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Demetri Martin, Dan Fogler, Imelda Staunton, Emile Hirsch, Eugene Levy ... see more see more... , Jonathan Groff , Henry Goodman , Jeffrey Dean Morgan , Adam Le Fevre , Kevin Chamberlain , Boris McGiver , Paul Dano , Kelli Garner , Clark Middleton , Christina Kirk , Sondra James , Kevin Sussman , Spadaque Volcimus , Pippa Pearthree , Andy Prosky , Gabriel Sunday , Jeremy Shamos , Liev Schreiber , Malachy Cleary , Katherine Waterston , David Wilson Barnes , Patrick Cupo , Mamie Gummer , Skylar Astin , Bette Henritze , Stephen Kunken , Will Janowitz , Louisa Krause

Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee tells the story of the Greenwich Village interior designer who inadvertently helped to spark a cultural revolution by offering the organizers of the Woodstock Mu... read more read more...sic and Arts Festival boarding at his family's Catskills motel. The year is 1969. Change is brewing in America, and the energy in Greenwich Village is palpable. Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) is working as an interior designer when he discovers that a high-profile concert has recently lost its permit from the nearby town of Wallkill, NY. Emboldened by the burgeoning gay rights movement yet still tied to tradition in the form of the family business -- a Catskills motel called the El Monaco -- Tiber phones producer Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) at Woodstock Ventures and offers boarding to the harried concert crew. Later, as the Woodstock Ventures staff begans arriving in droves, half a million concertgoers make their way to Max Yasgur's (Eugene Levy) adjacent farm in White Lake, NJ, to witness the counterculture celebration that would ultimately make history as one of the greatest events in the annals of rock & roll. Imelda Staunton, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, and Paul Dano co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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47% liked it

251,803 ratings

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48% liked it

178 critics

R, 2 hr. 1 min.

Directed by: Ang Lee

Release Date: August 28, 2009

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DVD Release Date: December 15, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (4,608)

