Medium Cool

Plot synopsis:
John Cassellis is a television news cameraman. In one of the opening scenes, a group of cameramen and journalists are discussing the ethical responsibilities within their profession: When should filming a gruesome scene end and human responsibility to try to save a life begin? As viewers we are presented with issues such as violence as spectacle, political and social discontent, extreme racism, and class divisions. The film is constantly juggling documentary footage with feature film image. Among his sources, Wexler uses footage from military training camps in Illinois for military troops preparing for planned demonstrations by students and anti-war activists during the Democratic National Convention later that summer.
Cassellis is seemingly hardened to ethical and social issues; he is more concerned with his personal life and pursuing audience-grabbing stories. Yet once Cassellis finds out that his news station has been providing the stories and information gathered by the cameramen and news journalists to the FBI, he becomes enraged. The news station creates an excuse to fire him, and Cassellis is let go. But he soon finds another job free-lancing at the Convention.
In the course of his television job Cassellis meets Eileen and her son, Harold, who had moved from West Virginia to Chicago. Eileen is a single mother whose husband according to their son is in "Vietnam." Eileen tells Cassellis that her husband is dead, but it is unclear whether she really knows that to be the case. While unemployed, Cassellis spends a lot of time with them and grows fond of them both.
The film climaxes with a scene in which Eileen is walking through rioting crowds, based on Wexler's footage of students in Chicago demonstrating during the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 1968. Her son has gone missing and she is desperately seeking Cassellis for help, but he is filming the convention. As a result, the fictional story and real-life brutality merge. The director explained that he planned his principal filming schedule to coincide with the convention, expecting that a riot would occur. The 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity resulted in a riot. A study team of the President's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders concluded (in its report Rights in Conflict) that the events "can only be called a police riot" based on massive evidence that "some policemen lost control of themselves under exceedingly provocative circumstances." Following this, Cassellis's and Eileen's paths converge in the middle of a protest, and Cassellis escorts Eileen to his car. As they drive to an undisclosed location, unaware that Harold has returned home, Cassellis accidentally crashes the car into a tree, killing Eileen and critically injuring himself. The final scene, echoing the first, is of a passing driver stopping to photograph the accident, after which he leaves the heavily damaged car behind.

Tags: historical

Review:
Absorbing, thought provoking and, above all, a unique record of an important "place & time", why "Medium Cool" still fails to gain the attention it deserves remains one of life's great mysteries.First off, it's a pretty good if somewhat disjointed story two "world-wise" middle class news reporters are sent to film the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and become unwittingly involved in its political demonstrations, the inner city problems that have precipitated them, and the lives of a single mother and her young son in this harsh, confusing and seriously under-privileged world.
Its acting, in particular from Robert Forster as the lead reporter and the 13 year old Harold Blankenship as the son, is excellent and at times so effective that it's difficult to remember you're watching a rigidly sequenced film rather than a social documentary.
Add-in its extensive live footage from the streets of Chicago as the riots develop, taken by the film's camera crew as they themselves are caught-up in a very "real" political drama, its ominous sequencing of the build up of events from a fun "day in the park" for the hippies/yippies to serious "police state" level violence, its equally chilling images of what was going on inside the Convention Hall while all of this was taking place, and the clever and disturbing scenes of the mother's desperate search for her lost son as Wexler films her within the increasingly anarchic crowds of demonstrators & troops actually on the streets at the time, and you've got something very special.Part film and part documentary, not all of what you think is "real" in "Medium Cool" is, and the lines between live and acted scenes are sometimes confusingly and frustratingly blurred, as in the famous call from one of the camera crew of "look out Haskell this is real" as a tear gas canister lands in front of them, which was in fact over-dubbed afterwards.
Fictional narrative features a Chicago TV news crew intertwined with actual news footage in and around the Democratic Convention of 1968.There is a good balance between the fiction and non-fiction elements in as much as Wexler attempts to make his point.
