#658: WEXLER, Haskell: Medium Cool (1969)
WEXLER, Haskell (United States)
Medium Cool [1969]
Spine #658
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
It's 1968, and the whole world is watching. With the U.S. in social upheaval, famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler decided to make a film about what the hell was going on. Medium Cool, his debut feature, plunges us into the moment. With its mix of fictional storytelling and documentary technique, this depiction of the working world and romantic life of a television camerman (Robert Forster) is a visceral cinematic snapshot of the era, climaxing with an extended sequence shot right in the middle of the riots surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. An inventive commentary on the pleasures and dangers of wielding a camera, Medium Cool is as prescient a political film as Hollywood has ever produced.
110 minutes
Color
Color
Monaural
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2013
Director/Writer
Haskell Wexler was 47 when he wrote and directed Medium Cool.
The Film
The Film
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Twenty page booklet featuring an essay by film critic and programmer Thomas Beard.
Commentary
With Wexler.
Extended excerpts
From Look Out Haskell, It’s Real!, a documentary about Cronin about the making of Medium Cool, featuring interviews with Wexler; Golding; actors Bloom, Bonerz, and Forster; Chicago historian Studs Terkel; and others.
Excerpts
From Sooner or Later, Cronin’s documentary about Harold Blankenship, who plays Harold in the film.
Medium Cool Revisited
A half-hour video by Wexler about the Occupy movement’s protests against the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago.
Trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
60
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Twenty page booklet featuring an essay by film critic and programmer Thomas Beard.
Commentary
- Featuring Wexler, editorial consultant Paul Golding, and actor Hill; and
- Featuring historian Paul Cronin.
With Wexler.
Extended excerpts
From Look Out Haskell, It’s Real!, a documentary about Cronin about the making of Medium Cool, featuring interviews with Wexler; Golding; actors Bloom, Bonerz, and Forster; Chicago historian Studs Terkel; and others.
Excerpts
From Sooner or Later, Cronin’s documentary about Harold Blankenship, who plays Harold in the film.
Medium Cool Revisited
A half-hour video by Wexler about the Occupy movement’s protests against the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago.
Trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
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