  • TheDudeLebowski65
    March 17, 2013
    TheDudeLebowski65
    Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock is based on the true story of Elliot Teichberg, one of the organizers of the Woodstock festival. Considering the legendary festival in music history, you'd expect something great right. The result is a good film that could have been done better. The fi... read morelm is entertaining with a good cast of varied talent and it's actually quite awesome to see such an iconic moment in music history come to life. This is a stunning look at what went behind the scenes about how Teichberg organized this incredible festival. I really loved the film, and though it's far from perfect, it's a must see movie for those who enjoy a fine comedy drama film that is based on real events. The story is good and the film has spirit and manages to overcome its imperfections by its good cast, its story and effective directing from Ang Lee. Lee manages to convey a good experience with this outing, and it is an entertaining drama that relies on a true story to captivate the viewer. At times though, the film does become a bit too preachy and tiresome. Luckily it does pick up in a few areas and there are plenty of good comedy bits with the drama and the film gives us a taste of what it was like during that time. Taking Woodstock is a film that could have been done better, but it nonetheless is a memorable comedic drama that relies on a good story and effective cast to overcome its shortcomings. Ang Lee, who I'm not too much of a fan, give the film soul and it ends up being a fun experience.
  • emilkakko
    October 20, 2012
    emilkakko
    Ang Lee is interesting and very talented director. He is certainly one of the world's most original voices in cinema these days and his films are always interesting to watch. Sometimes he succeeds like with his The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or spectacular and unde... read morerrated Hulk and sometimes he just fails like with his overrated Brokeback Mountain or Lust, Caution. He has managed to create a strong voice as a director and visual language of his own which is eident in all of his films.
    Taking Woodtock is mostly missed opportunity and as a character based drama it is surprisingly out of of focus to be Lee's film. Director Lee's strong side has always been his talent with characters and actors but here he has too many characters who are nothing but badly written caricatures. Especially Imelda Staunton and Emile Hirsch are so over the top that their characters feels something out from a comic books than a film.
    Lee also fails with his presentation of the year 1969 and some of the moments and costumes are like from That 70's Show. It is was also a bad decision to use similiar split screen that worked with in his Hulk. All the split creen mayhem does not work in a film like this and is only pointless and distracting.
    With unbalanced screenplay by James Schamus there is not that much to do and while Lee at times succeeds to give us some nice comedic moments and characters, Taking Woodstock is clearly a failure as a film. It is like a bad tribute to the era it is so very hard trying to imitate.
    The intentions here might have been good but Taking Woodstock is quite bad as a film and is far from Lee's best work.
  • fb100002359227440
    May 15, 2011
    fb100002359227440
    Taking Woodstock start interesting, but went the film begings to show the festival, Woodstock stay disagreeably sweet and presents a not so good screenplay, featuring some cliches. Don't focus really on the festival, showing just the making off. Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock is disa... read moreppointing. Rotten.
  • MrMarakai
    March 28, 2011
    MrMarakai
    I'm starting to lose count on the amount of times director Ang Lee has tackled a new genre. He's done martial arts; comic-book; thriller; romance; family drama; westerns and literary adaptation. Now? Well now, he's tackles the story of how the legendary music festival "Woodstock"... read more came to be.
    Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) discovers that a music festival near his family's motel has lost its licence. Trying to save his parents' business, he calls Woodstock Ventures and offers to help them stage the gig at a farm in White Lake. What happens after that, has now went down in history as a legendary free-spirited musical weekend.
    Anyone trying to craft a film worthy of the magic of Woodstock would have their work cut out for them, so wisely Ang Lee focuses on the outskirts of the infamous hippie festival of the 60's. Instead of focusing on the bands or what was happening on stage, we experience the effect this time had on the people off stage, through several characters - mainly Elliot and his right of passage. It's a light-hearted little film that is very slow to get going and definitely overlong. The talky first half is all about the organisation and chance encounter with promotors. This threatens to kill this whole film but when the festival gets underway, the second half is a lot stronger as the characters begin to loosen up. It sheds a bit of light on the effect this time and place had, but really there isn't a lot else happening. Maybe it would have been better had the focus been on stage. What I found most interesting was the depiction of Elliot when high on acid. Speaking from personal experience, it's the most realistic depiction of hallucinating I've seen on screen. It's not overdone but shows more the vibrancy of colours as they move and bleed into one another and the almost ocean like movement of a large crowd of people when dancing together. Wow, It took me back man.
    You would think with this depicting a defining moment in the whole 60's 'movement', it would have something more than a very lesuirely pace. However, when the drugs and music start to flow, the film flows with them. Disappointing but it has it's moments.
  • blacksheepboy
    May 19, 2010
    blacksheepboy
    Lee's film manages to capture the groovy vibe of the famous festival, although it doesn't quite develop the protagonist very well and isn't much revealing about the musical magic of Woodstock itself. The result is enjoyable yet rather underwhelming.
  • cosmo313
    March 18, 2010
    cosmo313
    I'll be honest, any movie involving the culture, arts, and music of the 60s is something I'm interested in. Shockingly enough, I've never actually seen the Woodstock concert film in its entirety, but I like the fact that this movie doesn't have any concert footage, and that it's ... read moreabout everything else that happened, and how it all happened. It's a nice and new perspective. Sure, the prerequisite montages of mud people, copious nudity, and drug trips are here, but you really honestly can't get away with excluding them.

    The movie's pacing was a slight problem, as things seemed to drag on a bit, and some of the split screen stuff seemed a tad bit annoying and unnecesary, but, otehr than that, everything else pretty much works just fine. I really liked the cast and the performances they gave. Demetri Martin did a nice job, and I'd love to see him in more movies. Imelda Staunton is a stand out as Elliot's mom, but Liev Schrieber and Emile Hirsch probably give the best and most memorable performances of the entire show.

    I liked that this film wasn't just a "hippiexploitation" movie, and that Lee really tried to tell a simple humble story about people struggling financially that ended up setting of something that a cultural and historic milestone. This is good stuff, that I reccomend seeing.
  • purplemegan
    February 6, 2010
    purplemegan
    I think this was an enjoyable movie but I don't think I'd watch it again. It was really long and I was getting a little over it by the end.
  • movieguru12
    January 20, 2010
    movieguru12
    Not worth its 2 hours.....Lets just put it at that.
  • liquidchick76
    January 18, 2010
    liquidchick76
    I really, really enjoyed this movie, a lot more than I expected. Ang Lee did such a marvelous job recreating the authenticity of everything, and at times it almost felt like I was watching a documentary. The performances of the fun and eccentric ensemble cast were all extremely... read more good, and the direction was incredible. It was so great to have a 'behind the scenes' look at the Woodstock experience, and the fact that it was a quirky beginning makes it all the more entertaining. Bonus: the film was shot almost in its entirety in a little town called New Baltimore, about 30 minutes away from my house. I could have been an extra but I bailed, and now I'm seriously kicking myself.
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    January 15, 2010
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "A Generation Began In His Backyard."

