Taking Woodstock

Taking Woodstock is set in 1969 and centres on Elliot Teichberg, a New York interior designer who returns to his parents' failing motel in a small town in upstate New York. With the family business deep in debt, he learns that a neighbouring town has withdrawn permission for a planned hippie music festival. Seeing a chance to bring custom to the motel, he contacts the organisers and offers the motel as a base, along with a nearby field owned by a local farmer. Half a million people then converge on White Lake, and Elliot is caught up in the event that becomes the Woodstock festival.

Ang Lee directed and produced, working from a screenplay by James Schamus; the two had collaborated before. The film is the eleventh of the fourteen Lee has directed, following Lust, Caution and preceding Life of Pi. Demetri Martin plays Elliot, with Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman as his parents, Jonathan Groff as promoter Michael Lang, Eugene Levy as farmer Max Yasgur and Emile Hirsch as Billy.

Released in August 2009, the film runs 120 minutes and was made for about 30 million US dollars, against a worldwide box office of roughly 10 million. On IMDb it holds 6.7/10 from around 31,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.2/10 from 489 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 5.7/10 from 178 reviews, placing it below both audience scores.