The best documentary award became part of the Oscars in 1942, and the list of winners is quite impressive. In the early years of the category, the State Department and various branches of the US military were regularly nominated, and even won. Over time, films critical of the government and its policies — whether the focus is on labor, nuclear war or the surveillance state — are more likely to take home the prize. At the Oscars, the documentary category may tell us more about America than anything else.
One of my favorite winners is from 1970: “Woodstock” by Michael Wadleigh (for rent on major platforms). It ran for over three hours when it was first shown; a 1994 director’s cut went to about four. The film is a document of a successful music festival in 1969 near Woodstock, NY, which in the decades since has taken on almost mythical proportions in American culture, a touchstone for boomers and everyone after.
What is clear in the film is how Woodstock was almost a disaster, logically speaking. More people showed up for the three-day festival than anyone expected. There wasn’t enough food to go around, and the entire homeless crowd was nearly fried in an electrical storm. It’s easy to imagine an outbreak of violence, or some other horrific event that would consume cultural memory. In fact, that happened a few months later, when a teenage Rolling Stones fan was stabbed and beaten to death at Altamont Speedway, an event captured by Albert and David Maysles in their 1970 film “Gimme Shelter.” (“Everything that people feared would happen (but didn’t) at Woodstock happened at Altamont,” New York Times critic Vincent Canby wrote of that film.)
“Woodstock” is a fascinating watch, as the cameras wander from the stage to the organizers’ chaotic approach to crowd management in the many ways attendees have figured out how to take care of each other. (And there was, of course, the music.) Just as the festival threatened to spiral out of control at any moment, the filming was a skin-of-the-teeth operation, with a team led by many young and relatively inexperienced who are film makers. . Maybe that’s why it ended up working.
In fact, that’s why I’m thinking about it: out of the mud holding a camera is a very young Martin Scorsese, fresh out of film school. According to cameraman Hart Perry in the a Rolling Stone article about “Woodstock,” Scorsese tried to sleep under the stage in a pup tent, knocked over the pole and got stuck in the tent. “He had claustrophobia and was screaming for someone to help him,” Chew said. “But he’s not Martin Scorsese, he’s a bastard from Little Italy.”
Scorsese, of course, became a man. This year his drama “Killers of the Flower Moon” was nominated for 10 Oscars — and one of those was for Thelma Schoonmaker, his longtime editor. He and Scorsese began their work together in 1967, with their first feature, “Who’s Knocking at My Door.” Soon after, he worked as an editor at, you guessed it, “Woodstock.” For moviegoers, the documentary’s legacy extends beyond its subject matter.
