The Woodstock pageant, which happened from August 15-18, 1969, got here alongside at a essential time in The us. All in the similar month, we landed at the Moon, celebrated peace and love on the Woodstock fest, and have been horrified via the Manson killings. Like “Jailhouse Rock,” it captures a very powerful second in rock historical past, and the rustic’s historical past as neatly.
Whilst the movie used to be 3 hours lengthy, and the soundtrack album used to be a pricey three-LP set, each have been large hits, and it used to be almost definitely one of the crucial first instances the key studios noticed the ability of a rock soundtrack as a secondary source of revenue stream. (This used to be additionally the start of rock song getting used at the soundtracks of main Hollywood movies like “Simple Rider.”)
But as Warner govt Fred Weintraub recalled within the guide “Simple Riders, Raging Bulls,” nobody on the studio used to be supportive of “Woodstock.” The studio had accomplished a number of rock pageant movies, all of them tanked, why would this one hit? The studio in spite of everything relented and the movie remodeled $30 million international.
“Woodstock” used to be edited down from greater than 120 miles of photos. The movie no longer most effective captured a very powerful tournament on the finish of the ’60s, but additionally documented many nice reside performances from artists like The Who, Sly and the Circle of relatives Stone, Santana, and extra (one of the crucial movie’s maximum mythical performances, Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “The Superstar-Spangled Banner,” used to be captured because the pageant used to be winding down).
