BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Niklas Pivic Using interviews from 2001 and stock footage, the film-makers have displayed an honest account from the late 1960s where mostly white, middle-class teenagers who wanted a change in America were concerned. The Vietnam war was blazing, Fred Hampton was murdered by the police, and it all started with a bunch of youths who wanted to overturn the US government, and ended in a long time-spanning series of bombings. Really, really interesting: for one you have a Baader-Meinhof factor in this, and secondly, the really interesting reason for why most of the members of The Weather Underground were not sentenced to prison for very long. Recommendable.

Cosmoeticadotcom The film itself is a mish-mash. Not a bad film, it is not good, either. It gives little context to why these people would give up the privileges most poor people, black or white, strive for. Could it be, like many bad artists, they believe nobility is to be found in struggle? Ask anyone who's really struggled and they'll consider that view naïve, at best, and pornographic, at worst. The Weather Underground started out in 1969 as a splinter group from the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) called the Weathermen (taken from the lyrics of a Bob Dylan song: 'you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows'. They started bombing buildings as 'acts of protest', yet were ridiculed by the Black Panthers as a bunch of spoiled white kids who made things tougher for them because they were unskilled. The Weathermen were also reviled by mainstream liberal and anti-war groups as making their points of view seem unpalatable to the moderates in the nation. Ironically, they were seen basically as useful idiots by President Nixon and the Right Wing.Unlike, say ex-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, in The Fog Of War, only a few of the group seem to have gained any wisdom. Rudd states, 'I cherished my hate as a badge of moral superiority', and Flanagan seems to rightly see how close he came to being bin Laden, when he states, 'If you think that you have the moral high ground, that's a very dangerous position and you can do some really dreadful things.' A still bitter ex-SDS leader named Todd Gitlin also perfectly nails the ethical morass of the Weathermen, and much of the most radicalized Left, when he states, 'They were ready to be mass murderers, the same as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, and their grand projects for the reform of all humanity. In the face of that, ordinary life was dispensable.'As a film, there are several clever sequences of recreations, that Green recounts well in the DVD commentary, and the lack of funding for the film worked in its favor in at least one aspect. Failing to have the money for classic 1960s rock songs, the film used eerie avant-garde music, which adds to the delusion of the ideas many of the talking heads provide. Overall, the film is a so-so concoction, and the comments add little. A half hour interview with murderer David Gilbert adds little insight, save that the man still has not gotten his act together, and an art film on the terrorists adds even less insight. Overall, the bonus features are rather meager. This film breaks no new ground on the times, nor artistically, and just underscores that the folks involved in any terror movement are not good people, despite their protestations to the contrary. If only Mystery Science Theater 3000 were still around to lampoon this film there might be a good commentary available. Alack, the lack!

Lee Eisenberg I had actually never heard of the Weathermen before "The Weather Underground" came out. As I understand it, some people complained that the documentary glossed over some of their more violent activities (and some people think that that may have cost it the Best Documentary Oscar). But the way I see it, these sorts of documentaries are always going to stir up controversy, with different factions in society complaining about what they do and don't focus on.No matter. I will say that the documentary brings up important questions about when it's OK to use violence against those in power. Certainly the US government's actions in Vietnam - plus its spying on radical groups - left the people who formed the Weathermen feeling that they had no other options. And of course, it brings up questions of how far we can go today, when the Bush administration labels political opponents as terrorist enablers.So overall, I do recommend the documentary as a look at '60s radicalism (even though this is radicalism in a less than pleasant form), and also a look at government surveillance. Whether or not you agree with the Weathermen is of course up to you. As for whether or not the documentary glossed over their more violent activities, is that any different from glossing over the government's crimes?

Sinnerman A friend of mine wrote:"I have a very sparse knowledge of (The Weather Underground's) particular historical context. My interest here is more in terms of how the film was put together, what the archival footage and interviews with former Weathermen members NOW reveals to us about their sentiments, their motivations, their actions."My sentiments exactly. Like the above well put thought piece, I foresee others more eloquent than myself will lavish raves (or rants) on The Weather Underground. Love it or hate it, you decide. That said, I shall post here, my expanded take. There is an incredibly balanced portrayal of these people in The Weather Underground. Though objectivity is arguably frown upon in documentaries, this film worked for me. For it allowed me to understand the information presented (Yes, I am just as ignorant about 60s/70s American history) and it helped me in making my own conclusion. This documentary shed interesting light on its subjects. The Weathermen failed in their radical movement. However turbulent that time and place might have been, the corresponding violence initiated by this splinter group did not contribute as much to the winding down of the Vietnam War, as did the natural progression of other events. Ironically, the continual pacifistic action from "the rest" arguably effected more of a shift in that period's socio politics (albeit gradually) than these radicals could ever accomplish. One telling line from Mark Rudd, one of the movement's members said: "I cherished my hate as a badge of moral superiority" Therein lies the danger. When smart, idealistic (more often than not, good intentioned as well) individuals share this belief that they stand on a higher moral ground, that they have a greater, grander purpose in their "calling", they'd willingly go to any lengths in pursuit of their causes. As a result, as one other interviewee put it, extreme violent actions would be considered. Ordinary human lives would ultimately become dispensable. Ergo, the seeds for terrorism has been planted. Mass Murderers are borne out of this ideological conceit. This cinematic thesis also suggested the generalised "hippie" movement of the 60's/ 70's slapped the faces of the Left real hard. It torn apart the fabric of the nation. Its unachieveable idealism when intermingled with the "violent" dynamics of that turbulent period (Vietnam, Drugs, Hedonism, Multiple Assassinations of Cult of Personalities, Watergate etc) brought about disenchantment and despair. As a result, the pendulum swung and many people ran towards the Right for comfort, denial, escapism and a combination of these mixed feelings.... It gave us Olivia Newton John, Rambo, Ronald Reagan and Jane Fonda - The 80's (yikes). I am actually quite glad the film ended on an optimistic note. These arguably misguided Weathermen brought with them enormous personal baggages all these years. Yet throughout this film, they were candid about their ideology and reflective about their frailties. Contrary to our natural expectations, these "failures" did not become jaded human beings. They moved on from this checkered past. They continued living their lives. One of them even won Jeopardy (Don't ask). All in, their humanity shone through. The Weathermen fought Da Man, and lost. Their strategies might not have been better thought out. Their continuous radical activities might have played into the hands of sophisticated government spin doctors. They might have lost steam due to gradually realising their movement's futility. Yes, their follies were explored abundantly in this movie. But their thoughts and actions were guided by the confusion of those turbulent times (however ironic this last sentence might have sounded). All in, their hearts were in the right place. On the other hand, if we look beyond the talking heads and read between the lines, we would realise that the questions raised in The Weather Underground are just as relevant today. About 50000 American Soldiers died in the Vietnam War, millions more Vietnamese perished. Who holds more destructive powers? The Weathermen or their "enemy"? Who then were the mass murderers? Look at Iraq today, Afghanistan the day before and Bosnia before that. Who then are the mass murderers? In closing, I guess all should know that History is written by the victors. This cinematic document about the "losers" is hence IMO, a most important piece of work. It demands a wider audience and need be accorded higher archival priority than something as insidiously engineered and time wasting as The Fog of War. For we have much more to learn from this Oscar losing flick.