Review of Woodstock Diaries

Introduction

In one week from now, it will be 33 years since the famous Woodstock festival, which took place from 15-17 August 1969. Those that were there became part in the biggest concert ever staged, with an equally impressive line up of musicians.

This disc is a record of the build-up to the show and the three days of Woodstock itself, including a great deal of footage of the artists performing.

Video

The video comes in 1.33:1 full-frame, and isn`t particularly wonderful, with dirt and grain very evident throughout the three hour running time. The image is a little over saturated, and not very detailed, and really does show it`s age - to be honest, the quality would be mediocre if I was reviewing a VHS tape, so as we`re talking about DVD, it`s not very impressive at all.

However, having said that, in this case, the image quality take second place to the visuals, and this documentary record of Woodstock is superb - from the interviews with those involved in staging the concert to footage of the artists and the shots of the huge crowd - the filmmakers have captured the moment perfectly.

The documentary is split up into three sections of around one hour long - one for Friday, one for Saturday and one for Sunday - with each section effectively a separate program with its own sub-menu. Each day is dealt with in chronological order and together they provide a record of the historic weekend, including the traffic chaos for miles around the venue!

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital 2.0, and like the video, is not especially great, showing it`s 33 year vintage. The sound is a little muffled at times, and the volume is set a little on the low side.

Musically, the disc provide the opportunity so see a wide range of famous musicians performing in front of the massive crowd, but obviously the track listings are very limited as the whole day`s setlist is cropped down into a one hour programme.

Features

Extras include "The Woodstock Story" and band biographies, both screens of text extras, and an additional DVD-ROM band biography section.

The disc is packaged in a clear Amaray case.

Conclusion

Overall, despite the dubious picture quality and below average sound, this is a very interesting disc (and to be honest far better than I expected it to be), which provides a well presented history of the most famous rock concert of them all.

The mixture of music and documentary works very well, combining the concert, the administrative nightmare of so many people, the great time had be those in attendance and many of the other problems encountered!

In addition, there is footage of many great artists including The Who, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby Stills & Nash and many many more.

Overall, for anyone interested in Woodstock, or the bands that took part, this is well worth watching.