    A man working at his parents' motel in the Catskills inadvertently sets in motion the generation-defining concert in the summer of 1969.

    REVIEW

    Don't be mi... read moresled. Taking Woodstock is not a concert film. Instead, Ang Lee has crafted a nuanced tale about a handful of unlikely characters who inadvertently helped to bring about the the crowning glory of American Hippiedom: 'Woodstock-Three Days Of Peace And Music'. In the late summer of 1969, hoping to drum up business for his parents failing motel, Elliot Tiber (played by comedian, Demetri Martin) convinces a radical rock concert promoter to locate a music festival in the sleepy town of Bethel, New York. This innocuous contract sets off a chain of events which would bring nearly a half million young people to rustic Upstate New York in search of mystical communion, and, once and for all, demonstrate the legitimacy of Youth Culture (at the very least, in a marketing sense). The actual concert is never shown, because the film is only concerned with how this inept aggregation carried off the entertainment feat of the decade. Solid performances by a stellar cast make you forget the absence of the concert itself, and I was pleasantly surprised with Ang Lee's inclusion of many forgotten songs of the period, especially, "China Cat Sunflower" by The Grateful Dead, and "The Red Telephone" by Love. If you want to know the 'real' story, check out the documentary of Woodstock, but Taking Woodstock is an engaging allegory concerning the humble beginnings of what would become a defining moment for a generation.

View All Taking Woodstock Reviews

Critic Reviews

Tom Huddlestone
November 13, 2009
Tom Huddlestone, Time Out

This may be a minor movie, but it displays the hallmarks of a major talent. Full Review

Joe Baltake
September 3, 2009
Joe Baltake, Passionate Moviegoer

Ang Lee's companionable 'Taking Woodstock' is thick with sun and good cheer. Full Review

Stephen Whitty
August 28, 2009
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

Too much of Taking Woodstock seems barely sketched out. Full Review

Stephanie Zacharek
August 28, 2009
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

It's harmless enough as a snapshot of a young man's awakening to the grand possibilities of adult life, but not particularly effective at capturing the spirit, the thrill or even the mud of this cultu... Full Review

Michael Phillips
August 28, 2009
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

This is very light material, and, unusually for a Lee picture, not everybody in the ensemble appears to be acting in the same universe, let alone the same story. On the other hand: It's fun. Full Review

Mick LaSalle
August 28, 2009
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Taking Woodstock has the appeal of an inside story told from an especially good angle. But beyond that, the movie is a celebration of the way this event has gone into memory and of the meaning it has ... Full Review

Joe Neumaier
August 28, 2009
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News

It's great that Taking Woodstock doesn't trample on anything sacred, but it also never arrives anywhere interesting. Full Review

Richard and Mary Corliss
August 28, 2009
Richard and Mary Corliss, TIME Magazine

Lee's first total miscalculation, his first wholly inessential film. Full Review

Peter Howell
August 28, 2009
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Can you dig it? Maybe, if you aren't already up to your tie-dyed shorts in Woodstock memories, and if you can accept that there's relatively little music in this happy-go-lucky movie about history's m... Full Review

Kathleen Murphy
August 28, 2009
Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies

If this Woodstock comes off as Edenic... don't assume the movie's advertising the real thing. Think of it as Ang Lee taking a vacation from too much reality. Full Review

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Taking Woodstock Trivia

  • Most of the exteriors in the Bill Murray comedy "Groundhog Day" were filmed in Woodstock, Illinois, but the film is SUPPOSED to be taking place in what state?  Answer »
  • What was Elliot working as before he had to move back home in 'Taking Woodstock.'  Answer »
  • Billy: I remember this hill. Elliot Tiber: Like "remember" remember or "Vietnam flashback" remember? What film?  Answer »
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