MOVIE REVIEW - Taking Woodstock

It's after Labor Day and before Halloween. Sometimes in this month it can be tough to find something for the adults at the movies. If slasher-and-gasher flicks aren't your thing, then maybe a walk back to Woodstock is.

Taking Woodstock has been out for a week or two, and to just report the facts, it has been a real flop at the box office. Lots of competition, limited release, and story that is only relateable to a slice of the movie going public have contributed heavily to that. Remember the actual Woodstock was in August of 1969 - 40 years ago.

Taking Woodstock is a story based around the planning of the event and how it eventually ended up on Max Yasgur's farm for 500,000 hippies to show up for the worlds largest rock concert. It centers around a small family and their struggles with the family business in upstate New York. This concert, supposedly is the answer to this little town's troubles. Will it bring huge money to town, or just a bunch of problems?

There are moments of real skillful film making here. Director Ang Lee is a great one, and he spins this story in a most unusual way at times. A movie about Woodstock, with virtually no music from the era or the concert. If you're going in to see who is cast as Jimi Hendrix, or Janis Joplin, or hear some of the era's best music, you'll be disappointed mightily. It just isn't there. Why? Well, the story will make it clear if you go. Don't want to give too much away here.

But putting some of the movies nuances aside, a glaring problem for me here was, this movie gets a bit draggy in places. And you may find that a couple of ongoing bits wear out their welcome after the first half of the movie.

But one thing TW does very well. It captures an era wonderfully. It takes you back visually to 1969, and paints a picture of who these people were, and how they thought. Done well on both sides of the ledger. Both those who wanted the show, and those that opposed it. To be fair, not all of it flattering on either side. But that's Woodstock in microcosm. If you want to re-live or learn about an era that was the late 1960's then this is a journey worth taking.

Taking Woodstock. Limited release, limited audience, and limited appeal. But a look back at an era gone by. From a pure movie going standpoint this is not a big screen must see at all. A rental or Netflix up the road would be just fine.