Taking Woodstock (2009)

A man working at his parents' motel in the Catskills inadvertently sets in motion the generation-defining concert in the summer of 1969.

Director:

Ang Lee

Writers:

James Schamus (screenplay), Elliot Tiber (book)

Stars:

Demetri Martin, Henry Goodman, Edward Hibbert

8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Henry Goodman	...	Jake Teichberg
Edward Hibbert	...	British Gentleman
Imelda Staunton	...	Sonia Teichberg
Demetri Martin	...	Elliot Teichberg
Kevin Chamberlin	...	Jackson Spiers
Lee Wong	...	George the Doorman (as Takeo Lee Wong)
Anthoula Katsimatides	...	Esther
Clark Middleton	...	Frank
Bette Henritze	...	Annie
Sondra James	...	Margaret
Jeffrey Dean Morgan	...	Dan
Christina Kirk	...	Carol
Gail Martino	...	Town Clerk
Emile Hirsch	...	Billy
Adam LeFevre	...	Dave

Storyline

A man working at his parents' motel in the Catskills inadvertently sets in motion the generation-defining concert in the summer of 1969.

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Plot Keywords:

lsd | male full frontal nudity | catskills | concert | musician | 

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Taglines:

"A Generation Began In His Backyard."

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Genres:

Biography | Comedy | Drama | History | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for graphic nudity, some sexual content, drug use and language

Details

Official Sites:

Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 August 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Taking Woodstock

Filming Locations:

Cherry Plain State Park, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,457,760, 30 August 2009

Gross USA:

$7,460,204

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$9,975,737

Company Credits

Production Co:

Focus Features

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the second film to feature Liev Schreiber that concerned itself with Woodstock, the Catskills, and the summer of '69. The first was A Walk on the Moon (1999).

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Goofs

The limousine that Michael Lang and company ride off in after their initial visit to the Teichbergs is a 1970 Cadillac, first introduced in September of 1969. The film takes place in July/August of 1969.

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Quotes

[Elliot is spreading the white bedsheets into a giant peace symbol on the lawn to flag down Michael Lang's helicopter]
Sonia Teichberg: Elli! What is this with the sheets?
Elliot Tiber: What does it look like? I'm making a big cross on the lawn!
Sonia Teichberg: With the clean sheets? Jake, our boy's gone crazy! Making a Ku Klux Klan rally on our property!

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Connections

References True Grit (1969)

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Soundtracks

No Love, No Nothin'
Music by Harry Warren
Lyrics by Leo Robin
Performed by Judy Garland
Published by Leo Feist Inc.
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

A loving and lovely tribute to a brief moment in time

Perhaps more than most films, you'll either get this or you won't. Ang Lee seems to have conjured up the past with an accuracy that most filmmakers would spoil with reverence. Through a series of vignettes and very small references to Wadleigh's 1970 documentary, "Woodstock," a legendary moment in culture gets celebrated with a sweetness that was part of the era that quickly evaporated.

I was reminded of the film "Dirty Dancing" not just in the setting but in the tone. Ang Lee keeps the humor from becoming too broad in depiction of the locals whose lives were about to up-ended in a way that no one anticipated but few would not welcome. The actors in particular find a common level to play with that draws the audience into the excitement. We know what will happen, but as the momentum builds to the actual event the audience is swept away just as the characters in the film are.

The key character, a very unimposing Demetri Martin, never falters in this coming-of-age story that mirrors the culture changes swirling around him. He gives a very strong performance and is virtually never off the screen.

I had read that the "main event" isn't recreated, and that's partially true. However, we "see" what most of the actual participants of the event saw of the performances on a stage set up in a cow field. It's a stunning moment in the film and as magical as the experience must have been. I was roughly the same age as the character, struggling with the changes of adolescence at a moment in time when there really weren't road-maps for the future. While I was far away from the East Coast, this event reached me in many of the same ways as the characters in the film. I suppose for most people my age that was also true.

While I flinched a few times when a "plot" would intrude into this whole dazzling work, it served the purpose for the power and point of the final moments: Standing in the muddy aftermath the hope of what was going to happen next was palpable for a whole generation, but the next event, Altamont with the Rolling Stones, ended it all with crushing horror. Yet, the optimism is still alive, I think. Equality for many racial and sexual minorities were fulfilled…or are being so fulfilled at this time…and one of the more ironic points of the film was actually scored during the trailers that preceded the feature: the previews for Michael Moore's "Capitalism" and that subject is what really ended the counterculture.

But for Ang Lee he gives the 40th Anniversary of the Woodstock festival an original and unsentimental celebration. (And if hippies annoy you, this isn't the film you need to see.)