Medium Cool (Criterion Collection) (1969)

Released in 1969 by overshadowed by Easy Rider (which despite being a bit more flashy in technique is actually a far more conventional film), Medium Cool is one of the few "counterculture" films of the '60s to actually remain relavent. The first film to be directed by famed cameraman Haskell Wexler, Medium Cool is the story of 1968, a panoramic view of a near revolution. Cleverly, Wexler tells his story through two outsiders -a detached newsman (Robert Forster) and the country widow that he romances (well played by Verna Bloom who should have become a star as a result of her sweetly realistic and appealing performance). Though the film is clearly on the side of the counterculture, the use of these two outsiders allows Medium Cool to retain an objectivity that seems to be missing from most other films of the period. Instead of simply worshipping the trends of the time, Wexler was actually at the apocalyptic events seen in the film. When Forster and Bloom find themselves lost in the chaotic rioting of that year's Democratic convention, the scenes are riveting because they were actually filmed during the actual riots. This is the rare protest film where, instead of seeing wealthy Hollywoodites playing their idealized versions of the times, you are actually seeing the events as they unfold. For someone like myself who was born on the tail end of the Viet Nam War, seeing that footage and realizing how close to collapse society actually was in 1968 is truly an eye opening experience.

Much of the film, of course, is improvised. Improv is often a frightening word when it comes to film making. It seems to be a talent that a lot more people believe they have than actually do. However, Medium Cool is one of the few films I've ever seen where the improvised sequences come off not as self-indulgent but actually very revealing. It helps that Wexler found some of the best improvisational actors working at that time and put them in his film. Hence, the wonderful Peter Bonerz shows up as Forster's jittery partner and the contrast between his nervousness and Forster's coldness provides for a good deal of humor (something missing from far too many protest films). A particurlar highlight is when Forster and Bonerz interview a group of Black militants. Bonerz's desperate attempts to both find an escape and come across as a good, white liberal at the same time are priceless. Other than his later role as the oily dentist on the Bob Newhart Show, Bonerz was never given another oppurtunity to show off just how truly talented he is and that's a shame.

Also giving a strong improvisational performance is Peter Boyle, making one of his first film appearances and playing one of the first of his signature "right-wing nut" roles with a blue collar accent that never condascends or gives into easy elitism (another quality that sets Medium Cool apart from other protest films).

However, the film truly belongs to the two leads and they bring a true humanity to what otherwise could have been an overly cold and clinical film. As stated before, Bloom plays a simple character without ever giving a simple performance. Her political innocence is never ridiculed or attacked and her horror at the growing violence around her is wonderfully conveyed and felt by the audience. Forster, an always underrated actor, gives one of his typically low-key performances and bravely gives an honest performance as a character that many in the audience probably won't find extremely likeable. As he would later in "Jackie Brown," Forster manages to convey his character's detachment while stll suggesting an actual, human being. As he romances Bloom and becomes attached to her young son (well-played by Harold Blankenship), Forster slowly starts to surrender his cool exterior and Forster's subtle emotional development is wonderfully conveyed. By the time of the film's apocalyptic ending, we've come to truly care about these two characters and, as a result, Medium Cool becomes more than just a film about the 1960s. It becomes a film for the ages.

Hollywood just didn't get it in the Sixties and the best they could do was turn out stuff like "Wild in the Streets." But there were two films that did capture what was going on in those days and 'Medium Cool' was one of them. The other was 'Easy Rider,' and both of them were made in spite of Hollywood and not with the help of Hollywood. One picture dealt with the political upheaval in the streets and the other dealt with the cultural revolution.

I saw 'Medium Cool' the week it opened and I probably wasn't the only one who considered it a revolution in film making and figured it would be the first of many such films that tied documentary and narrative film together, but sadly there were no more 'Medium Cool's' to follow, or no more 'Easy Rider's' either.

