Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music—40th Anniversary Revisited

More than a concert film, 1970's Woodstock chronicles the legendary music festival while also spotlighting the community of nearly half a million people that came together for three days in 1969 on a farm in upstate New York. In fact, filmmaker Michael Wadleigh's cameras spend almost as much time observing the audience as the musicians—who include Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, Sly and the Family Stone, Country Joe & the Fish, Santana, Janis Joplin, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. The result is a time-capsule of the era's youth culture—including drug use, profanity, and nudity among fans—as well as a showcase of iconic rock figures. The creative use of split-screens was brainstormed by fledgling filmmaker and assistant director Martin Scorsese, working with Thelma Schoonmaker (who went on to edit almost all of Scorsese's films). Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Woodstock remains a vital artifact more than 40 years later. This new edition features everything from the 2009 Blu-ray edition—including the extended director's cut, 18 bonus performances, and the documentary Woodstock: From Festival to Feature—plus 16 more previously unseen performances. A seminal film that shines in this definitive extras-packed Blu-ray release, this is highly rThis issue replaces the earlier release's funky packaging with a simple disc case but carries over the cute but nonessential envelope of paper reproductions. ecommended. (S. Axmaker)