Taking Woodstock
Taking Woodstock is based on the book by Elliot Tiber which claims that the iconic music and arts festival in upstate New York in August of 1969 almost didn’t take place for lack of a one dollar permit. As per the book Tiber calls himself Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) an ambitious but quite young town councillor in Bethel New York who already had the required permission slip and invited peace festival wrangler Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) and his often very un-hippie like entourage to hold Woodstock on his ticket in his town instead of the originally planned Walkill. Then from the confines of his parents broken down motel he brokered a lot of deals for Lang with the often hostile locals. Of particular interest is that none of the legendary musicians who performed are featured in this movie which is okay because an almost better show went on behind the scenes. For instance Max Yasgur (a perfectly toned down Eugene Levy) was unlike the man who took to the stage to “God bless you all” for having “three days of nothing but fun and music”. It turns out that he was a pretty shrewd businessman and not “just a farmer”. Liev Schreiber as Vilma the cross dressing head of security is a stretch but Emile Hirsch as Billy provides a composite of the disenchanted Vietnam veterans of a war that was probably the definitive galvanizing factor which made this gathering such a focal point for a generation and the culmination of a turbulent decade. There’s also the volatile but tender story of Elliot’s relationship with his impossible parents especially his domineering mother Sonia (Imelda Staunton with a different kind of evil that is still every bit as potent as her Dolores Umbridge character in Harry Potter). Taking Woodstock is a masterful tug of nostalgia from master director Ang Lee who in this uncharacteristic comedy manages to capture the texture of one of the most memorable baby boomer power demonstrations which attempted to put love back into the world at the end of the tempestuous but invigorating sixties.