Movie |
Concert Film | Music History
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Budget 600,000 USD
Box Office Collection 50,000,000 USD
The two- and three-panel screen presentations seen throughout much of the movie were innovations born of necessity on the part of its creators and film editor Martin Scorsese. With so much footage shot and the studio's unwillingness to expand the length of the released film's running time, it was decided that a way must be found to maximize the amount of footage that could be used. Because of the wide-screen aspect of the release, it was realized that the multi-panel format could be used most effectively to not only include as much film footage as possible, but to also have concert footage and crowd reaction shots together on the same screen. The filmmakers believed it was important to show the viewing public just what a monumental event the Woodstock festival had unintentionally become. This method also allowed them to show many behind-the-scene activities that reflected all the hard work put in by the production staff and crew, another important detail that the concert's producers thought was very important for the public to see as they always had contended that without the efforts of the entire production staff, this event easily could have degenerated into a disaster.
The Who's performance was interrupted by Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman. Hoffman ran onstage to make a speech about the recent marijuana arrest of radical John Sinclair. As Hoffman was shouting about Sinclair and his displeasure about the festival, Pete Townshend kicked him off the stage.
Richie Havens' song "Freedom" was totally improvised. He was called for so many encores that he ran out of songs to sing, so he just picked up his guitar and started singing "Freedom".
Crosby Stills Nash & Young almost didn't perform at the festival. The helicopter that Graham Nash and the group's bassist, Greg Reeves, were on was less than 25 feet off the ground when the tail rotor failed and it began to spin. The helicopter almost crashed and Nash and Reeves were almost killed when it not only made a hard landing, but just missed some high-tension power lines.
Abbie Hoffman wasn't the only one to feel Pete Townshend's wrath during The Who's performance. As they were walking onstage, Townshend kicked one of the cameramen filming the documentary. The cameraman happened to be none other than the film's director Michael Wadleigh.
"Interviewer: What do you think about the kids? Police Officer: From what I've heard from the outside sources for many years I was very, very much surprised and I'm very happy to say we think the people of this country should be proud of these kids, not withstanding the way they dress or the way they wear their hair, that's their own personal business; but their, their inner workings, their inner selves, their, their self-demeanour cannot be questioned; they can't be questioned as good American citizens. Interviewer: That's kind of surprising coming from a cop. Police Officer: [smiling] I'm not a cop, I'm the Chief of Police."
"Max Yasgur: [to crowd, puts up the peace sign] I'm a farmer. I don't know - I don't know how to speak to 20 people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But, I think you people have proven something to the world! Not only to the town of Bethel or Sullivan County or New York State, you've proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group. And because of that, you had quite a few inconveniences, as far as water and food and so forth. Your Producers have done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of. They enjoy a vote of thanks. But, above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids, and I call you kids because I have children not older than you are, a half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing *but* fun and music, and I God bless you for it!"
