I saw Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock” some weeks back and it landed okay for me. It’s not top tier Lee, it’s not a powerful piece of work. It features a rather over-the-top supporting performance from Imelda Staunton that, had it been reined in a bit, could have been in the awards discussion. But on the whole (despite being too long — like most movies these days) I was taken in by its atmosphere.
I don’t hold Woodstock in any real reverential light, of course. I wasn’t there. I don’t know the impact. And I in fact find myself relieved to read some revisionist reactions to the event that have attempted to shake some of the poignancy out of the thing.
But still, Lee captured something with the film and I think it was brave to willfully ignore the concert itself and focus on the way a moment affected one guy and his family. That’s what Lee is best at, after all.
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