The end of the age

Recently the Woodstock movie has been making the rounds on VH-Classic. I had seen some clips but never actually sat down to watch the entire film. In my youth, I endured two Woodstock retro movements, first in '89 and then again in '94. Both were huge. I'm happy to say the '99 concert ended in a riot. Thankfully 2004 saw no Woodstock revival and we haven't had a Woodstock since.

In a lot of ways the 1969 film is a fascinating cultural artifact and I'm not really talking about the hippies. First look at the kids. One of the interesting thing about the mostly white audience is that no one is big. I don't mean no one is fat, though that's true, but no one is big. All the young men are average sized, usually a bit skinny. I did not see one kid who was muscled, not in the way I would think of it. Walk around today you'll see lots of men my age (42) who are large, barrel chested with meat hooks for arms and big heads. I've described myself. That's an 80's thing. We all lifted weights. The young women are skinny too, but not voluptuous and generally small chested. I did not see a tall, long limed, well endowed gal at the place.

There was a never ending cavalcade of contemporary musical acts. They say Woodstock was about the music, man, but I didn't see it. Here's a sample:

Maybe the acoustics were just terrible. Here's The Who:

They sound better than that.

I tried to follow the interviews, but they're mostly nonsensical new-age gibberish. Behold:

Listening to these young people explain what's happening and why they're there, one gets the sense that they believe this is the beginning, the dawn of the age of Aquarius. But its not. Its the end and they don't even realize it. The end has already come really, the race riots, the assassinations. Richard Nixon has been elected and the middle-brow society of squares is about to land a man on the moon.  The 1970's are right around the corner.

Here's another viewer's opinion:

Maybe that's the ultimate metaphor, Colonel Robert Neville in a post-apocalyptic wasteland watching Woodstock. 'They sure don't make pictures like that anymore.'

Nope. Eleven years later, America would elect Ronald Reagan.