Reflections on Woodstock
When I was younger, I had heard about “Woodstock,� but I never knew anything about what it represented. I was not aware that it was a music festival based during the time of the Vietnam War that was a symbol of peace and music. This film, Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music, was an incredibly eye-opening documentary. It seemed incredible to me that 500,000 individuals could come together in one place to celebrate peace, in an effort to end the war. My thoughts about Woodstock before watching this documentary were that it was one big party for a bunch of doped-up hippies. However, this documentary showed me just how articulate and insightful some of these young adults were. There was one gentleman being interviewed who was explaining that his parents were immigrants to the U.S. and that they had dropped everything in their native country to come to America to give their son a better life. He continued to explain that his parents could not understand why their son was not utilizing America’s opportunities to its maximum benefit. This young gentleman was incredibly articulate and just calmly explained that he was not the same as his parents; he was his own individual.
At the end of the class period, Jimi Hendrix played an incredible version of The Star Spangled Banner. This was the first time I had ever heard this and the very first thought that came to my mind was that he was completely perverting the United States’ National Anthem. He played crazy chords, some of which sounded out-of-tune, and was whamming every single note. This held a great deal of symbolism in that it was extremely fitting; it almost perfectly reflected the United States government at the time – completely perverted. The government had troops in Vietnam, killing thousands of innocent lives, which American citizens did not agree with. Jimi Hendrix’s version of the United States’ National Anthem reflected the way in which the government was dealing with the war in Vietnam during that time – in a completely perverted (non-humane) manner.
-Hasti Fashandi