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Taking Woodstock: The Shooting Script
The official screenplay book to the new film from Academy Award® winner Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), starring Demetri Martin. Includes a color portfolio with production notes, historical images and movie stills.
Taking Woodstock is inspired by the true story of Elliot Tiber and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was.
It’s 1969, and Elliot, an interior designer in Greenwich Village, has to move back upstate to help his parents run their dilapidated Catskills motel. The bank is about to foreclose; his father wants to burn the place down, but hasn’t paid the insurance; and Elliot is still figuring how to come out to his parents. When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers, thinking he could drum up some business for the motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor’s farm, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change American culture forever.
This book also includes a foreword by Ang Lee and an introduction by screenwriter James Schamus.
Taking Woodstock is inspired by the true story of Elliot Tiber and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was.
It’s 1969, and Elliot, an interior designer in Greenwich Village, has to move back upstate to help his parents run their dilapidated Catskills motel. The bank is about to foreclose; his father wants to burn the place down, but hasn’t paid the insurance; and Elliot is still figuring how to come out to his parents. When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers, thinking he could drum up some business for the motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor’s farm, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change American culture forever.
This book also includes a foreword by Ang Lee and an introduction by screenwriter James Schamus.
176 pages, Paperback
First published August 4, 2009
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 12, 2012
Reviewing the movie, not the script.
It's a mess. Way, way, way too much going on. Way too many stories that interconnect only tangentially. The entire "Eliot Tiber is gay" plot got short shrift, and the remaining uses he serves story-wise aren't terribly interesting. It's a lot like "I am a camera"...he's our PoV, but nothing much happens to him that makes a difference. His evolving relationship with his parents? What, you wanted events that make it make sense? Don't be a buzz-kill, man.
Expensive? Mercy, mercy me. This must have cost the earth, the moon and the stars. It looks expensive. It makes no sense to speak of. Pretty! But what the bloody hell does this mishegas mean? What is my take-away? Love and peace and beauty had a three-day moment in a muddy field. So? I remember that. I was, of course, an embryo at the time (I've decided I'm going to be 30 from here on out), but the message of Woodstock came through loud and clear, and I think that it still does. So why choose this angle, and then overload it with big, messy, unfocused scenes?
Oh, whatever. I am disappointed that it wasn't...wasn't...I really can't say for sure what I wanted, I realize, but I did not get it. (Little things like 1970 Cadillac limos also drove me wild. It took place in 1969. Cadillac didn't sell 1970 models until 14 September that year (my birthday, made it memorable...we got our Fleetwood that day.) Urgh.) So would I suggest that you watch it? No. Watch "Across the Universe" instead for a fun, involving look at the Sixties, acted well, and directed with tight focus and on truly intertwined storylines.
It's a mess. Way, way, way too much going on. Way too many stories that interconnect only tangentially. The entire "Eliot Tiber is gay" plot got short shrift, and the remaining uses he serves story-wise aren't terribly interesting. It's a lot like "I am a camera"...he's our PoV, but nothing much happens to him that makes a difference. His evolving relationship with his parents? What, you wanted events that make it make sense? Don't be a buzz-kill, man.
Expensive? Mercy, mercy me. This must have cost the earth, the moon and the stars. It looks expensive. It makes no sense to speak of. Pretty! But what the bloody hell does this mishegas mean? What is my take-away? Love and peace and beauty had a three-day moment in a muddy field. So? I remember that. I was, of course, an embryo at the time (I've decided I'm going to be 30 from here on out), but the message of Woodstock came through loud and clear, and I think that it still does. So why choose this angle, and then overload it with big, messy, unfocused scenes?
Oh, whatever. I am disappointed that it wasn't...wasn't...I really can't say for sure what I wanted, I realize, but I did not get it. (Little things like 1970 Cadillac limos also drove me wild. It took place in 1969. Cadillac didn't sell 1970 models until 14 September that year (my birthday, made it memorable...we got our Fleetwood that day.) Urgh.) So would I suggest that you watch it? No. Watch "Across the Universe" instead for a fun, involving look at the Sixties, acted well, and directed with tight focus and on truly intertwined storylines.
Displaying 1 of 1 review