[In lieu of actual content, for the next several weeks I will present, at least, one review of an upcoming film each week. These are scripts that I’ve been paid money to read, and many of them contain watermarking, identification numbers, password-protection, and other ways of tracking what company it was sent to; because of this and my desire to keep my job, I will not offer downloads for ANY of the scripts I review here. Don’t bother asking.]
Taking Woodstock, the upcoming Ang Lee film, seeks to capture the zeitgeist of the summer of ‘69 by focusing on a marginalized figure in the history of the Woodstock festival: Elliot Tiber, who this script claims was almost solely responsible for the festival’s happening. James Schamus’s screenplay is based on Tiber’s own book, but I don’t have a clue about the validity of his claims. Personally, I don’t care too much about historical accuracy as long as it’s not something totally ridiculous, like wearing a digital watch in a Renaissance love story. If it doesn’t distract me, I’m more interested in the characters and the story than whether or not Confederate Soldier #3 has the correct patches. Nevertheless, I figured I should point out that maybe Tiber’s — and, therfore, Schamus’s — claims might be a tad dubious, and further point out how little I care.
On to the actual script…
Schamus focuses the first act almost exclusively on the Elliot: his parents own a failing, fleabag motel; he’s the president of the small town of Bethe’ls Chamber of Commerce; he’s a failing interior designer who, after getting stiffed on a job, must leave his Manhattan apartment and closeted homosexual lifestyle; he has a large, supportive group of friends in White Lake, as well as friends throughout the city; and although he does a poor job of succeeding on his own terms, when it comes to helping others, he’s incredibly enterprising and charming.
The second act begins to move the focus away from Elliot and onto the local townspeople. The entire White Lake-Bethel area is in economic crisis, and the Chamber of Commerce has no ideas to bring in tourists. When Elliot learns of a music festival being thrown out of a nearby town, he calls the organizer and works his magic. It helps that he and the organizer grew up together in Bensonhurst (although Elliot doesn’t remember him at all). They make arrangements to pay neighboring farmer Max Yasgur a small sum for the use of some land. They also agree to pay off what the Tibers owe on their motel, as well as a hefty price for Elliot’s services. The town quickly realizes the festival will be both a burden and a cash cow, so everyone’s price — including Max’s — goes up.
Hippies flood the town just as the Tate/LaBianca murders hit the news, which throws the mostly conservative townspeople into a panic. Elliot does his best to quell their concerns, while at the same time doing his best to keep the festival organized and keeping his unpleasant Russian-immigrant mother from running off motel customers. Wave after wave of hippies pour into town, none of them planning to pay for tickets to the festival. Elliot’s distress increases, but the rest of the story will remain a mystery. Either track down a copy of the script, Tiber’s memoir, or see the movie, because I’d feel bad ruining the ending if it turns out well.
From my brief synopsis, you probably expect that this is a thoughtful, sporadically amusing dramedy about one young man’s quest to accomplish something with his life. What I left out were scores of secondary and tertiary characters populating subplots that go nowhere. As a result, I reacted to this script with a resounding “meh,” followed by a disappointed “missed opportunity.” Elliot’s story, and his interactions with his family, are the stuff of compelling drama; wacky ex-Marine transvestite security guards and tonally jarring acid-trip montages are not. Schamus overwhelms Elliot’s story with all these ambling, directionless subplots and uninteresting character moments (uninteresting only because they center on characters he never makes us care about). The end result is an unfocused disappointment.
The only thing I can assume from this wannabe-Altman script is that Schamus and Lee desperately wanted to hit on every issue — big and small — plaguing the U.S. at the time: hippies vs. squares, Vietnam, racism, homophobia, drug culture, Manson, the moon landing, Nixon, and on and on. It’s noble but unsuccessful. The appearances by characters entangled in the issues-tackling portions of the screenplay are too brief and contrived. With the exception of Elliot’s story, everything feels tangential and, frequently, devoid of conflict and dramatic momentum. They consist mainly of Elliot walking in on an awkward situation, followed by a nonplussed reaction, followed by us never seeing any of these people again. (Okay, to be fair, they usually pop up for a line or two afterward, but they’re inessential and detract from the narrative focus.) Maybe if these events had more to do with Elliot’s struggle to keep the festival plans running smoothly, they’d be a bit more engaging. Some of them do — particularly Elliot’s interactions with Yasgur — but most don’t. Merely having Elliot in the same room while wacky folks do wacky things is not enough to make these moments vital.
I have a small amount of hope for Taking Woodstock as a finished product. It boasts a large cast of talented ringers who may breathe life into the characters, giving them a sense of purpose that simply doesn’t exist on the page. Ang Lee is a fine (albeit overrated) filmmaker who may elect to insert or excise some of the more irredeemably pointless passages. The only question in my mind is Demetri Martin in the role of Elliot — he’s a funny comedian, but his recent sketch show suggests that he may not be able to carry off a role like this, at least not right out of the gate. It would be ironic if the only part of the script that works on the page…doesn’t work on the screen, while all the pointless moments distracting from the story turn into highly memorable, iconic moments.
However the movie turns out, the fact remains: Taking Woodstock’s screenplay is a shambling mess.
Posted by Stan on August 24, 2009 6:11 PM