Director Ang Lee has done it again because "Taking Woodstock" was easily the best movie I have seen in 2009 so far.
Although none of the musical elements of Woodstock are featured in this film, Lee retells the story of the man who made it all happen.
Elliot Teichberg (who now goes by Elliot Tiber)was just looking for some extra money to help out with his parents motel business in White Lake, NY. After he heard that a music festival was banned by a near by town due to it being a "hippie festival," Elliot takes matters into his own hands by bringing the festival to his own town. Little does he know that they had already sold over one hundred thousand tickets.
Elliot Tiber wrote the book "Taking Woodstock" and this movie tells the story of Woodstock through his eyes. The audience gets pulled into the background of how Woodstock went down behind the scenes. And with Lee's direction and accuracy to the story, the audience can feel like they were actually there watching what happened.
With more B-list actors than A-list, Lee was able to focus more on the plot of the film rather than the "movie stars." Emile Hirsch ("Into the Wild" and "Milk") played a young Vietnam veteran who is having problems adjusting to life back at home in White Lake. Hirsch did a fantastic job portraying this character and said in a recent interview that prepare for his role, Lee provided him with a thick binder full of materials and set up meetings with real Vietnam veterans.
"Taking Woodstock" is really worth seeing. Not only is it factually accurate of how Woodstock happened, it has great cinematography, great actors, and is just entertaining to watch.
Overall Grade- A
Did you miss the music? I saw it and was disappointed that we didn't see any of the performances.
ReplyDelete