Rating: 
Summary: This is amazing!
Review: In a time when music videos have reached epic high-tech proportions twenty-four hours a day with the flick of a switch it was a delightful afternoon for me as I sat back to re-visit a piece of high-life history with the jaundiced eye of the political cynic. I loved this video. I loved the music. Indeed, I studied the undercurrent, with the interest of political science as I've been studying it, in hopes of gaining more insight, and I did. I also had fun, and I'm sure I will have fun every time I watch it. Why is it that everyone looks so YOUNG? (sigh) From Arlo Guthrie to Richie Havens to Joan Baez to Carlos Santana to Janis Joplin to Sly and the Family Stone ah, youth is wasted on the young! And the side interviews and shots of young people wading their way through the crowds, and the over riding theme of peace, love and anti-war...anti-capitalism as well, which more recent Woodstocks have not been able to copy. Woodstock I still has much to teach us, it's not just a walk down memory lane. If you do decide to pick this up, I can only hope you have as much fun with it as I am!
Rating:
Summary: 3 Days Is All It Took...
Review: I just recently purchased this on DVD, and it's the most stunning piece of music video, I have ever seen. We are treated to 2 things about the 60's, in this video alone... 1. We are shown amazing performances of music from the era's greatest music performers: Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Country Joe & The Fish, Santana, The Who, Ten Years After, Sly & The Family Stone, etc. 2. We are shown a deep look at the counterculture. Whether it be a bunch of hippies trippin' out on Marijuana & LSD, people who enjoyed skinny-dipping, the spiritual side of it with Yoga and Trancendental Meditation, and what to do in the rain... Strip naked and roll around in the mud. And nobody cared about it, because it was a place of peace. And peace what all that they wanted, and for 3 days everybody received peace. There are a few downsides to this film, though... 1. No Performance from The Grateful Dead, just Jerry Garcia rollin' a few joints. 2. They don't have Sly & The Family Stone's Dance To The Music in the video, that was a song that got the whole crowd up and going, but all we get is "I Want To Take You Higher." But they're only miniscule things, the video is amazing. The spirit of the 60's, will live on forever, thanks to this festival and movie. And DAMN RIGHT! This movie did deserve to win the Oscar!!! Buy the video if you want, but be warned, there will be an everlasting effect to wear tie-dye and put up the 2-finger salute. -Peace-
Rating: 
Summary: THE MOST IMPORTANT CONCERT OF ALL TIME.
Review: The original Woodstock without a doubt is the most important musical event of all time. After Woodstock, many festivals have tried in vain to copy this event, some of them have had a very good quality, but none has been as important as Woodstock. So this outstanding event deserved a high quality documentary, and Michael Wadleigh made the best rockumentary "Woodstock: Three Days of Peace & Music". One of the best things that can be found on this Rockumentary, is the close attention to the details: we can see how the young people in 1969 were, their ideology, their habits and their way to dress (or undress). Michael Wadleigh also did that all the event details were recorded by his army of camera men: the concert organizers, the portable bathrooms used in the concert, the thoughts and commentaries made by the neighbors and owners of the nearby stores, the mud baths, the use of illegal substances, the rain delay, the nudity, etc. But the most interesting thing in the Rockumentary without a doubt are the performers in Woodstock: Jimi Hendrix, Santana, The Who, Canned Heat, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, among many others. Some performances are amazing, other performances are very eccentric, and in other performances the use of illegal substances is really obvious, but overall most of the performances are very good. "Woodstock: Three Days of Peace & Music" is the best Rockumentary of all time, and also it's one of the best Documentaries overall. If you are a music fan, this is an essential video.