The Amazon review is totally uninformed in describing what happened in Chicago. The only 'riot' that happened were the police riots that repeatedly attacked the protesters and anyone else who happened to be in their way. And very few of us considered ourselves to be hippies by that time. I know because I was there and that's me on the cover of the DVD carrying a red flag. Interestingly Haskell -who I became friends with many years later -is still at it. I was marching down Hollywood Boulevard in an antiwar protest at the beginning of the Iraq war and looked up just in time to see Haskell in the crowd pointing his DVD camera at me. There was no tear gas this time, no rioting cops, and no machine guns set up on the streets. I wasn't carrying a red flag and my hair has long since turned to gray, but some some basic things never change.

This picture tells it like it was as only the world's greatest cinematographer could have done it. Amazon calls it a 'curiosity' and maybe it is, but it's also an authentic historical document executed with artistry and passion and is every bit as watchable as it was back then. I recommend it especially for this wonderful and brave new generation who are carrying on the great American tradition of dissent in these troubled times.

Buy Medium Cool (Criterion Collection) (1969) Now

"Medium Cool" is one of those magnificent wonders that creeps up on the film world, either in passing conversation or in revivals. But it still has yet to receive it's pure due, in spite of it being made over 30 years ago.

It's an accidental masterpiece. Director Haskell Wexler's original intentions were to (via filmic terms) view the various sides of the media as relating to Marshall McLuhan's famous "hot medium/cool medium" essay. In this case, he corraled a bunch of actors (some of whom were associated with the Chicago improvisational scene), gave a loose story line and filmed it around the unfolding events at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention (with a few accidental stops in Los Angeles & Washington). Wexler attempted to put the actors into the roles of television men & everyday people and, basically, leave them with their own improvisational devices. Tus, this is where "Medium Cool" develops.

Maybe upon first viewing it in 1969, the performances didn't hold up, but more than thrity years later, everyone involved (even right down to the smallest part) has to be commended. This film is more than an experiment, or even a time capsule, but a true countercultural event. This is a film that not only teaches a thing or two about the times (1968), but also serves as a great study on media and it's truths & manipulations. It's also a great acting lesson of what improvisational acting truly should be...risk-taking with a high degree of failure (and NOT the cutesy-poo clever laugh inducing theatre that it's been reduced to...more later). You want a true example of play actors facing a REAL reality situation? Well, look no further...

Robert Forster's role may seem a little wooden at first, but as the movie (and years) pass on, he did an extraordinary effort of a man who's caught between compassion for his job, the manipulation that seems so tempting and the overall wear & tear that comes with the territory. Peter Bonerz puts an an excellent improvisational performance, years before "Bob Newhart" and fresh out of Chicago improv. One scene, with the two reporters in Washington after Robert Kennedy's assassination (in a taxi) speaks pages.

But two performances really stand out: Verna Bloom & Harold Blankenship.

Verna Bloom has the least obvious role as a lower-class single mother who, with very open and impressionable eyes, takes in everything around her via Forster's world. In what seems like an innocent (and touching) supporting role turns into one of the most ballsy & daring improvisational performances ever attempted, with the mother (looking for her son) stumbles upon a growing riot in a park. Only, the riot is very much real life. Masterful performance.

Harold Blakneship as the son provides what is the most pure performance by a child actor. He doesn't mug nor try to act cute, but there's something in his soul that looks like it lived many lifetimes. It's a soulful & haunting performance that doesn't seem to be self-conscious of the camera.

Despite Paramount allowing him to film it with a very strict budget, this is truly an independent film. Risks were taken. Lives were most definitely at stake. Comments had to be made. But it's one of the finest cinematic risks ever taken and a true multi-purpose film.

This DVD not only carries a fine widescreen transfer, but contains great commentary from Wexler, Paul Golding & Marianna Hill, plus a cool theatrical trailer (with the original 'X' certificate at the end for historical purposes). Fan of this film will not be disappointed.

In late 1999, I was in a class with a Chicago-based improvisational company (which shal remain nameless). When I mentioned this film in conversation, the teacher (who was also the manager of the L.A. branch) asked what we were talking about, I told him "Medium Cool". When he had never heard of it, I was shocked and told him that any improvisational actor, from Chicago or otherwise, should make this a mandatory film for studying any kind of on-the-spot acting. I lent it to him, but when I asked for his impressions, he just found it "interesting".

