See The Center Of The Universe

I liked this movie. I heard it was terrible. Everyone who I know who saw said it was not good. I got one lukewarm review, that they didn't like the beginning or the end, but liked the middle. Okay. What do I do with that? But I liked it. It's not about Woodstock, necessarily. It's just a story that involves the concert. Never once do you see a performance or even a musician (save the 5,000 hippies with guitars). But that's why I thinked I liked it. I didn't approach it with the attitude that this film would in some way recreate the experience for people not fortunate enough to have been there. Nor did I think it would renew any fading relevance that Woodstock as a relatable cultural touchstone once had, and seems to be lost in today's festival commonwealth.

And maybe that's just it. I've always said that if I were to travel back (or forth) in time that Max Yasgur's farm on August 15-18, 1969 would be pretty high on my list, but that'll never happen, and it's a good thing. Experiencing Woodstock in retrospect would probably be pretty lame. So I don't worry about it. I don't feel the need to "experience" it for myself because it wouldn't be like being there, then. That confused me.

Easy thing here. I liked this movie. It wasn't a good movie per se, but it was entertaining and it told one of the millions of side stories that culminated in a single individual experiencing the unexpected event that was Woodstock. It doesn't give in and when you wanna see Richie Havens cry "Freedom" you get Eliot Tiechberg eating pancakes with his curmudgeon mother. When you wanna see Santana flail about to Jingo on mescalin you get a heart to heart with Liev Schrieber dressed in convincing drag. And instead of seeing Hendrix play the Star Spangled Banner you get to see a Bethel town council meeting.

See it for all the behind the scenes coverage, what it actually took to get this thing off the ground. The movie does well to encapsulate the madness this little mountain town endured in preparation for one of the centuries defining moments. It had its fair share of hippie soundbytes, Woodstock cliché and an acid trip for the ages, but overall it's just a very simple story about a seemingly simple and innocent man trying to get the hell out of Bethel. He didn't think bare feet & brown acid would turn out that way.