I don’t see many files in a cinema these days. How my priorities have changed from when I would schedule vacations to coincide with the Toronto International Film Festival. The arrival in Toronto of a new film by the extraordinarily talented Ang Lee got Frankie and me to the local Silvercity today. The reviews for Taking Woodstock were mediocre; 2 stars, in all those I read, kept my expectations low. What a surprise we got! It was one very fine film. It grabbed my emotions almost as much as Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. Taking a closeted, young and gay business man in the Catskills as the lead character was radical. Making it light hearted was courageous. Displaying 1960s racism was bold. Showing us the non-physical wounds the war in Vietnam left with its veterans was a sorrowful reminder of what we were experiencing in 1969. The subtle reference to the Stonewall riot showed how revolutions can begin with a few tossed bricks.
The film was not about Woodstock, the concert, but about the people and the times. Movie-goers expecting concert footage will be disappointed by the low-key use of the music of the era. There are other fine films if one is interested in the music and the event itself. Taking Woodstock is about breaking free; Elliott coming out, artists rejecting the conventions of the 1950s and 1906s, set against a backdrop that was all too familiar to the 50+ generation. Woodstock happened 40 years ago, between by first and second year at university. One of by closest friends at the time tired to get to Woodstock and never quite made it, but remains a personal link to the happening of the decade. I was surprised that Frankie would appreciate it as much as he did, but then he was guitar-playing, headband wearing, self-styled hippy at his Hong Kong high school with a longing for North America and the destiny of an artist. I guess I should have known.
It was a trip down memory lane, it was heart-waming, it was funny, it was poignant, it left us talking about the film for an hour and a half after we left the cinema. Taking Woodstock definitely deserves more than 2 stars. Thanks, Ang Lee, for taking me back to 1969.
