Medium Cool (1969)
“The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!”
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Synopsis: |
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Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:
Response to Peary’s Review:
In describing the movie, Peary writes that Forster’s “cocky Chicago television reporter… tries to remain detached from his stories despite their increasing political and social significance,” but “we see his social consciousness rise after he is told off by some ghetto blacks [sic] for being part of establishment media that distorts news”:
… and “after covering the Democratic Convention and the ensuing riots during which Mayor Daley’s gestapo police beat up countless protestors.”
Then, “when he learns that his network has been handing over his tapes to the FBI, he finally understands the function of the media/press and how uninvolved newsmen” — like himself — “are doing a disservice to the people.” Forster’s process of humanization is made especially apparent as he moves away from dating “a sexy bubblehead” (Marianna Hill) and falls for a “poor, kindly widow” from West Virginia,” and “befriends her son.”
As described by Peary — and documented at length in Look Out, Haskell, It’s Real: The Making of Medium Cool (2001) — “Wexler interweaves professional actors with amateurs, his fictional story with real footage of the Chicago convention”:
… “and violent police-protestor confrontations” to the extent that “at times the actors are on the scene during the rioting and Wexler takes his camera right into the fray,” to “remarkable” impact.
At the time of this writing, the film is now 55 years old and even more relevant than ever, as protests and violent clashes with police continue, and the role of the media in covering such events remains hotly debated. To that end, the historical footage Wexler managed to capture and weave together from this specific point in time is truly impressive. Unfortunately, the impressionistic storyline meanders to the point of not quite cohering, and the abrupt ending — including a fun self-referential turn — is jarring.
However, this film is far too creative, eclectic, and historically relevant for film fanatics not to check out at least once. Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:
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One thought on “Medium Cool (1969)”
A once-must, as a valuable cult item. As posted (1/4/21) in ‘Revival House of Camp * Cul;t’ (fb):
“People rarely say the real reasons for things. Big corporations never do. Just politics… plain, bureaucratic politics.”
‘Medium Cool’: Forceful and lauded when released in 1969, Haskell Wexler’s fact / fiction mix involving a news-cameraman maverick (Robert Forster) and his difficulties both with corporate media and the societal heat of 1968 in general turns out to be almost as relevant as ever. The film’s concerns are still with us: pointless war, ineffectual politics, easy access to guns, failures in the education system, police behaving badly, surveillance of Americans, blacks facing injustice, money dictating what makes the news, and the media remaining complicit in the sabotage of journalism (“You’re the ones who distort!”) as it simultaneously aids in the government effort to keep viewers half-informed or in fear…. only dishing out crumbs of hope.
As DP, Wexler had recently won an Oscar for ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ and was also responsible for helping ‘In the Heat of the Night’ in becoming an award-winning hit – so I’m guessing that, as a result, he may have had the cachet to make this essentially indie project for a major studio (Paramount). Wexler’s film has no room for whatever may be positive about America; instead, it has its focus on then-current unrest. Its anti-establishment view has an ending that is in line with those of other major 1969 films – i.e., ‘if….’, ‘Easy Rider’, even ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’. I would have preferred it if, in this particular film, Wexler had ultimately found a way of rising above the chaos – but he was tied to the spirit of the times.