How Martin Scorsese contributed to the ‘Woodstock’ documentary
Since the very beginning of his career, Martin Scorsese has demonstrated an unparalleled dedication to the cinematic medium. While the Taxi Driver director receives a lot of attention for his contributions to media preservation and film culture, Scorsese has always been a soldier for cinema – going back to his early college years.
A graduate of New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, Scorsese made several fascinating short films as a student. The 1960s were pivotal for the aspiring filmmaker because the decade’s unique sociopolitical developments had a profound impact on his artistic sensibilities.
After directing his first feature-length work, Who’s That Knocking at My Door, Scorsese got the opportunity to work as an assistant director on the iconic 1970 film Woodstock. A chronicle of an important counterculture event that happened in August of 1969, Scorsese contributed to Michael Wadleigh’s documentary and worked alongside his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
Since the event attracted unprecedented crowds, the filming of the documentary became a totally unpredictable process. Although it became a critical and commercial success, the catastrophic production was enough to convince Wadleigh that he needed to take a step back from directorial responsibilities.
During an interview with Rolling Stone, cameraman Michael Chew recalled how Scorsese was shaken up by the massive spectacle: “Marty’s an excitable guy, and he just started screaming. I couldn’t hear a word of it, and I think we kind of winged the whole shoot.”
In the same interview, Cameraman Hart Perry revealed: “At one point, Marty tried to take a nap in a pup tent under the stage. He knocked over the pole, and the whole thing collapsed. He had claustrophobia and was screaming for somebody to help him. But he wasn’t Martin Scorsese yet, he was just some schmuck from Little Italy.”
Unlike Wadleigh, Scorsese powered on and became one of the most recognisable names in the film industry. In an interview with Roger Ebert, he opened up about the production: “We had 14 to 18 cameras at Woodstock. When those three days were over, we came back with 50 miles — 120 hours — of film. It took us more than two weeks just to look at the rushes.”
