Hey folks, Harry here... can't wait to see this doc and THE FOG OF WAR -- both of which seem to continually be "almost here" in Austin. I've seen the trailer for FOG OF WAR so many times now that it is pissing me off because it is so good, that it makes the wait painful. Now Beaks comes along with THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND and now I'm anxiously awaiting this. At SXSW this year I'm quite anxious for the Doc selection... mainly I'm curious to see BUSH'S BRAIN a doc on Karl Rove the well publicized puppeteer behind the Bush White House. His appearances in JOURNEYS WITH GEORGE is pretty insightful as to his character, but a full doc on him is quite warranted. Btw, that doc - is pretty insightful into what George is like when he's not behind podiums, but in schmoozing mode - if you like Dubya - you'll like him more... if you hate him - it'll make you think of neighbors' comments after discovering they live next to a serial killer, "He was such a nice quiet boy..." The doc doesn't take sides, rather it leaves it to you. Alright, enough of that, onto Beaks...
THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND (d. Sam Green and Bill Siegel)
The prevailing pop-cultural wisdom holds that the idealistic, war protesting, “Peace-Love-Dope” ethic of the 1960’s crash landed in the front row of the Rolling Stones’ free concert at the Altamont Speedway, where a day’s worth of bad vibes ended with the Hell’s Angels murdering a gun brandishing spectator. What followed was a decade-long downslide of disillusionment and disco, until morning dawned in America and the hippies woke up to find themselves metamorphosed into hideous, suburb dwelling, BIG CHILL soundtrack listening creatures known as “Reagan Democrats”.
That is, of course, a gloss, but most of these soon-to-be-Social-Security-drainers were too snowblind in the 70’s to offer up an adequate explanation as to what alien being sapped them of their righteous indignation. Luckily, we’ve got documentarians Sam Green and Bill Siegel to fill in the blanks with their absorbing, Oscar-nominated THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, which charts the rise and gradual surrender of the titular radical organization that turned to violent resistance as an impatient and fundamentally contradictory reaction to the ongoing slaughter of the Vietnam War. Though the film premiered over a year ago at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, it has yet to be screened theatrically outside of New York City (where it’s currently playing at the Village East Cinemas) and Los Angeles (where, according to Moviefone, it’ll allegedly turn up this weekend at the Laemmle Fairfax). And while it may not be as salacious as the deservedly praised CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS, or as confrontational as THE FOG OF WAR, it certainly deserves a much wider audience, as it’s a terribly relevant, mostly objective pondering of how, as ex-Weatherman Brian Flanagan is fond of saying, one can perpetrate some truly horrific acts when they feel they have the moral high ground.
The Weather Underground was a militant offshoot of the Students for a Democratic Society (S.D.S.), formed by the charismatic duo of Bernardine Dohrn and Mark Rudd, who tapped into their fellow subversives’ impotent rage at being unable to influence what they perceived as their country’s murderous foreign policy. Largely a collection of wealthy white college students, the Weather Underground sought to mimic the revolutionary swagger of the Black Panthers, though their early protests, particularly the 1969 “Days of Rage” event in Chicago, ended in random destruction; thus, tarnishing the group’s nascent reputation, and even drawing a harsh rebuke from the Panthers themselves, who dismissed their actions as “scatterbrained”. But it would be the murder of a young Panther, Fred Hampton, by federal agents that would galvanize the Weather Underground, driving them into hiding, and setting off their run of bombings meant to terrorize the U.S. government in response for various injustices throughout the 1970’s.
One of the film’s most fascinating passages deals with the group’s near-descent into mass murder, which was averted only when a bomb intended to kill hundreds at a Fort Dix NCO dance accidentally detonated in a Greenwich Village townhouse, killing three Weathermen. The personal pain wrought by the inadvertent devastation was thankfully sufficient to derail the reprehensible direction in which the organization was headed. Thereafter, the Underground took every precaution to avoid bloodshed, and, through sheer luck more than anything else, succeeded. Their most impressive feat, however, would be breaking counterculture titan Timothy Leary out of jail, for which they were paid $25,000 by a collection of LSD advocates.
The Weather Underground’s undoing was, of course, the end of the war, which robbed the group of a massive, unifying target against which they could direct their anger. As a result, members worn out from years of seclusion began to turn themselves in. The organization’s death knell would be the decade ending surrender of Rudd, Dohrn, and her husband Bill Ayers.
What makes THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND so compelling is its warts-and-all depiction of curdled idealism. Revolutionaries, particularly rich kids playing revolutionaries, are not normally blessed with the patience to appreciate incremental change, which explains the violent escalation of groups like the Underground, or, more recently, the Humvee burning Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the opportunistic anarchists who’ve latched onto the touring group of World Trade Organization protestors. Those latter outfits would do well to study the ultimate futility of the Weathermen, or, more disturbingly, the circular antagonism known as the “War on Terror” into which the United States has been drawn after decades of doing their part to fan the flames of unrest in the oil rich Middle East. Unless one possesses a knock-out punch, and has the willingness to use it (in the case of the U.S., that would be its nuclear deterrent), enmity will only be re-enforced and prolonged by these tit-for-tat reprisals.
Still, the problem remains: can one effect real change if they aren’t willing to die and kill for their cause? Green and Siegel poignantly illustrate this tortured inner-debate through the grown-up Rudd, who now teaches Math at a community college, and is clearly a long way from being at peace with his revolutionary past. When he confesses that the same injustices that bothered him over thirty years ago still eat away at him today, the filmmakers afford us an unsettling glimpse into the aged and subsequently deadened soul of a peacenik who indulged his own capacity for violence, and knows that it can never be fully quelled. In the end, THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND is not so much cautionary as it is disheartening, and Green and Siegel earn our respect by not pretending to have any answers.
Despite its unnerving message, though, it should be noted that THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND remains a captivating documentary, due in no small part to the filmmakers’ deft, yet unobtrusive editing. Also exceptional is the hypnotic score composed by Dave Cerf and Amy Domingues, which is enhanced by well-selected songs from folks like Gil-Scott Heron. Hopefully, the picture’s Oscar attention will ensure that a wider audience will be able to appreciate this thought provoking documentary.
Faithfully submitted,