The fictional story line (a love story) is real enough to keep us watching and deflective enough to make the harsh realities of the non-fiction elements palatable.Attention to detail defines Medium Cool as a very personal film for Wexler.
Sure it meanders a tad, and the stylistics can date, but there's nothing else in any movie ever that compares with the climax, as the actors make their way through actual documentary footage of the 1968 Democratic convention and attendant street battles.
The lack of star names in the cast (Peter Boyle, who appears briefly, was not yet established and, even if he had debuted in John Huston's REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE [1967], lead Robert Forster's role was originally intended for John Cassavetes) certainly helps sell its inherent documentary feel.Though, understandably, most meaningful to people who witnessed these turbulent times first-hand, and Americans in particular, despite its specific time-setting - Chicago 1968 (partly shot at the actual Democrats convention site, the film proved prophetic because the script involved riots breaking out...which is what actually happened!) - many of its concerns are still very much with us!!
Fascinating therefore if slightly overlong - the subplot involving Verna Bloom and Harold Blankenship feels a bit like padding at first (and was actually what remained of a proposed film, with animal interest, about a poor country boy's adjustment to city life!)...but, ultimately, its point is made during the film's latter stages when Bloom goes to look for her missing son - creating an indelible image of a perplexed figure (incongruously dressed in a bright yellow outfit) getting embroiled in all the commotion hitting the streets at that same moment.
The tragic yet ironic ending - presented as matter-of-factly as any of the news items covered by dispassionate TV cameraman Forster - is very effective.This is certainly renowned cinematographer Wexler's most significant directorial effort; his camera-work (some of it hand-held) is simply incredible, as is Paul Golding's editing (which must have been quite a headache and, in fact, he mentions in the Audio Commentary that several scenes remained on the cutting-room floor; pity they weren't available for inclusion on the Paramount DVD - nor, apparently, were the rights to the 2001 documentary about the film, LOOK OUT HASKELL, IT'S REAL: THE MAKING OF 'MEDIUM COOL'!).
Haskell Wexler, a cinematographer by trade, practically invented the technique invented we know today as "cinema verite" with this striking drama that plays so much like a documentary, you'd never guess it was fiction without being told.
It's less a story and more a voyeuristic look into the lives of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, in this case reporters who are covering a political convention and other Chicago locals who are just minding their own business when the legendary riots break out at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.Even more groundbreaking is the approach Wexler takes in framing the film's final scenes.
No one knew exactly what would happen, making this perhaps the most creative and timely piece of "improvised" drama in the history of filmmaking up to this point.Every documentary filmmaker who chooses to make his/her film about actions and events rather than simply a bunch of talking heads owes a debt to Wexler and his creative team on "Medium Cool"..
Initially I watched this film because it was directed by Haskell Wexler whose work I admire, and I'm from Chicago and had heard it shows much of the city and the riots of 68.
This film is a mixture of documentary footage and conventional narrative.It tells the story of a tough news camera-man (Robert Forster) who falls for a young widow (Verna Bloom) and befriends her thirteen-year-old son, against the back-drop of the riots in Chicago in 1968.The film utilises both professional actors and non-professionals, to very good effect.
The main flaw in the film is that the love story is not well-handled and often quite dull, the far more interesting events are happening elsewhere.This is a deeply political work and is savagely critical of the callous and cynical media, which distorts people's perceptions of the world.Worth watching for anyone interested in the sixties, political cinema or American independent film.Great soundtrack too..
The state wasn't negotiating at this time, it was brutally sending men off to war and attacking those at home with the hired goons of the police force.It's a great movie which manages to combine fiction and non-fiction and shows us what the sixties were really like.
We hear King's immortal words which have resounded through the decades, and when Forster finally speaks, he says, "God, I love shooting on film." Medium Cool is full of moments like this, where we see or hear something that plugs into what we're truly thinking, disconcertingly enough, at times when what we're thinking seems to obviously be something else.
Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool is one of several movies of the late 1960s and '70s that's conscious of these things about movie audiences, like Seconds, Easy Rider, Mean Streets, Who's That Knocking At My Door, The Graduate, The French Connection, etc.
That's interesting too, but it's not what they are that's significant in this film; it's what they're doing there.Medium Cool is ultimately so seminal, and engaging, owing to the way Wexler braids all these components together.
"Medium Cool is an extraordinary piece of cinematic art of the cinema verite-film style by Haskell Wexler"..
I often like to watch films more than once and I recently did that with Medium Cool, which was originally released on August 27, 1969.The film was directed, written, and cinematography recorded by Haskell Wexler.
He invented and used an unforgettable cinema vérité-style documentary filmmaking technique, as well as combining fictional and non-fictional content.Medium Cool was actor Robert Forster's first film in a lead role.
Medium Cool is one of those films that shows cinematic footage of a nonfictional event in the movie - the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity.
Eileen has a 13 year old son named Harold (Harold Blankenship).Ruth (Marianna Hill) is an attractive nurse, who has a relationship with Cassellis.Medium Cool is an extraordinary piece of cinematic art of the cinema verite-film style by Haskell Wexler.
Docudrama-styled film centers on a TV-news cameraman in Chicago (Robert Forster, lean and mean while resembling a young Charles Bronson) and his love/hate relationship with his work, which is constantly being undermined by bureaucratic decision-making from network suits who aren't on the front-lines.
When he finds that the station have been giving his tapes to the FBI to help them track down suspects he quits his job and tries to go alone, leading to his involvement in the Chicago riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention.I only knew a little of this film when I came to watch it  so little in fact that I didn't know if it was a docu-drama or a documentary.
However this film is not about John Cassellis as a character in a story it is about a cameraman's conscience, it is about comment and as such it is very interesting and really captures the period while making some very good points in a very even handed manner.The film opens really well with a group of journalists discussing their role and in a way this is what the film is about.
However at times this isn't as good as much as it is interesting and the ending is far, far too obvious and lazy and does an injustice to the intelligence of what has gone before.Because the narrative is pretty weak the cast have very little to really work with and are caught up in the film (much as Wexler was caught up in real events).
On top of this film I heartedly recommend that you find and watch the 'making of' documentary called 'Watch Out Haskell it's Real!' as it really does a great job of fleshing out not only the period but also the characters and their story lines..
MEDIUM COOL is a documentary-like motion picture that contains actual footage of the Democratic National Convention and anti-war demonstrations, which occurred in Chicago in 1968.
It is an art film that plays like watching the evening news.It is exciting both formally, and culturally:  not only does it provide a lasting document of the late 1960s counter-culture in conflict with the aging, square America of the Eisenhower era, it more specifically does a fine job of representing the more general cultural conflict of rural people (here white Appalachians) thrust into the Yankee city environment.All this, and the movie is fun to watch, not some intellectualized snorefest.
The film was written and directed by cinematographer Haskell Wexler, so the emphasis, understandably, is on the look of the film, the images, and which is why the story and character development are so sadly lacking.The film centers around a local Chicago cameraman (Robert Forster) and his travails in and around the high-tension scene around the time of the 1968 Democratic Convention, but the general theme that dominates the movie (yes, friends, it's a crusty old message movie) is the way the media controls our lives by controlling what we see and how we see it.
We see Verna Bloom's character tiptoeing behind a police barricade looking for her runaway son (by the way, is a political riot normally where a 13-year-old goes for kicks?), but the introduction of a paid actor into what is essentially news footage undercuts the seriousness of what Wexler is trying to sell.
A TV news cameraman in Chicago find himself becoming personally involved in the violence that erupts around the 1968 Democratic National Convention.Roger Ebert credited Haskell Wexler with masterfully combining multiple levels of filmmaking to create a film that is "important and absorbing".
