发信人: oceann (dany), 信区: English
标 题: Woodstock Director’s Cut
发信站: 哈工大紫丁香 (Mon Aug 11 09:53:20 2003)
Back in 1950, President Truman sends 35-man military advisory group to aid Fr
ench fighting to maintain colonial power in Vietnam. 1964, North Vietnamese to
rpedo boats reportedly attack U.S. destroyers in Gulf of Tonkin (Aug. 2). Pres
ident Johnson orders retaliatory air strikes. Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin
resolution (Aug. 7) authorizing president to take “all necessary measures”
to win in Vietnam, allowing for the war’s expansion. From that moment on, ten
s of thousands of American youth were sending to Vietnam continuously. This bi
g event directly influenced a whole generation of American people. Many movies
, from Oliver Stone to Francis Corpora, have reviewed this war a great number
of times from various angles. Those people who were born in 1950s saw the war’
s impact on their brothers and sister without a distance. And a big proportion
of them were surely sent to the same battlefield. Along with this inferable f
rustration, America society appeared “the Beat Generation” and “the Hippies” (from mid 1950s to mid 1970s).
Under this circumstance, this generation put their minds on Rock ‘n’ Ro
ll. With war level upwards, the Rock music developed rapidly. The only theme o
f these young men who were listening/playing rock music and tasting drugs was—
Love & Peace. Little by little, the theme was occupying more and more people’
s mind and finally developed into a movement. In 1969, the movement came to it
s peak—the Woodstock Music Festival.
John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang, these four
young men arranged Woodstock which imprinted their names deeply in history. Af
ter hard efforts, including finding the site, contracting the rock artists, an
d establishing the huge sound system, the music began Friday afternoon at 5:07
pm August 15 and continued until mid-morning Monday August 18.
This movie was a documentary of this big event. In nearly 3-hour-time, it
recorded major parts of the 3-day-event. But if you look up related materials
, you’ll be sorry that you were born too late because there was so little had
been recorded. For example, “the Who” sang probably 24 songs in the concert
but it only recorded 2 of them. All in all, in the limited time, this “Direc
tor’s Cut” is excellent.
The documentory was divided into 3 pieces according to the 3-day-festival
. In the beginning, we can see some arrangement works. And people, riding thei
r big yellow buss as well as little beetle cars as well as trucks were coming
from all sides. Almost all of them had long and whirl hair and wore jeans. Mid
August near New York is just like the same weather in Beijing, hot but dry, s
ometimes a little rain.
At 5:07 pm August 15, 1969, Richie Havens (a black) began to play. The cr
ow became excited but soon enjoyed the music and then concentrated on the mean
ings. Besides “Love & Peace”, there is freedom that we all have been seeking
. When the “Freedom” of Richie finished, he was almost playing 3 hours at th
e stage. Every time he tried to quit, he had to keep on until night came and t
hat was the atmosphere.
The second day was interesting because of the sudden rain. The organizers
led the whole crowd shouting “No rain, no rain” to God. But the rain was st
ill pouring down, heavily. Some of the people used plastic form a tent. Some o
f them took off all of the clothes to enjoy a bath. And some of them just talk
ed with each other. When the rain stopped, the ground turned into mud. But don
’t worry. The people there enjoyed the mud using their hips like children. Th
ey slide in the mud and made it a competition. In a second, the concert contin
ued. “the Who” and many others played in front of people. In the evening, a
singer came late, when he finished his performance, he told the crowd “New Yo
rk State Thruway” was closed. At that moment, there were more than 400,000 pe
ople at Woodstock.
With the help of military helicopter supplying food etc (because of the h
eavy jam), here came the third day. Was there a problem with army? No, there w
asn’t. As Richie said, “We’re never against soldiers, we’re just against t
he war”. In the last day, what we could hear was music, what we could see was
a community. There were people swimming in the pool, enjoying drugs and feeli
ng each other. There was also children, who were just a little older than infa
nts, brought by their counter-culture parents, naked playing happily like litt
le animals, oh, I envy. No chaos, no disorder, just love and peace at Woodstoc
k.
The three-day-festival was soon come to an end. Those young people who ha
dn’t knew something about life found answers at Woodstock. Those who had dete
rmined their faith on the idea-- “Love & Peace” reinforced it.
This festival was show of rock music. It was a show to the outside world
what we were searching for. And it is also a solute to those freedom fighters,
they are: Martin Luther King Jr., Che Guevara, John F Kennedy etc.
For singers at Woodstock, they are:
Joan Baez; Joe Cocker; Country Joe McDonald; Richie Havens; Jimi Hendrix;
Jefferson Airplane; the Who etc.
The Woodstock has gone, but the idea—Love & Peace—remains in all youth’
s hearts.
--
好想振作一点点，真的好想
<img src=http://album3.chinaren.com/album/13/93/17409313/555736.gif border=0>
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