Film of the Day: 72

Woodstock (1970)

There have been many epic musical festivals in the past. I myself attended a terrific one last year, Download 2010 in Derby, UK headlining with AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine & Aerosmith and met a whole great bunch of friends.

But one of the biggest and most legendary musical festival of them all is easily Woodstock. A concert that my friends and I constantly wonder, "What if we were there man?". As I'm sure many others have dreamt.

Originally planned for an average crowd of 5,000, the organizers later expected around 50,000 people. But in the end, over half a million showed up for the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, for 3 days of peace and music.

It was held at White Lake, New York today in 1969 and held some of the great musicians of the time, including a few of my personal favourites such as Neil Young, The Band, CCR, The Who and of course closing with Jimi Hendrix.

Whilst the festival was on, a film crew was there as-well to capture the magic on film and in that crew was the director Michael Wadleigh and editors Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese (who allegedly wore a suit as he was unaware of the sort of festival it was).

Together along with the rest of the fantastic crew, they constructed what is arguably considered (and in my personal opinion) the greatest documentary ever filmed. And one of the great key elements was of course the editing.

What I loved most about this masterpiece of a documentary, asides from the timeless music, is the fact that it never shied away. We get a glimpse of everything, from the people who owned the farm nearby and were expecting only the 5,000 to the extreme conservative hippie haters, to the organizers and of course to the audience it self.

In a way, we are taking a trip with the audience and witnessing their 'trips' first hand, with their experiences and of course rainy weather, which did not in any way get in their way of their best weekend. We even get a scene of a random spokesmen speaking over the microphone explaining to people that if it is their first time or if they are just experimenting with acid to only take half a tab!

The direction is down right brilliant and it is one of the greatest insights to a monumental festival and of course, the end of the '60s. Never before have I seen such a perfectly constructed musical documentary or any documentary for that matter. The film ended up winning the Oscar for best documentary and the festival itself went on to be listed in Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll and is in my mind one of the key elements of the 1960s.

Click here for the trailer