Underplayed Gems

Medium Cool (1969)

Medium Cool poster
Directed by
Haskell Wexler
Genre
documentary film, drama film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 51m
Rated
R
Rating
6.7 of 10 from 85 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

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How it feels

A TV news cameraman in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention becomes entangled in the chaos of protests and police violence. The film blends scripted drama with real footage of the riots.

grittydocumentary-styleimmersiveunsettlingrawpolitically chargedexperimental

What happens

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. The movie was met with widespread acclaim from numerous critics, including Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel of Siskel & Ebert, both calling the movie a "well-crafted masterpiece." The movie was also named one of the greatest movies of 1969, as well as one of the most influential movies in the New Hollywood movement. Robert Forster was also met with universal acclaim for his performance. 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". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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