Release: Now available on DVD
Running time: 100 minutes
Rating: M (mature themes)

I must confess that I did not much care for Ang Lee’s previous gay-themed film Brokeback Mountain. I know I may be alone in this respect, but I found Brokeback to be a slow, repetitive and meandering take on the gay romance. It is a pleasant surprise, therefore, to discover that his new comedy Taking Woodstock- based on the Elliot Tiber’s autobiography Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life- is a real gem, a funny and witty take on political and sexual revolution and American counterculture, as evidenced in the following clip:

Taking Woodstock stars comedian Demetri Martin as Tiber, the small-town businessman who inadvertently plays a pivotal role in organizing Woodstock, the legendary four-day music festival.

Elliot is the responsible straight man when it comes to everything: he heads the local chamber of commerce, organizes an annual music festival and helps run his parents’ motel, especially considering his parents’ management of their hotel is appalling. His mother (Imelda Staunton) refuses to change the sheets after a couple spent the night there, scowling “but they did not do anything!” His father (Henry Goodman) is not much better, especially when he fills the hotel pool with bleach – from the laundry. This inept management has put the hotel in serious debt and forces Elliot to cover the costs with his own funds.

In 1969, Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff), an eccentric- but mellow- music producer offers Elliot thousands to host Woodstock in his town, Bethel. Elliot agrees, which infuriates the locals who are disgusted by the influx of hippies to their town.

Lee and regular collaborator James Schamus’s early careful plotting subsequently disappears in the second half as the film embraces the sights, sounds, culture and mood of its milieu. In most films, this would promote question of indulgence on the part of the filmmakers, but Taking Woodstock gathers tremendous momentum as it beautifully details the incidents of the festival. It is heartening to see a police officer that befriends the very hippies he was sent to arrest. It is endearing to witness a couple offer Elliot water simply because “he looks thirsty” (afterwards they drop acid together as though they had been friends for years). It is joyous to witness Elliot kiss a guy to cheers from a packed audience – and this was just months after the Stonewall Riots, where hatred of homosexuals reached its peak in America.

Taking Woodstock’s second half is a sensory experience that left me calm, peaceful and free. Sure, Lee’s film entertaining film may not be particularly deep, but it more than makes up for this with its charm.

Jarrod Harvey

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