Taking Woodstock

Starring: Martin, Demetri and Hirsch, Emile

Product Description

A generation began in his backyard... From Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), comes Taking Woodstock, a new comedy inspired by the true story of Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was. It's 1969, and Elliot Tiber, a down-on-his-luck interior designer in Greenwich Village, New York, has to move back upstate to help his parents run their dilapidated Catskills motel, The El Monaco. The bank's about to foreclose; his father wants to burn the place down, but hasn't paid the insurance; and Elliot is still figuring how to come out to his parents. When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers, thinking he could drum up some much-needed business for the motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor's farm in White Lake, NY, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life, and American culture, forever.

• Format: DVD
• Language: English
• UPC: 025192014017
• Release Date: August 2010
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Publisher: Studio Distribution Servi
• Director: Lee, Ang
• Starring: Martin, Demetri, Hirsch, Emile
• Runtime: 2 hours, 1 minute
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: DVD
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An interesting little ditty, sort of a docu-comedy.

First off, this is not a Woodstock documentary. It is a story that just happens to center around the event. The film is an adaptation, so it has a general script to follow and still has to adjust to becoming a visual experience. Some people were added; others were combined for brevity. Not saying you will appreciate the movie any better, but you definitely need to watch the voice-over commentary to see what was trying to be produced. I thought it was cute, but nothing worth re-watching. Not that I would ever take those substances that were imbibed in the movie; however, this was a much more accurate rendition than the earlier movies attempted to portray. The introduction of the Character returning from Vietnam was for the movie and a tad over the top. However, I had just come back myself as I was stationed at West Point (not too far away). I made it to the muddy parts but never to the stage. Other people may have been virtuous; however, I know someone who made a bundle on selling a combination of oregano and tea mixture (which smells similar to other substances). Anyway, I applaud the effort to make this film. I just do not see it having any social redeeming quality. Well, one exception, “No stuping in the bushes,” Sonia Teichberg. I only saw the Blu-ray version, so I could not compare it to other versions.