Martine Schroeder - Woodstock
I found myself to be very impartial to the documentary we watched this week about Woodstock. It was kind of a chaotic and nonlinear film. It makes sense artistically to make this documentary in this way because it showed the confusion and disorganization of the actual Woodstock music festival.
Although this wasn’t my favorite film we have viewed in class it was informative and taught me more about Woodstock. I found it interesting to see the reactions of the townspeople and the reactions of adults concerning the group of young people, a.k.a. the freaks, who were in town for the music festival.
A surprising number of the adults thought what the festival-goers were doing was fine, and they were really impressed by how nice and polite the kids were. But there were a few adults interviewed that were really upset about what was going on. They thought all the kids were doing was smoking pot, stealing, and generally being out of line. It was interesting to see two very different perspectives from an older generation. And when it came down to it a large number of adults cared enough about the people at Woodstock to provide food to all the people attending the music festival.
Another reaction I found to be surprising was that of the farmer who owned the property Woodstock was being held on. He was okay with the fact that his farmland was being completely ruined because of this event. And he even made a statement on stage to the attendees of Woodstock that this event was making a huge statement to the world. I found it interesting that this statement was made by a man that stereotypically would seem to be against a festival like Woodstock. And the fact that he was okay with what was going on on his property was really worthy of note.
I think this event really helped to show an older generation, and the world, what exactly it was that the younger generation of America wanted - peace. For there being so many people in attendance, problems with misconduct appeared to be slim to none, which is astounding. I believe this festival was a great way for a younger and more liberal generation to show the world what it was that they wanted and how willing they were to support a cause they truly believed in.