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Woodstock-The Director's Cut 
Reviews Music Reviews
Written by Staff Writer   
Saturday, 29 January 2005


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Grade

Content Grade: A
Sound Grade: A
Picture Grade: B

Specs

Directed by Michael Wadleigh Warner Home Video/MSRP-$24.95 Widescreen/Anamorphic-Subtitles in French, Spanish Dolby Digital Sound 5.1, 2.0, 225 minutes-Color-1970 Rated R for skinny dippers, language, drug use

Review

The mother of all rock festivals-Woodstock was a one time event in American history that perfectly captured the flower-power generation at its height. (no pun intended) Filmmakers carefully documented this event from start to finish and includes some spectacular performances, immortalized forever in this musical-documentarry. Full song performances by such great artists as Janis Joplin, The Who, Santana, Richie Havens, Ten Years After, Joe Cocker, and of course, Jimi Hendrix, makes this a disc every baby boomer should own. But Woodstock is even more-by interviewing the town people effected, the participants, the artists, the promoters, and even the Port-A-San man, this documentary is in a class by itself.
Woodstock begins with the soundtrack playing Crosby, Stills, and Nash and the building of the facility which would for three days become home home for half a million visitors. We see the building of the stage, the light towers, the contrast between rural tractors and modern motorcycles as people begin to arrive for the festival. This directors cut treats us to original performances that were cut from the theatrical presentation, including performances by Canned Heat, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin. The are included from the mileage of footage that was shot and is an added bonus in this 2 sided disc. Highlights from the festival and its triple camera angle technique include Ten Years After "Going Home", Richie Havens "Freedom", The Who" See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me" and their destruction of their instruments. Pete Townsend later would reflect on their performance as one of their worst and one in which his hand was bleeding from the guitar licks. No that's Rock ! Of course there is one of the final performances of Jimi Hendrix, doing his classic Purple Haze with extensions and Star Spangled Banner. We are treated to additional footage of his performance in this director's cut, which includes a phenomenal "Voodoo Child" and an easy jam at the end. The camera work here is truly amazing as we zoom in on Jimi's finger work and see him picking the guitar with his teeth-a Hendrix trademark. It's amazing so few people were actually there to hear his performance. Most had already left the festival- along with their garbage to go home.

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Summary

If you lived in this time, you have to have this disc. It's a defining moment of a generation and was recorded beautifully. The performances are inspiring and sound great. A must for all rock fans.

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