Medium Cool

Showing today at Chelsea the film Medium Cool (1969);

"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 cinema vérité-style documentary filmmaking techniques, as well as for combining fictional and non-fictional content. Wikipedia

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". Wikipedia

"the film was shot at a time of great political upheaval in the United States. 1968 was a tumultuous year in the United States, and Haskell Wexler's film reflects the conflicted nature of the country at the time. Issues of race, gender, war, and political violence ran rampant. The Tet Offensive was launched; Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis in April; race riots occurred in major cities all over the country. In June, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. Distributors considered Wexler's film controversial; its receiving an 'X' rating delayed its release. In 1970 it was re-rated R. Discussing this, Wexler said: "They also objected to the language and the nudity, things which ultimately meant the film received an 'X' rating. What no one had the nerve to say was that it was a political 'X'" (Cronin, 2001). Obviously, the film struck a nerve, as it was truly a product of the times in which it was made—there was no separating the political climate of the United States and the material in the film." Wikipedia

Wikipedia also mentions that the title comes from Marshall McLuhan's work in which he described TV as a "cool" medium. The "cooler" the medium, "the more someone has to uncover and engage in the media" in order to "fill in the blanks."

Haskell Wexler is an accomplished cinematographer. His cinematic work exemplifies qualities that could be described as "photographic", and in ths sense, although the documentary/fictive elements are mixed, sometimes seamlessly and sometimes awkwardly, it is a "hot" film about cooooooool teeeeee veeeeeee!

This is Cool!