Taking Woodstock (***)

Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee has shown a keen interest in the uniquely American aspects of our culture. Ride with the Devil was a Civil War western, and The Ice Storm evocatively depicted the suburban social climate of the 1970s. His angle into the celebrated 1969 festival is oblique, using as its source a memoir by Elliot Tiber, the motel owners’ son who helped arrange for the use of local farmer Max Yasgur’s land for the three-day concert.

The twin narrative arcs that Lee and his frequent collaborator, screenwriter James Schamus, use are the story of a sleepy upstate New York town turning into a hippie mecca, and the story of Elliot (Demetri Martin) turning into the adult he’ll become. The former is much more compelling than the latter. Elliot may be the storyteller, but even being a closeted gay doesn’t keep him from seeming kind of bland in Lee’s/Martin’s portrayal. (Despite being set in a small town in 1969, there is barely a hint of the pent-up angst depicted in Lee’s Brokeback Mountain.) The supporting players are better—Imelda Staunton, one-dimensional but vivid as Elliot’s bossy, cheapskate mother; Liev Schreiber, letting his fake blonde hair down as a cross-dressing security chief; Jonathan Groff, beatific as young concert promoter Michael Lang; and especially Eugene Levy, rescued from dorky dad roles to play Yasgur.

Lee’s strong visual sense sets a mood for the larger tale being told, of an idealistic youth culture in full flower. True, many of the participants were hopelessly naive. (A poster touting Maoism can be glimpsed.) Many of their hopes for a better world would be dashed. (American participation in the Vietnam War would continue for another four years after the festival.) Lee depicts a beautiful acid trip, but the drug wars of the following decades were still to come. But the festival, notwithstanding the acres of mud and massive traffic tie-ups, was for many as billed, “3 days of peace & music.” The movie is both happy and bittersweet in showing the joyful side of a troubled time. It’s the picture of a dream that can’t last.

Since too much of Taking Woodstock is devoted to Elliot’s quasi-coming-of-age tale, it’s not the be-all and end-all of Woodstock films, let alone films about the era. Lee and Schamus only go so far in placing the event within the greater 1960s counterculture. It’s a bummer that none of the artists or performances is shown. Barely any are even heard, although Lee pays tribute to the Woodstock concert film by intermittently emulating its split-screen effects. But, taking Taking Woodstock for the medium-scale lightly comic tale it is, it’s a limited success.

IMDB link

viewed 8/27/09 (screening at Ritz 5) and reviewed 8/28/09