Product Description

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Media Type: DVD
Artist: WOODSTOCK '99
Title: WOODSTOCK '99
Street Release Date: 03/07/2000
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP COLLECTIONS

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39352 in DVD
• Brand: WOODSTOCK '99
• Released on: 2000-03-07
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Compilation, Dolby, DVD, Explicit Lyrics, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 149 minutes

Amazon.com
For all but the most apathetic viewers, this concert souvenir is enjoyable in inverse proportion to familiarity with the real-life Woodstock '99 festival: the less you know about the hour-to-hour experiences of the audience and the event's violent denouement, the more you can enjoy the show. This 2½-hour summation, which offers one song each from 29 of the artists that appeared, can be viewed as a grab bag of funk, rock, hip-hop, and pop spanning several generations of performers, from show opener James Brown ("Sex Machine") to bad-boy rockers Limp Bizkit ("Show Me What You Got"), congregating under the would-be "brand" (as event promoters have baldly called it) first established on Yasgur's farm 30 years earlier.

The '99 edition, however, wasn't your father's Woodstock, despite the involvement of one of the original event's promoters. Moved to a decommissioned military airfield, cordoned by pricey concession and crafts stands, and designed to feed pay-per-view and cable TV (and, of course, the eventual home video version), Woodstock '99 seems far removed from the "peace, love, and music" mission of its namesake. Shooting on videotape, the production crew delivers a smoothly edited, crisply rendered concert with equally good audio resolution; if the team of directors occasionally cuts to the crowd, and to such mild (and mildly exploitative) provocations as topless female fans, dancing to the nonstop music, this is much less a cultural document than a straightforward concert video largely shorn of the drama. Given that the program's executive producers were the event's promoters, no one would reasonably expect them to 'fess up to deteriorating site sanitation or the eventual rape and riot that cast a dark shadow over the event.

With those indignities edited out, we're left with a lineup including G. Love & Special Sauce, Jamiroquai, Lit, Live, Sheryl Crow, DMX, the Offspring, Korn, Bush, Kid Rock, Everclear, Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morissette, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Everlast, Elvis Costello, Jewel, Megadeth, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others. Even with some individually lackluster turns, the sheer length of the bill is impressive--and, unlike the real event, you can fast-forward through the occasional "feel-good" interludes that try to graft some semblance of community onto the event, or such musical low points as the "feel-bad" rap-rock of Insane Clown Posse ("F* the World," an utterly pointless exercise in obscenity).

Die-hard fans of the headliners will probably want to take a peek at the stronger performances, however. But parents should be forewarned that the title carries an advisory sticker for lyric contents and those clips of less inhibited fans. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

A good time, a great tape
The name says it all, "Woodstock 99"!! We all heard about it, it was on every news channel, newspaper, MTV, etc. But most of us could not go, and many of us did not want to pay $29.95 per day for Pay-Per-View. See it now for an affordable price. The fact that you are reading this means you want it, so buy it. The tape is very professionally done (SONY MUSIC), most of the footage seems to be from Pay-Per-View (camera shots could not be any better, and the sound was flawless), and it was a very good editing job to put the highlights of three days in a 2-1/2 hour tape. It is non-stop action. Great fun. Never boring. Invite your friends for a Woodstock party, order pizza & beer, and turn up the volume. PARTY! PARTY! I liked Sheryl Crow, KORN, Kid Rock, Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morissette, Metallica, Megadeath, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and all of the topless girls. There were thousands of topless girls at the concert, and the tape captured quite a few (...too many to count). The tape has a NR rating, but deserves either a PG-14 or R rating. While there is lots of nudity, it would not be offensive to most women (I think?), it is just good fun; most of the nudity goes by quickly (guys be ready with your remote control). The ladies might like the guitarist for Red Hot Chili Peppers who performed in the nude. Something for everybody. Good music, good fun, and lots of topless girls! Everything that you expected and wanted from Woodstock for a cheap price, and in a tape that you will watch or listen to again and again. A multi-volume set of tapes of Woodstock would have been nice, but this tape does a good job of capturing the highlights and gives a good taste and feel for the event. You won't be disappointed.

Average
I didn't go to Woodstock '99, so I really can't say whether or not this program gives the full effect of what went on. I can say that this DVD is a middle-of-the-road concert experience.

The performances themselves vary greatly in music style, and there seems to be little bit for everyone. The footage isn't of great quality, as this DVD has artifacting all over the place all the time (even on the menu screens). It's not really distracting that much, as the music is the main priority here. And that said, the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix leaves much to be desired. All they've done is put the performance in the front 3 speakers and shoved the crowd to the back - it could have been mixed MUCH better than that. Also of note is that the loading time on this disc is the slowest I have ever seen - expect at least a 5 second delay between menus and a 10 second delay on start-up.

If you're looking for a variety of musical styles and performances of the late 90's, this is a good choice if you can look past it's technical shortcomings. If you're only a fan of one or two of the artists, it's really not worth it. Everything on this disc screams mediocrity.

Many great performances; superb audio and video
I dock this DVD one star only because I wanted it to be longer. Boasting some of the best-mixed live music I have ever heard with a brilliant video transfer, the WOODSTOCK '99 DVD is a must-have for any modern music aficionado. Crank this up on a powerful Dolby Digital sound system, and you'll find little reason to hassle with attending a live concert again (especially if you are "of a certain age").

The quality of the musical acts is much more even than those found in the original '69 Woodstock documentary (which, let's face it, had some pretty low lowpoints). I would give special marks to G. Love and Special Sauce, Jamiroquai, Lit, Sheryl Crow, Korn, Bush, Metallica, and Megadeth; these really sound great. The big band sound mix for James Brown and for the Brian Setzer Orchestra is perfect. Disappointments are few and far between: DMX and Kid Rock offer little, and the bloated Elvis Costello, with his unsteady, de-edged voice and all-thumbs guitar technique, isn't even a shadow of his former great self.

This kind of material is what the voluminous DVD format is meant for. It's too bad the producers didn't see fit to fill up both layers of both sides of the disk. Also, this would have been great for multi-angle viewing, another missed opportunity.

The "cultural" material between the acts consists mostly of topless women. I'll register no complaints about that, but I wish there had been more interviews similar to those which made the original '69 documentary so great. The DVD includes "supplemental material," but is is of little consequence. This is a disc you buy for the music.