Post #181140 by donhonyc on Mon, Aug 22, 2005 9:05 AM

Well, at this point they should just make a national holiday out of the three days in August 1969, that the Woodstock festival took place. I am bringing this up because of the hideous and sometimes laughable presentation of the 1970 documentary 'Woodstock' that VH1 Classic has been showing over the past couple of days as part of their 'Movies That Rock' series.

Hideous because of their choice to show the 'pan and scan' version that was sized to fit TV screens back in the day. 'Pan and Scan' was a format used to show widescreen films on television before the technology was developed to show 'letterboxed' (black space on top and bottom of the image) to replicate the way the film was shown in theaters. Letterboxing is now the standard. You see it all the time on Turner Classic Films, Fox Movie Channel, IFC, etc. 'Woodstock' was not only a widescreen film, but most of it was shown splitscreen, making it even more crucial for the audience to see the full screen. With the technology today AND the 'Woodstock' DVD that is available in the widescreen version in stores, WHY did VH1 show this film (one of the top grossers of 1970) in the old 'pan and scan' format? It's also laughable because of the way VH1 dealt with the brief nudity in parts of the film, pixelating tits and asses so they could't be visible on TV. So much for the sexual revolution!

I actually have the 'Woodstock' directors cut DVD and it is an amazing film. This time around watching it, it seemed that now more than ever 'the more things change the more the stay the same'. Alot of 'kids' in the film (all probably now in their 50s and 60s) look very similar in style to the kids today. You couldn't really say that in the 80s, could you?

Over the years I have heard alot of what I've found to be unecessary mocking of what happened back then with the youth and popular culture. Some of the mocking, actually is definitely justified, but I think there is too much emphasis on the drug use and 'spaced-out hippie' vibe. At least people, young people that is, had a sense of what was going on around them, and were willing to speak up about what they thought was wrong, and at least TRIED to make a difference no matter how idealistic other people thought it was. And even though alot of kids today may LOOK like they were in that field in '69, they certainly don't mobilize themselves like they did back then, and with all that's happening in the world today that will effect them now and in the future, you just have to say that that's a damn shame.

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2005-08-22 09:45 ]