The Weather Underground
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Movie Reviews of The Weather Underground
Movie Review: Stormy Weather
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Weather Underground" is an interesting documentary about the less peaceful side of the peace movements of the '60s. The Weather Underground is largely forgotten,compared to the Summer of Love in '68,or the Black Panthers. They started out as starry-eyed idealists in Chicago who wanted peace,racial equality,and the end of the Vietnam War. The Weather Underground was mainly composed of privileged white students who championed the causes of the poor and minorities. They decided to be "revolutionary." This documentary walks the fine line when it comes to their seemingly admirable causes and their terrible actions.
"The Weather Underground" starts with starry-eyed idealism,but the "revolution" becomes ugly. As Todd Gitlin,a former member of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) says,they came to the point where mass murder was considered a viable option. Former Weathermen David Rudd and Brian Flanagan (the former won on Jeopardy! recently,the latter is a barkeeper) have repented of their actions. For the Weathermen,"revolution" came to mean destroying property,and perhaps lives,in the process. They went from "make love,not war" to making war on civilians. They blew up the Haymarket statue several times. While they claim they only destroyed property and spared people,they injured their victims;as a result,a judge was paralyzed from the neck down and a policeman was killed. The Weathermen thought their actions were justifiable because of the Vietnam War. The Weather Underground seriously thought bombing the Pentagon would somehow lead to peace.
The Weather Underground wanted a Communist revolution in the US. They found inspiration in Cuba. They wanted to redefine society,with slogans such as "Smash Monogamy!" (it's ironic to see Weatherman William Ayers&Bernadine Dohrn living a bourgeois family life,instead of being in a commune)
"Weather Underground" is still a relevant documentary today. Former Weathermen like Mark Rudd and Brian Flanagan have matured,soberly seeing their idealism gone profoundly wrong. Others,like William Ayers (now a professor) and Bernadine Dohrn (now leading a child&family services project),justify their actions. They reminisce glowingly about the "Days of Rage." It's genuinely chilling.
"Weather Underground" is a barometer of the '60s... and today.
Movie Review: Fascinating Insight
Summary: 4 Stars
The Weather Underground and the radical left are shown in this documentary with most of their warts covered; but every now and again the blemishes pop into view. It makes an effort to show these graying radicals as somehow noble, idealistic characters; but in the end it exposes them as the childish, misguided, aimless fools that they were. Most of them have gone from being clueless kids to clueless adults; still waiting for a world revolution that is never coming. In the end the lesson, as stated in the film, is that radical movements cannot succeed because at some point the radicals always turn on each other. The only person in this movie I admired by the time it over was Mark Rudd who admitted having trouble coming to terms with his past actions and beliefs. Three of the nine members profiled in the film are now teaching college, giving me nightmares about what they might be indoctrinating their students into.
Politics aside, the film is well shot, well edited and uses a pseudo-sixties original score which provides a good backdrop without distracting from the story that is being told. The frequent cuts into archival news footage gives a good feel for the era although it's clear that the Vietnam footage was chosen purely for its shock value. I highly recommend this film for any student trying to get a feel for the times and some insight into the radical movements of the sixties. Just make sure you pick a few more memoirs by more traditional political figures to get some real context and the other side of the story.
Movie Review: Spotlight on a Disturbing Era in History
Summary: 4 Stars
The Weather Underground were a symptom of the idealism of the 60's gone belly up. The peaceful protests and activism that was the hallmark of the 60's, in the views of the members of the Weather Underground were "ineffective" so they turned to violence and terrorism as a means to combat it and only ended up alienating people and causing destruction. That said, their history is a worthy topic, though it is more than a little unnerving to see them reminesce about the past without realizing the severity of their actions. The true voice of reason is this film, is Todd Gitlin who although still a strong liberal activist continues to condemn the Weather Underground for what they did. I can't say this film supports what they did but it tends to cast them in a more favorable light than they deserve and to see that some of them are now college professors didn't exactly thrill me. However, as a primer in how the campaign for social justice and equality in the 60's fell apart and divided into factions, this is an excellent film. There is archival footage, the most fascinating of which is a clip from Emile D'Antonio's "Underground" which captured the Weather Underground while they were still "active" and in hiding in the early 70's and brought the unwelcome attention of the FBI. That said, the "Weather Underground" whatever side one takes, might make some people take off their rose colored glasses as to some of the excesses of that era and its long term consequences.Movie Review: Chilling Account Of Chilling Times
Summary: 4 Stars
I had some vague information about the Weather Underground, but didn't really know the origins and such. This documentary is another example of missing American history that they don't teach you in schools.
For example, did you know that the Weather Underground did several bombings of major U.S. landmarks? Did you know that they broke Timothy Leary out of prison? Also were you aware that the US intelligence community waged an illegal war against dissident groups in our own back yard? (This I knew)
Well this is a must watch, especially since the late 60s and early 70s mirror our current situation. I though this was a great documentary that chronologically told the story of the radicals. More the most part, the narrative is entirely from former members themselves. I feel overall it was objective but I'm sure some changes were made for whatever reasons. Still this film is very good and I highly recommend.
They interview many members including David Gilbert, who is currently incarcerated for activities after the Weather days. There is a great short film the filmmakers made 5 years earlier that consists of a short interview with Gilbert from prison. That is definitely worth your time.
Skip the Hollywood crap and buy this!
Movie Review: "When you feel you have right on your side, you can do some horrific things"
Summary: 4 Stars
This is an interesting and well-made documentary that tracks the evolution of "The Weather Underground", a late 60s and early 70s USA radical movement that used violent means in order to fight against a government its members didn t believe in.
According to some, their struggle was "like a children's crusade gone mad". I completely agree, but I think that the strongest point of this documentary is the way in which it highlights the reasons why an student living in that period might have felt attracted to the kind of distorted political activism that "The Weather Underground" proposed.
In that sense, this film includes not only footage from that epoch, providing a good historical context, but also more recent interviews with former members of this movement, that give their retrospective opinions on what happened. A few would do exactly the same thing again, while others regret their deeds, saying that their intentions were good but their means weren t. One of them sums things up in what I think should be the tagline of this documentary: "When you feel you have right on your side, you can do some horrific things".
Highly recommended....
Belen Alcat