The United States has successfully landed on the moon, the Cultural Revolution is in full swing, and the losses caused by the Vietnam War have triggered round after round of anti-war waves. These were recorded in 1969.
And Woodstock Music Festival.
Rock, open air, nature, drugs, hallucinogens, hippies. No matter how we look at this music festival with reverence or fear now, people at that time would not consider what impact this music festival would have on future generations. "Hey, what the fuck history, we only have the 'now.'"
"Making Woodstock" doesn't have the concert picture that people imagine it should have. Although the soundtrack in the film is classic, there is almost no singing scene. The focus of this film is not "music festival", but "making". From application to planning to performance to the end, there is blood, setbacks, and a little bit of "basic" affection. The family element that Ang Lee has always focused on is also interspersed (it can even be said to account for a great proportion).
Elliot, a young man from a Jewish family, has a greedy mother who is "a battalion of fighting strength" and a father who has a weak sense of presence. He's not a hippie, holds music festivals, and even has a part of his affair. This is also not the first time he has held a music festival, the scale was limited to this small town before. He alone, or with the support of the whole town, could not have accomplished such a music festival, not to mention the dissatisfaction of the influx of hippies in the town in the later period. But all the obstacles that seemed to easily lead to the abortion of music festivals disappeared under the premise of "coincident". Coincidentally, I met investors with the same interest; Coincidentally, other music festivals were cancelled; Coincidentally, I encountered the anti-war peak of the Vietnam War... Coincidentally, all of this happened in that era. Although the festival was organized artificially, in its later stages it was propelled by an entirely unknowable force. This miracle happened by accident. It is fascinating because everything is unexpected.
Elliot watched as groups of hippies made their way to their destination. They had no tents, and lacked food, but most of them had a pilgrimage-like expression, and their pace was slow but light. On the faces of these people, there is no "violence" as old-fashioned people call it, but calm. They would say thank you wholeheartedly to those who helped them, they would cheer for their concert tickets, and they would vent in the mud. Yes, they have no "sense of responsibility", they abandoned their parents and indulged in psychedelic music or even drugs, but all of this stemmed from confusion.
He was taught to "love peace" as a child but couldn't prevent war from happening somewhere. He was taught to "love nature" since he was a child, but he watched the trees cut down and built with tall buildings. The "rules" taught us by a society where power is concentrated on adults runs counter to reality. And this reality is created by adults. "Resistance" is not allowed, "doubt" is useless, and the only remaining "escape" is labeled as "weak".
Not that we want to be confused. Rather, it has been led from the beginning, toward a path that deviates from the truth.
By the time we have enough experience to realize this, it will be too late.
The climax of the film consists of an unreal image. No dialogue. The background music is "The Red Telephone" by Love.
"We are from everywhere." They say. One word and one action sent Elliot eight miles into the air. hallucinogens.
Dark becomes bright. Flat becomes three-dimensional. Start to rotate still. He just lost himself in the bright colors. This is the true color, the color as it is, without shadows, without distortion. They don't even have names. There is nothing to generalize them, they are beings beyond language. In absolute space, in absolute form.
He sees the universe. From its origin, it expands, divides, and finally explodes, drowning everything. The crowd moved like waves.
People danced and wept excitedly in the dread of the imminent doomsday.
"Just breath."
When it all really started, time passed quickly. People walked weary streets in the early morning. The white garbage scattered around the venue is evidence of what happened here, and they are about to be recycled. Soon the land will slowly return to its original use. Woodstock Music Festival is left to future generations in the form of film and abstract memory.
We can only re-examine it through the eyes of others, and we can't even appreciate the atmosphere of that era. We live in a besieged city of our own age. And some things can only belong to a certain era.
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