr 13 years ago

I can really identify with what you're saying. Like you said, it's like watching a time capsule. Everytime I watch it, I want to jump right in to be there. It's amazing that it happened over 40 years ago. I was only 4 at the time, but I do have some pretty good memories of that time era. I was pretty sheltered though(as many Americans were back then), so I wasn't around any of the counterculture movement or anything.
BTW, check out youtube for some home movies that were filmed at "Woodstock". Talk about going back in a time capsule!

[–] trainspotter1976 12 years ago

Far out.

Aye mate, you seen Taxi Driver?

[–] karmacoupe 10 years ago

I gathered about 10 of those transferred Super-8 home movies onto this page — using "Max Yasgur" as the artist.

click on "songs" on the right when you get there ...

http://www.rockpeaks.com/artists/y/Yasgur-Max

[–] barber2626 12 years ago

I am watching the movie right now and it brings back great memories. I went with my sister and I was only 13 years old. It was the most amazing experience of my life. I miss those times and they were great back then when you could hitch rides without fear and most hippies as they were called back then or just the young folks didnt judge anyone. Times have surely changed. Now our youth are spoiled and its all about material things. Life back then revolved around music and told stories. They still do but look at most stories in music...its about popping her cherry or smack that thang...lol A lot of music revolved around the Vietnam War as well. I only wish everyone could have experienced it. Bonnaroo is nothing comparable to Woodstock. I actually live in Nashville and went one year and it was nothing like Woodstock. Woodstock was so free, people dancing naked and doing there drugs and having a good time no cops busting you up really. It wasnt so controlled in that way.

[–] snickerdoodle68 12 years ago

What's sad to me is that you Baby Boomers really had it made then. You were raised by "the greatest generation" but you rebelled against them, thinking they were backwards and you had all the right answers to the world's problems. You lived through one of the best parts of American history and you didn't even know it, you couldn't appreciate it until now. You thought you were worldly but you were much more innocent and sheltered than you realized at the time. You must see now how the counter-culture kind of messed up America after that. Our kids are not nearly as free today as you were then.

[–] Owlwise 11 years ago

Don't blame the hippies or the counterculture for that. It's the section of the baby Boomers who rejected the aspirations of the counterculture & embraced the rapacious consumerist culture that now dominates us who are to blame. We didn't have it made then -- from as far back into childhood as we could remember, we had the threat of nuclear destruction hanging over our heads -- a threat brought to us by the previous generation. We had McCathyism making a mockery of American ideals. We had raw, naked racism entrenched in society. That's what we rebelled against, and with good reason. The counterculture was an attempt to go in a different & better direction, however flawed & short-sighted in many ways. I just wish this country hadn't succumbed to materialism & the illusion of being No. 1, if we'd only had the courage to face our mistakes & admit them, rather than deny them & pursue the unholy trinity of power, money, and self-righteousness. Our kids aren't as free today because too many people bought into the current consumerist, greed-above-everything model of society.

[–] Molly-31 11 years ago

+1

You've got me?! Who's got you?!

[–] eelb 10 years ago

Yes, it would be so much better if the divorce rate was higher, the drug problem worse, and more kids living in broken homes.

Let's all move into communes, have sex with who we please, and grow herbs.

[–] Tarquin_Q_Zanzibar 10 years ago

I introduced a young friend of mine to this movie many years ago. He was a punk rocker (motto: "never trust a hippy") and his favourite band was The Jam. We sat on the floor of his mum's living room, wrapped in ponchos, getting high and getting into the spirit of it all. By the end of those 3 hours, he had become a dedicated "Woodstockphile", and as a bonus, had realised that the Jam were in fact the contemporary version of the early Who - who became Gods in his eyes then, and have been ever since. This is the continuing power of Woodstock!

"Good, my dog found the chainsaw..."

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

"..This is the continuing power of Woodstock"

The 'power of Woodstock' is so great that it can make a drug user like some bands. Wow, that's amazing! Such great help to the world.. I am sure NOW everything will be fine, that you drug users can appreciate the same bands instead of different ones.

Such POWER!!

You shouldn't use drugs, by the way.

[–] ItalianGreyhound 10 years ago

This film is so overwhelming to watch the first time - it's lengthy and there's just so much going on. It's definitely one that needs to be revisited often. This is the closest us young folks (I'm the same age now as the OP was in 2011) will ever get to experiencing something like this.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

"Real people."

Yeah, real drug-addicted rich, spoiled kids with nothing better to do in their lives, that simply followed the trend, the 'in'-thing of the day by mimicing others and without having anything real to say. They were stupid, drugged-out-of-their-minds kids (just look at almost anyone's eyes in the documentary, and that stupid drug-grin), who thought they knew everything, and yet show their ignorance every time they open their mouths.

Either they say something vapid, or irresponsible, or prove their ignorance by incredibly narrow-minded statements, like "Woodstock is the third-largest city in the world". And people were -charmed- by this particular individual? I can't believe it.. what kind of people are charmed by, no offence, a face this ugly? Have you even visited Asia?

Just look at AKB48, SNSD Girls Generation, and some other J-pop and K-pop groups to get a little bit perspective, then look at her mug again. I mean, she's not only ugly, but she's also ignorant and dare I say 'lacking a certain quality of the mind'? Ok, she's stupid. There, I said it.

You can read the rest of my reply at

https://pastebin.com/TCapssKD

..I hate Moviechat's word limitation, and I am too lazy and tired to start splitting my post into 5 different parts.