Medium Cool

For the record label, seeMedium Cool Records.

Medium Cool
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Haskell Wexler
Written by	Haskell Wexler
Produced by	Tully Friedman Haskell Wexler Jerrold Wexler
Starring	Robert Forster Verna Bloom Peter Bonerz Marianna Hill Harold Blankenship
Cinematography	Haskell Wexler
Edited by	Verna Fields
Music by	Mike Bloomfield
Production company	H & J Pictures
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 27, 1969(1969-08-27)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$800,000
Box office	$5.5 million(rentals)

Medium Coolis a 1969 Americandrama filmwritten and directed byHaskell Wexlerand starringRobert Forster,Verna Bloom,Peter Bonerz,Marianna Hilland Harold Blankenship. It takes place inChicagoin the summer of 1968. It was notable for Wexler's use ofcinéma vérité-styledocumentaryfilmmaking techniques, as well as for combining fictional and non-fictional content.

The movie was met with widespread acclaim from numerous critics, includingRoger EbertandGene SiskelofSiskel & 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 theNew Hollywoodmovement. Robert Forster was also met with universal acclaim for his performance.

In 2003, the film was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registryby theLibrary of Congressas being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

John Cassellis is a television news cameraman. He and his sound recorder dispassionately film images of car accidents rather than help the victims. 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 theFBI,he becomes enraged. The news station creates an excuse to fire him, but he soon finds another job free-lancing at theDemocratic National Convention.

In the course of his television job, Cassellis meets Eileen, a single mother, and her son, Harold, who have moved fromWest VirginiatoChicago.Harold tells a woman canvassing the neighborhood that his father, Buddy, is "atVietnam",but later tells Cassellis that he just took off one day and never came back. Eileen tells Cassellis that" Buddy is dead. "Cassellis grows fond of them both, mother and son.

When Harold goes missing, Eileen goes to the site of the convention to ask Cassellis for help. She finds herself in the midst of theriots.After witnessing acts of police brutality, Eileen finds Cassellis. 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. A passing driver stops to photograph the accident, after which he leaves the heavily damaged car behind.

Cast

• Robert Forsteras John Cassellis
• Verna Bloomas Eileen
• Peter Bonerzas Gus
• Marianna Hillas Ruth
• Harold Blankenship as Harold
• Charles Geary as Harold's father
• Sid McCoy as Frank Baker
• Christine Bergstrom as Dede
• Peter Boyleas Gun clinic manager
• China Leeas Roller derby patron

Production

The title comes fromMarshall McLuhan's 1964 workUnderstanding Media: The Extensions of Man,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" ).The film questions the role and responsibilities of television and its newscasts.

The music in the film was assembled by guitaristMike Bloomfield(Haskell Wexler's cousin). The film features contemporary music from the earlyMothers of Inventionalbums byrock musicianFrank Zappa,as well as theLoveinstrumental "Emotions" over the opening credits and as a recurring theme. Wexler has said the scene under the opening credits with the bike messenger delivering film to the television station was inspired byJean Cocteau's filmOrpheus.

Harold Blankenship, who played the young boy Harold inMedium Cool,was tracked down by filmmaker Paul Cronin (who made the documentaryLook out Haskell, it's real) and appears in Cronin's filmSooner or Later.Blankenship named his first son after Haskell Wexler.

Marianna Hill's full nude scene wasn't planned but the actress explained, "Haskell was such a lovely man and I knew he couldn't cause me any harm. I would never have done that for anybody else, but he was so interested in getting to the truth of a matter, and it was really his story."

Historical context

Shot at a time of great social and politicalcountercultureupheaval in the United States, Wexler's film reflects the nature of a country divided by issues of race, gender, poverty, crime and war. Such themes were touched upon by more mainstream films such asGetting StraightandThe Strawberry Statementbut Wexler's treatment was considered controversial – theMotion Picture Association of America film rating systemgave it an'X' rating.The censors "objected to the language and the nudity", Wexler said later; "What no one had the nerve to say was that it was a political 'X'".In 1970 the film was re-rated 'R'.

Critical response

Much of the critical response toMedium Coolconcentrated on the revolutionary techniques of combining fact and fiction rather than the plot of the film. In his 1969 review,Roger Ebertwrote "InMedium Cool,Wexler forges back and forth through several levels...There are fictional characters in real situations...there are real characters in fictional situations ".While Ebert did not find the plot to be particularly innovative, he acknowledged that Wexler purposely left it up to his audience to fill in the gaps of the romance and at the same time presented images of great political significance. Ultimately, Ebert credited Wexler with masterfully combining multiple levels of film making to create a film that is "important and absorbing".Ebert placed the film second on his list of the 10 best pictures of 1969.

In his 1969 review of the film forThe New York Times,Vincent Canbycredits Wexler with presenting his audience with powerful imagery through the use of documentary film techniques. He wrote thatMedium Coolwas "an angry, technically brilliant movie that uses some of the real events of last year the way other movies use real places — as backgrounds that are extensions of the fictional characters".Like Ebert, Canby pointed out that the political atmosphere of the film fills in the blanks left open by a relatively superficial plot. Canby noted the film's historical significance, "The result is a film of tremendous visual impact, a kind of cinematicGuernica,a picture of America in the process of exploding into fragmented bits of hostility, suspicion, fear and violence ".Like Ebert, Canby felt that the real significance of the film was in its capturing of a political situation rather than its conventional success through plot and character development. Canby wrote that "Medium Coolis an awkward and even pretentious movie, but... it has an importance that has nothing to do with literature ".

Film archives

A 35mmsafety printis housed at theHarvard Film Archive.

Home media

Medium Coolwas released to home video on May 21, 2013, by the Criterion Collection (under license from Paramount) as a Region 1 DVD and as a Region 1 Blu-Ray.

See also

• List of American films of 1969
• Prologue,a 1970 Canadian film that also blends cinéma vérité-style documentary and fiction, set against the Democratic National Convention

References

Bibliography

• Arthur, Paul (Summer 2002). "Medium Cool".Cineaste.Vol. 27, no. 3. pp. 45–46.
• Canby, Vincent (August 28, 1969)."Real Events of '68 Seen in 'Medium Cool'".The New York Times.
• Cronin, Paul (September 2001)."Mid Summer Mavericks".Sight & Sound.pp. 24–27. Archived fromthe originalon March 24, 2008.

External links

• Medium CoolatIMDb
• Medium CoolatRotten Tomatoes
• 'Look out Haskell, it's real': The Making of Medium Cool,a 2001 documentary aboutMedium Cool
• Medium Cool: Preserving Disorderan essay by Thomas Beard at theCriterion Collection