Rating:
Summary: I felt like I was there
Review: This isn't your run-of-the-mill concert video packed with edited performances. This is loaded with performances from the original (and, as far as I'm concerned, the ONLY) three-day festival of peace, love, and music. (...)it's loaded with interviews of kids coming into town for the festival, enjoying it, and leaving it (I felt really sorry for the cleanup crew). A lot of the time, it's a split screen so you'll find yourself using the rewind button quite often to catch anything you may have missed. Interesting to find out that Woodstock was the second performance for Crosby, Stills, and Nash (in the days before Young). Ritchie Havens was out of sight, Jimi Hendrix far out, and Country Joe McDonald a blast. Rock and roll and folk music came together for a once-in-a-lifetime event that could never be duplicated (why did people botther trying?) and, truth be told, I'm deeply jealous of the people who were there. The coolest part of all was when Max Yasgur, owner of the farm the festival was held on, got on stage and said that Woodstock was proof that young people could get together and have three days of peace, love, and music and nothing but three days of peace, love and music. This video is a first hand glimpse into the turmoil that was the 1960's (e.g. older people arguing amongst themselves that the festival was wrong because the young kids were having sex and getting high while others thought it better that they were there instead of being in Viet Nam). You can feel the tension and the too cool atmosphere of the festival through the TV. Ah, nothing like the 1960's. What a decade!
Rating:
Summary: 3 Days of Mud and Multitudes
Review: What an experience watch "Woodstock: The Director's Cut!" For the entire 3 hours, 45 minutes of this movie, I was completely transfixed by this spectacular Academy Award winning (Best Documentary, 1970) film, with its (then) ground-breaking multiple image, amorphous widescreen formats. I found myself swept back to 1969, the summer of my 18th year, wistfully longing to be there with the rest of those 500,000-plus "hippies", listening to the music, partying, being part of that special three-day weekend... As this fully restored DVD version of Wadleigh's masterpiece shows, it was indeed a special event! This film documents the efforts of a group of musicians, entrepreneurs, and financial backers, who worked for over nine months to bring to fruition the history-making rock 'n roll music festival that took upstate New York by storm on August 15-17, 1969. With a sure eye for the finest detail, Wadleigh captures hundreds, perhaps thousands, of everyday little incidents, both positive and negative, that made up this special musical event. Using the multi-image format I mentioned earlier, and widescreen formats of varying aspect ratios (the only way this film can be seen without sacrificing substantial portions of it to television's confining 1.33:1 aspect ratio), Wadleigh presents his viewers with powerfully eloquent vignettes: The twenty-mile long traffic jams and the interminably long lines of pedestrians hiking to the site of the concert... The reaction of Bethel's local residents, a few outwardly irate, some mildly irritated, but the vast majority very receptive to the half-million strong horde of "hippies" descending upon them... The "scenes from a disaster area:" just how do you provide the basic necessities of sanitation, medical care, and food for a large city camped in a hay field? And what happens when those services are suddenly and arbitrarily stopped?... The countless numbers of people openly passing around joints and pipes and bongs, all getting mightily "wasted," while the bands played on... The sudden downpour and almost instantaneous submersion of the multitudes in thick, gooey mud, while the bands tried to play on... and many, many more... And through it all, the heart of the film: the music, always the music. Pure rock and roll as it was meant to be... hard edged, lyrical, harmonious, boisterous, folksy, raucous, raunchy, promoting peace and goodwill, almost religious in its fervor... ...Richie Havens passionately strumming his battle-scarred acoustic guitar, all the while soulfully belting out his song "Freedom..." Joan Baez' gentle "organizing" ballad "Joe Hill..." The Who kicking up their heels: "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me," the opening lyrics of "We're Not Gonna Take It Any More," from the rock opera "Tommy..." A perspiration soaked, gravelly voiced, youthful Joe Cocker putting every ounce of his body and soul into his incredible "With a Little Help from My Friends..." Jimi Hendrix' incredible, spectacular, pyrotechnical rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Purple Haze..." and many, many more... I have two complaints about "Woodstock: The Director's Cut." First: the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. Throughout the film, there seemed to be a lot of background hiss and crackling. This was probably caused by the equipment Wadleigh used while making the film; however, modern technology still should have been able to eliminate most background noise. My second complaint: The varying aspect ratios (anywhere from 2.35:1 to 1.78:1) make viewing the movie on a standard television a bit difficult. Some images seem very small even on a 32-inch TV! Still, widescreen is the best format to use when viewing this film. It matters not whether you're sixteen or sixty; whether you've never been to a rock concert in your life, or you're a grizzled old concertgoer like me; "Woodstock: The Director's Cut" is a film not to be missed!
