Michael Wadleigh Movies

Woodstock: The Lost Performances is a video collection of highlights from the 120 miles of footage used to make the original 1970 film. Included here are "Work Me Lord" by Janis Joplin, "We Shall Overcome" by Joan Baez, and "Let's Go Get Stoned" by Joe Cocker. This compilation also contains performance footage from Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe McDonald, and the Band. The video was compiled and released during the 20th anniversary of Woodstock. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

This iconic musical documentary covers the three-day 1969 music festival on the property of Max Yasger's farm that symbolized the late 1960s in terms of musical, social and political ideology of the era. American audiences are introduced to Ten Years After, featuring guitar great Alvin Lee. Jimi Hendix, The Who and Joe Cocker give riveting performances. As naked flower children romp, the New York freeway is closed because of traffic congestion. Music lovers leave their cars and travel on foot only survive torrential downpours of rain, food shortages and non-stop music. Jefferson Airplane gives the wake up call with their song "Volunteers Of America." Crosby, Stills and Nash deliver a memorable performance. John Sebastian gives an impromptu set with a borrowed guitar from Tim Hardin. Santana, Sly and The Family Stone, Sha-Na-Na, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens and Joan Baez also appear. The movie did big box office business and a successful three record set sold millions of copies. The Grateful Dead, Credence Clearwater Revival and Janis Joplin performed but were not shown in the film. The Dead's Jerry Garcia recalled that it was the worst live show the band ever did, ironic for a band known for their spirited live performances. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Shot over a period of several years and shown under the alternate titles I Call First and J.R., Martin Scorsese's debut feature is an autobiographical look at the conflicted life of a young, Italian-American, Catholic man in early 1960s New York. J.R. (then-unknown Harvey Keitel) spends his days and nights hanging out with his buddies in Little Italy, going to the movies, goofing around, and looking to score with "broads." When he meets The Girl (Zina Bethune) on the Staten Island ferry, she rocks his world with a shared admiration for John Ford's The Searchers (1956). A blond WASP beauty, the girl is more sophisticated than J.R.'s parochial friends and shows him that there's more to life than the neighborhood. J.R. falls in love, yet he refuses to soil her by sleeping with her. The girl, however, reveals that she is not a virgin because of a date rape. Locked in his Catholic virgin-whore complex, J.R. is disgusted by the revelation, but, after a squalid evening with his friends, J.R. decides to do the righteous thing by forgiving and marrying her. The girl will have none of it, leaving J.R. to sort out his prejudices on his own. Originally conceived as part of a trilogy with what would become Mean Streets (1973), the black-and-white Who's That Knocking already has the acute grasp of daily life, fluid camera movements, and vivid editing of images to music (such as the slo-mo scuffle to the lilting "El Watusi") that would define Scorsese's later work. Despite a successful debut at the 1967 Chicago Film Festival, no distributor picked up the film until a soft porn distributor agreed to release it if Scorsese added a nude scene. By the time, Who's That Knocking was finally released in 1969, with J.R.'s sexy fantasy accompanied by The Doors's "The End," the loose counterculture mood had made the focus on sexual repression seem out-of-date. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

The struggle for black civil rights and the anti-war movement are paralleled in this straightforward documentary. Interviews are taken after a massive black march to protest the war in Vietnam. The majority of the citizens are against the war and question the actions of the government of the United States, forcing them to fight the increasingly unpopular war. Three black army veterans give their opinions of their experiences and hopes for the future. The trio relates that although their military experiences should translate into better jobs at home, it is an ideal that is only embraced in words and theories. A qualified airplane mechanic is forced to take a menial maintenance position in order to survive. Another states accurately that for the price of one F-4 Phantom jet, two schools could be built in the heart of the poorest section of Harlem. A trained air traffic controller is given less responsible duties in spite of his extensive training and experience. The anti-war movement definitely has taken a page from the successes of the highly organized civil rights movement. The hope for change contrasts with the current bitter realities of how things are, versus how things should be. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi