The Weather Underground
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Movie Reviews of The Weather Underground
Movie Review: Excellent, compelling, yet quaint
Summary: 5 Stars
Ah, remember when bombers called in and told people to clear out of the building before they bombed it? Them's were the days...what a quaint idea!
Watching this documentary brought back the memories (too surreal to classify as good or bad) of that time, when I felt I had to defend these guys since they were fighting the Amerikan war machine, yet had great trouble rationalizing their methods. It was good to see how intelligent these folks are, how reflective and (somewhat)remorseful. One imagines them as arrogant and strident...which they were...but like all of us from that time, they've aged and mellowed and become, well, smarter and more humane...Without justifying what they did, the film captures the zeitgeist which drove the members of the Weather Underground to the extremes of political protest. The extra material on the DVD is great, too. After viewing it, one has to conclude that this kind of secret cell revolutionary activity is useless in fomenting revolution and destructive of the humanity of it practicioners. And what they did probably at least helped bring on the present reactionary era in American history. Yet, given that millions of people marching around for peace had done nothing to stop the Vietnam War or change anything about the political culture, one can't completely fault these people for what they did. At least they left us a lesson from which we should be able to learn and perhaps create more effective means of protest and social change. Watch it and learn!
Movie Review: Sick Fantasy Ideologists
Summary: 5 Stars
I gave this 5 stars not because I agree with them but thought at the time, and this documentary confirms my belief, that these people, like all terrorists, are sick. They engaged in what Prof. Lee Harris calls "fantasy ideology".
" . . . It is a common human weakness to wish to make more of our contribution to the world than the world is prepared to acknowledge, and it is our fantasy world that allows us to fill this gap. But normally, for most of us at least, this fantasy world stays relatively hidden. Indeed, a common criterion of our mental health is the extent to which we are able to keep our fantasies firmly under our watchful control . . . Yet clearly there are individuals for whom this control is, at best, intermittent, resulting in behavior that ranges from the merely obnoxious to the clinically psychotic. The man who insists on being taken more seriously than his advantages warrant falls into the former category; the maniac who murders an utter stranger because God - or his neighbor's dog - commanded him to do so belongs to the latter."
"Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology", By Lee Harris
http://www.policyreview.org/AUG02/harris.html
In his article, he relates a "personal recollection" of first encountering this type of fantasy while having an argument with his college roommate over how to conduct their anti-Vietnam War protest. It is somewhat long, but worth the read.
Movie Review: underground with the weatherpeople
Summary: 5 Stars
This film changed my view about a the weathermen and women, and it moved me deeply. You come to understand why they did what they did, and if you are my age of 50, you remember your own urgent and desperate feelings of being responsible to make a difference with the war in Vietnam and the horrible pain it caused for millions of innocent people. The Weathermen were part of a huge movement all over the world, and they chose the way of militant action, which was a dead end lane in many countries, especially here in Europe. Their way was special though, they had the courage to stop their plans to kill right in the beginning - after a shocking blast that killed three of themselves - and expressed their protest against the murdering war by destroying buildings, but without hurting anybody.
I was impressed and touched by the honesty and self-awareness of the 5 people of the former Weather Underground, who shared their thoughts and fears and insecurities about that decade and their actions. Dealing with your own history and impact with care and respect for the person you were, accepting different views today without discrediting your past as foolish or stupid; taking another stand in the world today without getting rid of your ideals of a better world with freedom and dignity for every living being - that's what I took with me from this film. Thank you for the good work. Annette Schiffmann in Heidelberg, Germany
Movie Review: History of Radicals Relates to Current Funk
Summary: 5 Stars
The longer I watched this documentary, the more my mind kept drifting back to my days of protest in the 60s and early 70s --picketing draft boards, marches for peace and just speaking out.
I followed Martin Luther King in his efforts and vowed to be non-violent. But it was a learning experience to see more about those who went on to some violence,although described as against property and buildings, not people
But what about today? My first thought was whether under the Patriot Act, some federal officials would be monitoring my rental of this DVD. Wow!
I would like to learn who the insurgents in Iraq are, and more about their motives. Also others described as insurgents around the world. Which ones are terrorists, and which ones perhaps patriots fighting occupation by a foreign power, or globalization?
And what can we do, what should we do in the present? What can we learn from the experience of the Weather Underground? I agree with other reviewers that the movie is rather sympathetic to the Weathermen and Weatherwomen. But it excells in having them tell a lot of their own story. If nothing else, the movie revived a lot of old direct action memories from my past, and left me wondering what to do here, now, and tomorrow to make this a better (and hopefully more peaceful) world.
Definitely see it, and see what you think.
Movie Review: window into the radical mindset and the nature of power
Summary: 5 Stars
for me, this is not a cautionary tale about "entering unwinnable wars" or a demonstration of how "important" revolutionary/anarchist activities are to our society. this is an amazing document showing the nature of radicalization. it can happen to anyone if they fall into the right mindset. any culture, or any marginalized group of any kind.... these people were college educated, middle/upper class kids. the film gives a real insight into fundamentalist thought of all kinds. when you push a group so far into the margins of society, they either submit, fall off (go crazy), or fight back. the ones that fight back not only wield the power of indiscriminent violence, but also the power of becoming "leaders" for others who feel the same way. they become the people who give "power" to others in the margins.... i would bet that the teenage suicide bombers in the middle east are not much different from these 60's radicals. its just that their socio-economic institutions are not strong enough to thwart it. their culture and religion is too deeply rooted i guess. this is a great and thought provoking film, it came on at midnight on my PBS station, and i stayed up way past my bedtime, absolutely glued to it.