Stream Taking Woodstock Online
Mardi, août 10th, 2010 |
Stream Taking Woodstock Online.
Movie Title: Taking Woodstock Taking Woodstock is available for streaming or downloading. |
It’s strange, watching a movie about a time you never lived in, a culture you don’t understand, and music you never listened to. I may be unqualified to review Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock,” which tells the story of how that legendary concert came to be in the summer of 1969. As someone who wasn’t yet born when it took place, I can’t say that I related to anything being depicted onscreen. All I can say is, as a story with characters, I found it very entertaining. It focuses very little on the concert itself, but that’s okay because Lee wasn’t trying to recreate the “Woodstock” documentary released in 1970; he wanted nothing more than to present a light-hearted romp about the people who made Woodstock happen. He succeeded for the most part, even with the occasional lapse into contrived comedy.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Taking Woodstock! Click Here
Having gone broke in New York City, interior designer Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) moves back home to the Catskills of Upstate New York, where his parents operate a failing, dilapidated motel. When he hears that a neighboring town refused to give a permit to organizers of a music festival, he offers the organizers a permit of his own, which he obtained by being the president of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce. He and the head organizer, the always relaxed Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff), then strike up a deal with local dairy farmer Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy), who agrees to provide his own acreage as concert space. Knowing that this venue could potentially attract thousands of people, Michael buys out the Teichbergs’ motel for the entire season. At last, Elliot and his family are making real money. Of course, they still have to cope with hippie overcrowding, protesting locals, and other technical and emotional woes.
This relatively simple plot is livened up with a slew of side characters. Elliot’s mother, Sonia (Imelda Staunton), is a Jewish Russian immigrant so desperate to avoid poverty that she doesn’t realize how her actions have been harming the motel. His father, Jake (Henry Goodman), also an immigrant, has long since come to believe that throwing in the towel is the only way to deal with his wife. Elliot’s best friend is Billy (Emile Hirsh), a Vietnam veteran who shows signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A contemporary theater troupe, led by Devon (Dan Fogler), lives in the Teichbergs’ barn and occasionally perform at one of Elliot’s own “festivals,” which consist of nothing more than playing a classical record (although he does hope to attract a string quartet). Devon and his actors know how to make a lasting impression; they end practically every performance by stripping naked and dancing. Probably the most interesting side character is Vilma (Liev Schreiber), a transvestite ex-marine who volunteers as Elliot’s chief of security.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Taking Woodstock! Click Here
I probably would have enjoyed “Taking Woodstock” more had I been emotionally invested. But that’s hard to accomplish when you don’t have the first clue about what it was like to live in the 1960s. I saw this movie with my father, and while he never had the chance to attend Woodstock, he did have some experience with the culture. With that in mind, he assured me that this movie was a fairly accurate depiction of the era. There was, in fact, one joke I could relate to and found funny. As Elliot and Max survey the fields during construction, Max recalls witnessing a serious act of greed: “I saw someone charging a dollar to fill a water bottle. A dollar. For water. Can you believe it?”
All cultural and generational gaps aside, the film is an enjoyable experience, at times because of its depth of character, at times because of its visual components. There’s one great shot, for example, of Elliot riding on the back of a policeman’s motorcycle through an impossibly long line of people making their way towards the concert; it’s difficult to say whether or not this shot relied on CGI, especially as it widens to reveal how far the line of people extends, but I can say that, whatever techniques were employed, it was powerful, direct, and just a little bit funny. An obvious use of CGI can be found in the scene involving Elliot and a stamp of LSD. At one point, Elliot observes the crowd camped along the hills, which in this case are brightly colored and literally rolling, like waves. In some scenes, Lee relies on the same technique he utilized in “Hulk,” in which the screen is split into comic book panels. This is effective, but when you have three different conversations going on at the same time, it can also be distracting.
There are a few things left unexplained. The issue of Elliot’s sexuality, for example, is alluded to so delicately and infrequently it’s curious why it was deemed a necessary subplot. There’s really no way to account for Michael Lang, who’s so easy going and confident that it’s hard to take him seriously, especially when he bases his decisions on good vibes. And I can’t say I appreciated the aftermath of Elliot’s parents eating marijuana-laced brownies. Rather than going for something genuine, the scene instead goes for desperate, broad comedy, which goes double for Elliot’s mother since she’s usually a hotheaded worrywart. But on the whole, “Taking Woodstock” is a pleasant movie with fun characters and a decent story. I’m sure older generations who understand 1960s culture and know more about Woodstock will also enjoy this movie, probably more than I did.