Rating:
Summary: 3 Days at Yasgur's Farm
Review: The Woodstock Festival was a defining for the counterculture movement. The young hippies showed a nation that they could exist together in a peaceful, communal state. The Woodstock documentary captures the essence of those three days on a farm in upstate New York. We see hippies skinny-dipping, the locals looking around in amazement on the deluge of people who descending on their quiet, little town, kids, cops and others are interviewed and of course we see the music. From Richie Havens' opening things up with "Freedom" to Jimi Hendrix's defining "Star Spangled Banner", we are treated to a 60's rock who's who. Joe Cocker, Santana, CSN&Y, John Sebastian and Sly & The Family Stone particularly standout and we get bonus material not in the original release from The Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and others. Director Michael Wadleigh's film won a deserving Best Documentary Oscar and a young Martin Scorcese was an editor on the film. Some of the acts are woefully dated and long forgotten, but Woodstock is an impressive snapshot of a memorable moment in our history.
Rating:
Summary: Woodstock
Review: Woodstock was a great documentary. It had everything from split screen to wonderful music. The sound was great. So many bands in only 3days. It was a time where skinny diping and doing Pot and acid was ok and understandable. Police were not filling the jails with people who did drugs and broke laws. They were letting them be free and discover peace. Woodstock is something that will go down in history as a time of love and peace and understanding. In the end it was more then just the music it was the love and the way freedom brought it.
Rating:
Summary: awsome!
Review: This documentary was brilliantly filmed. The split screen although not new to filming was a great was to show how much was going on at once. The music made my feet tap and my head bounce, it was great. It captured the mood and feelings of the young people of America trying to break through old ways. The first Woodsotck was the best most creative, spirtual, and nonviolent of all time. There will never be another repeat. I can watch it over and over and never get sick of seeing a culture changing infront of me!
Rating:
Summary: Jeff is clueless
Review: Hey, folks, don't give up on this DVD based on the review from New Jersey Jeff. If he really saw Woodstock when it came out, that means he was alive in 1969, but he sure wasn't aware of the music scene in those days. The blues ruled--look at the bands from the late 60's that were making waves--Hendrix, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Steve Miller, Big Brother, Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Winter, and so on. These were bands whose sounds had blues at the roots. Look at the first Grateful Dead album: "Good Morning Little School Girl" is as blues as you get. Cheap Thrills? My God, Turtle Blues? Ball and Chain? Jeff liked Joplin, but he didn't like blues from Canned Heat. Jeff, the director didn't add blues for modern viewers. Blues music informed almost everthing that was being played at the concert that summer! Listen to Joe Cocker. You don't think he added blues to "A Little Help from My Friends'? Listen to "Red House" if you don't think Hendrix played the blues.
If you want a documentary of the most important concert of the 60s, buy this. Then get "Gimme Shelter" to see how the Woodstock dream ended
Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie¿bad extended version
Review: I remember seeing this movie when I was a teen and it practically changed my life. I love this movie because not only did it gave us great music, but it documented real people who attended this incredible event. The cameramen went around filming anything at random. Of course, what was interesting was preserved on the final cut. It was a unique event, and Woodstock the Movie captured its essence and spirit. The multi-angle filming is inventive and clever. It literally compressed a 6 hours movie into 3. There was so much to see and tell, how could one frame capture it all? Now about this director's cut: I was disappointed. I thought it ruined the original's free flowing spirit. Canned Heat is a very good band, but this in-your-face image of the singer was annoying. Who wants to see his sweaty mustache while he's blasting out the blues? Jimi Hendrix's extended piece wasn't that good either. There were some parts of his jam that was monotonous. When Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane sang the blues, it was a waste of movie time. It didn't seem to represent the 60's generation. It wasn't even a classic 60's song. I thought the director added more blues for the sake of appealing to the modern viewers. Instead, he destroyed this "time capsule." The director should had added more footage of the people rather than adding musicians singing blues. It just doesn't seem like the 60's anymore. jefferson Airplane and janis joplin were good though. I was happy to see them included. But sometimes it is not a good idea to improve upon a masterpiece. It was good as it is, that is why it won the academy award. It was special. Instead of extending this great movie, the director should create special features with more music, interviews, footages, commentaries, etc. There was absolutely no need to repaint his masterpiece. It's like adding more into the Mona Lisa because the painter got greedy and wanted it to be even better than it already is. For this, I have to give this dvd director's cut 3 stars instead of 5.
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