This unusual film combines fictional narrative with live footage of the turbulent 1968 Democratic convention.The movie made a splash upon first release.
Nonetheless, the sophisticated Cassellis finds Eileen's naïve simplicity appealing, and their little tour of the psychedelic nightclub reveals something of the urban counterculture flourishing at the time.I get the feeling Wexler wasn't sure how to end the quasi-narrative part of the movie, and there, I believe, he stumbles by settling for a clear contrivance.
Even as someone who was personally affected by the momentous political events of the late 1960's, I couldn't appreciate this very disjointed movie when it was released in 1969 and 47 years later I still can't figure it out.The film opens at the scene of a car crash near a freeway ramp.
At the end, I was distracted by the slow passing of a beat up Rambler with the father and his kids inside, but what the heck were they doing there at the end of the movie anyway?From the opening scene on the freeway, we are taken on a very bumpy ride that includes, in no certain order, a roller derby fight, Chicago police preparations for the massive anti-Viet Nam War demonstrations planned for the upcoming 1968 Democratic National Convention, a black cab driver who finds a large sum of money and is mistreated by police in return for his honesty, a very hostile reception by the residents of a South Side Chicago neighborhood to Casellis and his sidekick (played by none other than Peter Bonerz, the dentist from the very popular Bob Newhart Show!), the discovery by Casellis that his bosses are using his film footage to aid FBI investigations of the DNC demonstrators, his subsequent termination, a totally nude romp by Casellis and his nurse girlfriend through his apartment ("I've got neighbors!" he playfully cautions her as she screams in delight), a woman named Eilene (Verna Bloom) and her son who were transplanted from the coal mining region of West Virginia and with whom Casellis becomes involved after his relationship with the naked nurse ends, a visit to a psychedelic nightclub, and the arrival of the DNC itself, including the demonstrations.Did John Cassavettes withdraw from this film because he actually had a schedule conflict or because he thought that the entire project was an incomprehensible mess?
9/11/2011 is probably the wrong time to be writing a review of this ground breaking film, but it was an almost perfect time to re-watch this evocation of some of the painful events of our college years.The "cinema verité" look of this film has taken on a somewhat dated feel with the years, and Robert Forster's intense stares have not gained in stature as examples of great acting - but both still accomplish what they did originally, wrapping us up in the emotions of a world gone slightly mad, being pulled apart by generations unable to agree on how best to defend freedoms both believed they believed in.The riots - youth and police - that marked the 1968 Chicago convention (following the other party's now generally forgotten charade in Miami) were the beginning of something we are only now beginning to recover from in this country.
It is filmed with the characters of a fictional plot going into the real life riots of the 1960s Chicago Democratic Convention.
Medium Cool depicts a cynicism that is very much in line with times.Set in Chicago during the '68 Democrat National Convention, the film follows a dispassionate news cameraman and his relationship with a country woman and her son.
Haskell Wexler, one of the best cinematographers of his time, created with Medium Cool one of the best photographed films of all time.
(Some Spoilers) Straight out of the newspaper headlines from the turbulent 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention that changed the course of politics in America "Medium Cool" has become one of the most influential films to come out of the 1960's that still, some 50 years later, reverberates with audiences today.
Using actual footage of the Chicago anti Vietnam riots during the Democratic Convention as they were happening the movie has a very documentary tone to it with both Robert Forster and Vera Bloom just going with the flow of the action with out any script or direction from the film makers to follow.
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.
This got a lot of attention in its day for some of the cinema verite style filming, and letting Verna Bloom wander around through the riot of the Democratic National Convention...it can be tiresome and confusing at times, but also rather thrilling and moving.
John Cassellis, a news cameraman in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Convention, is caught up in the political and civil unrest of the times.This is an interesting early film by gifted cinematographer Wexler, which courageously attempts to mix a fictional narrative (Forster and Bloom meet and begin a romance) with real footage of the time (specifically a riot in Grant Park, near the end of the movie).