I'll go out on a limb here and state that this PBS documentary might be even better than the 1970 film that focused to a large degree on the music and the bands that played the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair. The music in this documentary is almost secondary, there are brief clips of performers like Richie Havens, The Who, Joe Cocker and Jimi Hendrix, but the emphasis is on all the behind the scenes legwork that took place to bring the four day festival to fruition. I say four days, because even if it was billed as a three day event, it was on Monday morning that Sha Na Na, Paul Butterfield, and Hendrix wrapped things up to a miniscule crowd compared to the nearly half million throng that descended on the community of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York in August of 1969.
I can't even imagine how much of this documentary was put together, as we hear the voices of long departed luminaries of the event, folks like financial backer John Roberts who passed in 2001, Max Yasgur who hosted the festival on his dairy farm and died only four years later, and Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, who passed away in 1995. Somewhere in the archival vaults of music history, the reminiscences of these members of the Woodstock Generation put the viewer right in the middle of the chaos and disarray of the days leading up to the event, along with the overwhelming sense of peace, love and serenity that permeated the crowd as people gazed in wonder and lived in a city of four hundred thousand for a scant few days that would change lives forever.
I really can't say enough about this picture and the lasting legacy it provides for anyone who managed to be there in 1969, and for the millions who were born since who never got a chance to experience the spirit of Woodstock. And as odd as it might sound, it's not unlikely that one might shed a tear or two in wistful tribute for an event and time gone by that will probably never be duplicated again. The full title of this documentary is "Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation". That it does, and you should see it.
I can't even imagine how much of this documentary was put together, as we hear the voices of long departed luminaries of the event, folks like financial backer John Roberts who passed in 2001, Max Yasgur who hosted the festival on his dairy farm and died only four years later, and Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, who passed away in 1995. Somewhere in the archival vaults of music history, the reminiscences of these members of the Woodstock Generation put the viewer right in the middle of the chaos and disarray of the days leading up to the event, along with the overwhelming sense of peace, love and serenity that permeated the crowd as people gazed in wonder and lived in a city of four hundred thousand for a scant few days that would change lives forever.
I really can't say enough about this picture and the lasting legacy it provides for anyone who managed to be there in 1969, and for the millions who were born since who never got a chance to experience the spirit of Woodstock. And as odd as it might sound, it's not unlikely that one might shed a tear or two in wistful tribute for an event and time gone by that will probably never be duplicated again. The full title of this documentary is "Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation". That it does, and you should see it.