Medium Cool
| Medium Cool | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Haskell Wexler |
| Produced by | Tully Friedman Michael Philip Butler Steven North |
| Written by | Haskell Wexler |
| Starring |
Robert Forster Verna Bloom Peter Bonerz Marianna Hill Harold Blankenship |
| Music by | Mike Bloomfield |
| Cinematography | Haskell Wexler |
| Edited by | Verna Fields |
|
Production
company |
H & J
|
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $800,000 |
| Box office | $1,000,000 (rentals) |
Medium Cool is a 1969 American drama film written and directed by Haskell Wexler and starring Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill and Harold Blankenship. It takes place in Chicago in the summer of 1968. It was notable for Wexler's use of cinéma vérité-style documentary filmmaking techniques, as well as for combining fictional and non-fictional content.
In 2003, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
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.
...
Wikipedia