Start a Revolution!

"Said I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm / Gonna join in a rock 'n' roll band / Got to get back to the land and set my soul free." It was nearly 40 years ago that Crosby, Stills and Nash recorded a song about the music festival that defined a generation. Even today, Woodstock is still fresh in our minds and it becomes clear in the new movie "Taking Woodstock" just how symbolic the festival was. In the movie, you are taken on a journey with Demitri Martin as the lead character, but it is the supporting actors and actresses who shine throughout the movie. With a cast comprised of eccentric and vibrant characters, you are transported back in time to 1969: the age of music, freedom and happiness.

Ang Lee, who directed the movie, shows you just how fun it was to be a hippie and how important it was to see and hear what the festival was all about. People came from everywhere to see the likes of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival, and you see in "Taking Woodstock" how amazing it was to be in the center of the universe. Woodstock had the power and the energy to affect every character that was involved in the movie.

The movie tells the amazing true story of a young man named Elliot Teichberg (Martin) who is struggling to save his parents' motel and keep them from being foreclosed. When he finds out that Woodstock has been cancelled not once, but twice, he sees the perfect opportunity to bring traffic right to their motel door.

When the town of White Lake, New York finds out that Woodstock is going to be held there, they turn their backs on Elliot and his family. Emile Hirsch plays a man just back from Vietnam who is haunted by memories of the war. After spending three days at Woodstock surrounded by different people, Hirsch's dramatic life begins to subside.

Elliot's parents are an unhappy older couple who have invested everything they have into the motel, only to watch it fail before their eyes. Elliot's dad is probably the character who is most affected by Woodstock in the movie. At the start of the movie, he barely says anything to anyone. However, by the end he is sharing stories with the company who has come to town and most importantly, he starts laughing.

The festival changes Elliot as well. From the start of the movie, Elliot has an idea of who he might be, but he doesn't know exactly what his place in the world is. By the end of the movie, Elliot has befriended people who he never thought he would meet and, thus, found himself through them. He grew closer to understanding and knowing his parents as well as knowing himself.

The only thing that turned me off to the film was that it was slow moving, but overall the story was amazing. Woodstock defined a generation and the people involved, and it all began in Elliot Teichberg's backyard.



4/5 stars