My Generation

Good documentary, lots of witty observations and visual jokes.

The film outlines the devolution of Woodstock from a somewhat commercial gathering of doped-up morons into a completely commercial gathering of doped-up morons. A sad commentary, really, on what capitalism does to culture.

Michael Lang put Woodstock I together, and it was a commercial flop, albeit a "countercultural" success. So he tries to recreate it 25 years later, with lots of gutless corporate sponsorship. It works OK.

Then, five years after that, he tries again. This time, corporations own it completely. $150.00 per ticket. $6.00 for a bottle of water. $10.00 for a burrito. Sewage on the ground. Guess what? A riot happens.

A good film, all around. Symbolic of what is happening to American culture--both high culture and pop culture--as it is crammed into Happy Meals and catalogs.

Things to watch for: Perry Farrell pontificates about money, Michael Lang grins like a dope, parking lot haggling, corporate big-wigs try to be hip, advertiser wants to create "hippie punk." A-.

This is a great look at how corporate greed has infected the music business. I really enjoyed the fact that it pointed out how Woodstock 99 was doomed from the beginning due to the over charging for such things as water and food. Also, as I said in my commentary about the original Woodstock, it was pretty much seen as the last great gathering of the hippie culture and even though it was a financial disaster, it was a cultural touchstone in the history of the world. The latter Woodstocks were nothing but a huge marketing ploy that backfired in the faces of those involved.

Film shows footage from the 1969, 1994 and 1999 Woodstocks. It documents what happened at each...what went wrong, what went right and gives insights to why the 1999 one turned into a riot. Some of the points are obvious--like, the last two were more about money and profits and peace and love (no kidding) but this is still worth seeing. There's plenty of good concert footage (although, for some reason, no song is played to completion) and some very interesting interviews with the people putting on the concert and the kids attending. Only two real complaints--the 1969 footage was shot in color but they show it here in black and white and too many of the shots are repeated over and over again. Definite highlights are Sheryl Crow, Joe Cocker and Melissa Ethridge performing.

I walked out of this documentary angry (at the end) - extremely angry in fact.

The 1969 footage was used as a way to compare and contrast the behaviour of the audience at the later show's (94 & 99.).

The inclusion of the '99 footage was almost as an afterthought and most of the film was dedicated to the financial and political machinations in setting up the 94 Festival - with a huge set of statistics being quoted.

The songs that were used from the later festivals were picked for their violent content - the only footage used that wasn't of this nature was Sheryl Crow - when the audience were asking her to flash them and Offspring telling the guys in the audience not to grope the women that were crowd surfing(and the women in the audience to grope the guys.

The riots of '99 were shown - however, little of the aftermath or reports of violence (specifically against the women) was even referred to.

And who the hell cares what Rosie Perez thinks about the youth of today.

Thanks for your distorted view of what happened.

The highlight of the piece was the girl walking us through the Vendor tent where they were selling everything ...her commentary was the highlight of an otherwise ordinary documentary.

This documentary proved that there was something behind all 3 of the Woodstock festivals that no one saw.

Sure this is a great documentary if you want to see all the differences between generations, and if you want a portrait on how to live in mud for 3 days. But the documentary has a much higher purpose to me.

It showed that there is an inside joke behind all 3 Woodstock festivals. The idea that a revolution can be marketed, people will pay for it, and it has corporate sponsorship along with promoters out to make a buck.

The footage of Perry Farrell of Porno For Pyros talking about how corporate greed is wrong, then seeing "The band wanted 500,000 for their performance" was just funny in it's own statement. Hearing all these people talk about how spiritual Woodstock is, and how everyone wants to have a good time, it's just a dream! It's not ever going to happen without someone making trying to make a profit because people are that stupid to have that belief and will always pay for that dream.

The breakdown of the festivals when it came to security gaps was something people should have taken a hint by. The fires of Woodstock 99 went to show that kids are not stupid, although they did pay 150 dollars to show up, but did not take the big screw that corporate America wanted to give them. The footage of the man at Woodstock 94 saying "we are gonna do what we want regardless" went to show that Generation X wasn't going to be told what to do when they are the paying consumer.

I thought this was a great look into the comparison of all 3 generations, the hippies, generation x, and generation "what" as I refer to this generation by. "What" meaning people don't know what the hell they are fighting for, don't know who they are, and are afraid to change the world because they don't know how to direct their angers and fears.

I highly recommend this documentary to everyone, the inside joke of Woodstock needs to be exposed and people need to see that there is no such thing but need for profit off everyones revolution.