Taking Woodstock
The inaugural Woodstock Music and Art Fair took place in August 1969 (Roughton 83). It comprised a music and art festival that attracted numerous people and was the subject of Taking Woodstock, a 2009 film. The film is largely adapted from the book, “Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, A Concert, and A Life” (Roughton 84). Taking Woodstock was screened during the Cannes Film Festival in August 2009. This paper reflects on Taking Woodstock as well as the dynamic relationship it has with the film Brokeback Mountain.
Taking Woodstock is widely based on the real-life experiences of Elliot Tiber and his parents who live in a dilapidated house in New York (Roughton 65). The Hippie Theatre Troop hired the house where Elliot and his parents lived in, but they were unable to pay the rent on time. However, Elliot managed to convince the property managers to allow the family to live in the resort until the end of the summer (Smith 171). Elliot wanted to hold a music carnival and had already acquired a license from the local authorities (Roughton 87). When he learned that the planners of the Woodstock Festival were no longer allowed to access the grounds they had hired, he teamed up with them, and they rented a nearby farmland for about seventy-five thousand dollars. In the course of the film, Elliot struggles to resolve his personal issues as well as to gain acceptance from his family members (Smith 172).
Taking Woodstock is a film that showcases the behaviours and attitudes that were reminiscent of the youth in the 1960s, which were widely characterized by genuine interactions and positive moments in spite of the fact that the experiences that individuals encounter are unrelated (Roughton 88). The dominant focus of the film is to recreate the events that surrounded the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969 (Smith 173). The movie is not music themed, although the producers focus heavily on the efforts that went into the preparation of the three-day event.
Elliot’s nativity was comparable to the willful ignorance of the young people in the 1960s. Such a status was even encouraged among young people at the time (Smith 174). The young people at the time, personified by Elliot, were exploring themselves, their friends and their environments (Roughton 91). The gullibility of the youth in the 1960s was responsible for the unquestioning trust of strangers. For example, Elliot does not need a lot of convincing for him to join the strangers in experimenting with lysergic acid (Smith, 175).
Brokeback Mountain is another movie that was set in the 1960s and adapted from a book written in 1997. Unlike Taking Woodstock, Brokeback Mountain is organised and has a particular story line as well as well-defined themes. Furthermore, Brokeback Mountain is set at a time when the society has mixed feelings concerning homosexuality, which is a major theme in the movie. There is an element of debauchery in the scenes where Jack looks for solace in male prostitutes, especially when Ennis refuses to live and get intimate with him. Moreover, Brokeback Mountain is deliberately and carefully produced to provide entertainment unlike Taking Woodstock, which appears to have been produced for primarily for nostalgic purposes (Roughton, 92). In fact, the Brokeback Mountain storyline flows seamlessly and is more enjoyable than the Taking Woodstock narrative.
Works Cited
Roughton, Ralph. "The significance of Brokeback Mountain." Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health 18.1 (2014): 83-94.
Smith, Philip. "Becoming iconic: the cases of Woodstock and Bayreuth."Iconic Power. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2012. 171-183.
