If you want to see a great Chicago film, in my opinion the greatest, see “Medium Cool.” The 1969 film will be screened at the Music Box Theatre on Monday evening. There are at least 10 reasons why it’s worth viewing.
First, though, you should know that this is a masterpiece by the legendary Chicago cinematographer and filmmaker Haskell Wexler, whose work and life were by themselves remarkable. This film is the story of a tough TV news cameraman played by Robert Forster whose life intersects with a single mother (Verna Bloom) and her son who are newly arrived in Chicago from West Virginia.
The climax of the story is set against the backdrop of the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention — the events inside the International Amphitheatre and outside on the streets and parks.
Why is “Medium Cool” a must? In no particular order:
- The story mixes real events with scripted narrative. While it has recently become fashionable to dramatize in documentaries, we know when the story is being staged. Not in this film. The interweaving of real-life events is done so seamlessly that you will be floored to learn that they were not staged.
- One star of the show is a 13-year-old from Uptown with no theatrical experience. Plucked from a neighborhood of migrants from Appalachia, Harold Blankenship went on to make a career in film.
- The footage is a portrait of Chicago in 1968. That city was made of stone buildings filled with charm and devoid of all the glittering skyscrapers. The people and scenes ranging from a roller derby to a psychedelic disco and the gritty streets and alleys deliciously serve up the feel of that era. When the woman in the Outer Drive East condominium pool says she is escaping to Canada, we want to join her.
- Ominous images of the Chicago police and the Illinois National Guard portend the 1970 shooting deaths of four student protesters at Kent State University in Ohio. Today’s protesters and encampments are treated with kid gloves compared with what took place in 1968. This film will show you why.
- The eerie plotting with bookend tragedies is scriptwriting at its best.
- Every scene is rich in symbolism, allegory, double entendre and foreshadowing. If you miss them the first time, you will have to see the film again.
- Above all, it is the story of the convention. If it goes light on the disorder and political struggle inside the International Amphitheatre, it gives the chaos, mayhem and repression on the streets and in the parks their due. All the while, Eileen (Bloom) in her iconic yellow dress never leaves the frame.
- A story centered around a visual journalist (Forster) shows the historical emergence of the powerful new media tool: live coverage. The protest chant, “The whole world is watching,” came out of these Chicago streets.
- Alongside this new way of storytelling is footage of real journalists debating the ethics and implications of their professional standards. Gravitas is mixed in with action.
- The special place of the alluring funky march music of “Emotions” from the rock group Love sets an unforgettable tone from the start and then toward the end.
Many of the films that people associate with Chicago could be considered sophomoric. “Medium Cool,” then, is a master’s thesis in history, documentary, storytelling and writing, with vivid characters and scenes.
That’s why I return to this artistic triumph time and again.
Ed Bachrach is a writer in Chicago. He is co-author of “The New Chicago Way: Lessons from Other Big Cities.”
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