Medium Cool (1969)

Wonderful character development!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Simply Put...The Title is a Reference to Marshall Mcluhan's Philosophical, Ground Breaking Book and Theory…"Understanding Media" (1964), and a Companion Piece "The Medium is the Message". Television, for Example is a "Cool" Medium and The Printed Word "Hot". Based on the Amount of "Thinking" or "Work" one has to put into the "Message" being Communicated, not to mention the Texture or Form used to Present it.This much Talked About, but Previously Rarely Seen (it is out now on Blu-ray from Criterion) Film was and is a Significant Piece of Art that Bridges the World of the Real and a Surreal World and Creates a Masterpiece of "Cinema-Verite" "Documenting" a Time and Place of such Cultural, Political, and National Zeitgeist that it is Really "Miraculous" that Cinematographer, and First Time Director, Haxell Wexler seems to have been "Blessed" for being in the Right Place at the Right Time.Choosing to Mix "Real Documentary Footage" and Dramatic Recreations of Real Events and Adding a Love Story about a TV Cameraman that is so Immersed in a Chaotic Collision of Gigantic Proportion, that He can not help but be Transformed, and Enlightened to just how much "The Whole World is Watching" what is taking place on the Streets and on TV Screens Everywhere.Robert Forster and Verna Bloom are Memorable and the Film Itself can not be Forgotten both Literally and Figuratively. It really is Art that is Important.Wexler also does not have the "Luxury" of Hindsight, Reflection, or History when He put together this Powerful Film as it was Released barely a Year after the Climactic Events of the Movie took Place.A Must See for Cultural and all Historians.

One of the craziest and most tension-filled time in America was during the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. After all, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy had just been killed, racial tensions were at an all-time high, folks were angry about Vietnam and people were simply scared. So, it's surprising that so few films actually deal with this in any way...and this is why I wanted to see "Medium Cool". Too bad the film was ponderous when is clearly should have been exciting.The story is an odd one. In some ways, it looks like a documentary film where a film crew follows a reporter (Robert Forrester) during the course of him doing his job. And, as the film unfurls, you see the crazy events of the day as they take place. This documentary approach is heightened by most of the folks in the picture, as they are non-actors. But other moments seem more staged (such as the fun sex scene that originally earned the film an X rating) and often they are a bit dull. Overall, the picture desperately looks like it was done by a first-time filmmaker--complete with sub-par camera work, poor pacing and a semi-professional look to it. For the life of me, I cannot see why this film has been so well received.

The Criterion Collection has brought out a remastered, stunning 'Medium Cool'. America's answer to 'Cinema Verite'. Haskell Wexler's film could have been made yesterday, given the conditions in the US today. Although the technology of filming has changed drastically. In fact, given the success of 'Tangerine', it is easy to envision 'Medium Cool' shot exclusively on a Smartphone. Gone are the 40 pound cameras, the heavy television cameras set up at conventions, the one way voice boxes and the like. As Marshall McCluhan, the high priest and theorist of communication, posited: 'the medium is the message'. And Wexler took this guru's words to heart. We're in Chicago on the eve and during the infamous 1968 Democratic Convention. The story is half fiction half cinema truth, of a fun loving news photographer whose passion is the story and getting it right. Through his camera, we travel through the racial, economic and political stress and high drama of the times. (For good reporting, see Norman Mailer's 'Miami and the Siege of Chicago'). The 'hero' John Cassellis is shocked that his footage has been handed over by his employer to the FBI. So what else is new today? In scenes with blacks militants he is accused of being an undercover FBI agent, and they knew what they were talking about, for until then he was clueless. The world of the poor whites from the coal mines of West Virginia, the banter in the newsroom about the role of journalism. The spirit of the turbulent 60s has run out of steam but in some eddies here and there of on the fringe reporters, social media and streamed dailies or weeklies. And yet, documentaries are making a comeback, and showing the grim side of life and some moments of good works. Episodic as the film is, it is worth seeing, to see how everything old is new again

A news cameraman from Chicago and a single mother from West Virginia. What are the chances of these two meeting and having a relationship? It happens in this movie and what's more, it happens in the midst of intense social and political turmoil. This movie captures the intensity of the political turbulence that surrounded the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. It conveys the anger of the protesters and their suppression by the police and the military. Indeed, this movie dramatizes the power of the government and what can happen when the government decides to assert its power. Robert Forster and Verna Bloom give incredibly strong performances as the two people who unwittingly get caught up in the maelstrom of the protests.