Taking Woodstock

Movie: Taking Woodstock

I saw it on: August 30, 2009

Cast: Dan Fogler, Demetri Martin, Imelda Staunton, Henry Goodman, Jonathan Groff, Emile Hirsch, Eugene Levy

Genre: Comedy, Historical Pseudo-Documentary

Synopsis: “Inspired by the true story” . . .  It is the summer of 1969.  Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) spends all of his spare time trying to help his Russian-immigrant parents run the El Monaco, their rundown motel in the Catskills. The bank is trying to foreclose on the motel and Eliot has just managed to get an extension to the end of the summer.

Then he reads about some organizers trying to find location to put on a huge outdoor concert.  Eliot becomes the local contact for the Woodstock organizers.  His first job was to find a location – Max Yasgur’s (Eugene Levy) dairy farm.  He also provides the permit that makes it – sort of – legal.

The movie focuses on Elliot’s interactions with the organizers, the locals (not happy about the concert) and his own parents.

My two cents: A lot of interesting stuff on how Woodstock came to be on Max Yasgur’s farm and some of what went into putting it on.  Eliot’s parents are, to be charitable, off-beat.  His mother only provides a single towel to guests.  Soap is extra.  The linen gets a good “shakeout” instead of washing for new guests.

An interesting bit of casting was Lief Schreiber as a cross-dressing gay ex-Marine that Elliot hires to be in charge of security at his parent’s motel.  Richard Thomas (good old John-Boy Walton) had a small part as a minister.  It took me about five minutes before I finally figured out it is Richard Thomas.

A good movie, but by no means great.  I was disappointed that they had very little music from Woodstock.  You only get to hear the music briefly from a distance.  With hindsight, I would rather have waited for it to hit HBO or Showtime.