The 60’s memoir Taking Woodstock is a story about how 20-something Elliot, son of a Jewish couple, was able to lure backers planning a music festival into the area where his parents run a `resort’ motel. The story begins in a conservative rural community of farmers and small town folk in scenic New York countryside. The narrative hub revolves around the relationship between Elliot and his aging parents who own the El Monaco Resort Motel, a deteriorating business on the verge of foreclosure. His mother is a bitter character who oversees the finances and ordering of the household. His father is a withdrawn, tired man bent from years of bearing the weight of silent compliance before his wife while attending to the motel’s maintenance. The townsfolk are a stagnant traditional group ekking out daily sustenance while news about the Viet Nam war, Arab-Israeli conflict and moon landing catch their attention in the background.
Into this languid summer come two key folk - Michael Lang and Max Yasgur. Lang is an imperturbable saintly visionary from the City with the faith and means to walk the key parties through messy negotiations. Yasgur is portrayed as an enlightened agrarian businessman able to envision qualities lost on his parochial peers and acumen to make this into a venture profitable for all.
There were initial clashes between locals and those part of early negotiating. However, once contracts were settled and the project began to unfold the momentum of the operation overwhelmed the situation. Construction crews, event planners and early arrivals for the festival descended. Masses of gentle folk grew daily until the entire region was gridlocked by thousands of `citizens’ of the `Woodstock nation’.
The carnival of freaks, politicos, quasi-psychotic acid heads, spiritualized bohemians and other assorted holy men and women were stereotypically characterized. Locals were bemused, perplexed, exasperated and offended, but most did not fail to succumb to the combination of gentle-spirited hippie culture and the financial boon that poured in.
One particular narrative episode captures the hippie mythos underlying the film’s vision. The preparations for the event are done. Elliot, his father and Vilma, a free-spirited transvestite providing security for Elliot’s family, stand overlooking a lake as nude bathers play openly. The first strains of Richie Havens move through the woods signaling the festival’s beginning. Elliot’s father nudges him to go and experience the festival. Elliot hesitates but Vilma urges him on, “Go” he says, “see what the center of the universe is like”. Elliot finds himself wandering among groups of camping hippies still some distance from the stage. He encounters a young couple who gently seduce him to drop acid with them. They retire to the interior of their bus richly decorated for inner space travel where Elliot is initiated in the ecstasy of cosmic visionary experience. Some hours later he emerges an awakened soul accompanied by the female consort. Still flashing in colors and serenity they make their way to a bluff overlooking the sea of people dotting the night with campfires. The view is rolling and undulating, wrapping around a vortex - the lighted stage in the distance. The lights, colors and liquid landscape coalesce in a visionary patterned dance around the pulsing brilliant core of illumination flowing from the stage. Space and time are lost in the enveloping ecstatic vision in the presence of the Center.
This scene is the sacramental center of the story. The whole event is actually a festive gathering to celebrate the eucharistic psychedelic ritual. Its enactment is the animus mundi, the navel of the world, around which the dance of being whirls. This entire countercultural phenomena is like a fountain of creative and colorful life flowing from the bellies of ecstatically enlightened participants. Bohemian and transient in nature it wanders about the land erupting into spontaneous happenings. This particular one, though `planned’, nevertheless exploded into unexpected proportions and intensity.
Of course this story is one in relatively recent history with many participants - and critics - alive and well. And the verdict of history has unfolded less graciously on subsequent events. This is not lost on the filmmakers who put in the mouth of a confident Lang plans of another festival of peace and love - at Altamont. The irony is not lost on those knowledgeable of the tragic events there.
Following this narrative peak the story winds down to address loose ends between Elliot and his parents. The windfall of the festival has paid off their mortgage with surplus and Elliot is free to complete the process of separation-individuation from his family.
It was a delightful film that will fade quickly from public attention, leave theaters and be on DVD shortly. For some who go it will be for a moment of nostalgia, an entertaining story resonating with faint longings that surface as one ages. For the counterculture youth of today it is not their history, it is the history of their grandparents. The heady excitement of the Sixties is textbook material to them and most are living out their own generational narrative. They have Burning Man, Goa, Ibiza, and elsewhere.
For some the longing pricked cuts perhaps more deeply. Sure enough it was a period whose potency faded with the passing decades. What seemed of cosmic significance at the time was swallowed in the relativity of social change Nevertheless, the glimpse into the white-hot core of mystery pulsing at the Heart of the Universe wouldn’t be extinguished. It is a core memory implanted somewhere deep in psychic regions.
After the ecstasy many wandered back into the enveloping social order of the modern world. Some were damaged and wandered for years. Some re-acclimated into the status quo, even `succeeding’ well at it. Some found creative paths integrating alternative spaces with demands of survival. Some became monks, roshis, gurus, disciples, teachers, and priests. None, however, whose hearts were pierced have forgotten when they were touched by the Center of the Universe.
convert dvd to avi
mafia wars strategy guide | mafia wars hack | mafia wars cheats
Watch NBA Basketball Games Online | Watch NBA Playoffs Online Live
Watch NBA Basketball Games Online | Watch NBA Playoffs Online Live
Watch Online TV Shows | Watch Sports Online | watch online movies