I guess he wanted to make people laugh.

Read Best Reviews of Medium Cool (Criterion Collection) (1969) Here

Medium Cool is an icon and artifact of the political furnace that was the 1960's in America. The title derived from the then-popular analysis of mass media by Marshall McLuhan, it mixes the important events of the time with the lives of characters trying to live their lives and do their jobs in the midst of upheaval with an insight into electronic media.

Originally this film was supposed to be another film entirely. Instead, two-time Oscar winner Haskell Wexler and his crew, after the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, waded into the turmoil of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

There is some resulting confusion apparent in the film. Is it about the mass media, particularly television, in 20th century America and the insensitivity to human suffering it weaves? Is it about racial politics and cultural exploitation of black people? Is it about a poor Appalachian mother and child in Chicago? Is it about political intrigue, assassination and FBI spying and disruption of legitimate protest?

At times some of the acting may seem stiff or ad hoc, and sometimes the sound has a raw documentary quality about it. But some of the music apparently enhanced on DVD, particularly that provided by Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, provides a sarcastic critique of the popular culture promoted by the mainstream hype of the time. The conventional belief system was being severely challenged by assassination, the shocking realities of Chicago '68 and countercultural events like "Medium Cool".

Patience of the viewer is rewarded with Wexler's outstanding photography in an amazing cinema verité of the characters playing out their roles in the actual "police riot" in the streets of Chicago."This is REAL, Haskell," we hear one of his crew warn offcamera as tear gas is discharged in front of them. There is also some footage of the poor people's march and encampment in Washington D.C., with the TV crew squishing around in the mud in rubber boots as if on some expedition.

The DVD is excellent. The technical perfection and poetic composition of Wexler's cinematography comes through from a flawless print. The commentary available with Wexler, actress Mariana Hill and Paul Golding interviewed in 2001 greatly enriches the viewer's understanding of the making of the film and its subtle touches.

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I saw "Medium Cool" shortly after I had been drafted in 1969 in San Antonio where I was going through basic training for conscientious objectors. I was so blown away by this film I sat through it a second time (you could do that in those days) to try to take it all in. The mixture of documentary style direction with actors playing characters was a new idea, but to put them into an explosive (& eventually exploding) situation was a stroke of cinematic genius by Wexler. The movie also received an "X" rating for a scene you could probably show during family viewing hours on TV these days.

The thing that still stands out in my mind after all these years is Robert Forster's characterization of the news cameraman. Working in this "cool" medium, he stays detached from the people he films almost to the point of inhumanity. In the opening scene, Forster and sound man Peter Bonerz come upon a crash on an expressway, the car against a wall with its horn blowing continuously and a bleeding woman lying on the ground next to the open passenger's door. They procede to start filming the scene, but Bonerz compains that the horn is wiping out all other sound he might get. Forster goes to the open (from the crash) hood of the car & yanks out the horn wires. They then continue filming the scene without ever considering calling for help for the injured woman on the ground until they're finished. You begin to wonder who are these guys who callously put getting the story, which they would have gotten anyway, ahead of helping someone who's been injured.

Two other scenes come to mind which give insight into Forster's character. In one scene with girlfriend Marianna Hill, she challenges him by asking him about a scene from the movie "Mondo Cane". This scene involved tortoises on a Pacific island whose sense of direction had been affected by atomic bomb tests to the point where they no longer knew how to find the ocean. She asks Forster if, after they were done filming, the cameramen might have turned the tortoises around and pointed them toward the ocean. She really wants to know what he would have done. Forster replies, "How do I know? Those were French cameramen."

The second scene occurs when Forster is watching the mourning for the death of Martin Luther King on TV at Verna Bloom's house. His reaction to the outpouring of grief & emotion on the screen is to say, "Jesus, I love to shoot film."

Forster (& the others I've mentioned) are great in this film. And among the other points he makes with this film, Wexler reminds us that to the TV camera, our lives, joys, accomplishments and especially our sufferings are reduced to being just frames of film which may occasionally be newsworthy.

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