Customer Reviews

The Weather Underground

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

In some ways, the group known as the Weather Underground (originally the Weathermen, an offshoot of Students for a Democratic Society) were more a symbol of 1960s radical idealism than a real revolutionary movement. Although they planted many bombs during a decade-long period, they never did anything that seriously threatened the government or power structure. Their goal, of course, was to spark a mass movement and inspire others to follow their example, but they remained essentially marginalized. The film, The Weather Underground does a good job at letting members of this group explain their motives and, in some cases, misgivings about their foray into revolution. Directors Bill Siegel and Sam Green seem to be sympathetic with the movement, and most of the material is told from the point of view of members. Leaders of the group Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers have retained their radical views and are anything but apologetic about their past actions.

Most members of the group, despite the bombings, were committed to not harming people. This brings up a rather blatant omission in the film -Kathy Boudin, perhaps the group's most notorious member (for her participation in a robbery where a man was killed) is not mentioned at all. This was an unfortunate decision, apparently done to portray the Weathermen as essentially nonviolent. To leave out such a well known chapter in the group's history leaves a gaping hole. Still, the parts that are included are fascinating and give a glimpse into the idealism and naivete of these leftist radicals.

In retrospect, it is (at least from one perspective) a little sad to see how little long term effect the 1960s counterculture had on society. It seems that they were no match for the propaganda machine of the government and mass media. This film, of course, employs propaganda methods of its own, as when brutal footage from the Vietnam war is shown. Propaganda it may be, but it does serve to almost trivialize the violence committed by the Weathermen compared with that perpetrated by the government it was opposing. The other side to this argument is that the fact that these radicals are still alive and that a film like this has been allowed to be made is proof that America is not as oppressive as some would have us believe. Yet, this is only true to some extent; as the film explains, the FBI made a concerted (and mainly illegal) effort to destroy radical movements. There is also evidence that the government murdered members of the Black Panthers.

How you react to The Weather Underground depends on your political and cultural perspective. Regardless of this, this film is a compelling study of a radical group and gives us a glimpse into their world.

At the end of the 1960's, the various student youth movements took a sharp turn toward the far left. Frustrated by their failures to halt America's involvement in the Vietnam War, a growing minority of student activist leaders whole-heartedly embraced Marxist dogma and began agitating for the overthrow of the United States government. There were a few niggling problems to attend to first, such as taking over the leadership of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which they accomplished at the 1968 SDS national convention. An interesting thing to remember about extremists regardless of their political leanings is worth mentioning at this point: radicals can't get along with one another. Views and positions take on the rigidity of absolute, immutable truth, and anyone who opposes those views is the enemy--even if they're on your side to begin with. Thus SDS almost immediately disintegrated into squabbling factions of increasing irrelevancy. The most notable group to arise from the ashes of SDS were the Weathermen, an extreme far left organization devoted to bringing about a Marxist revolution in the United States. The name of the group, as you probably know if you're reading this, came from a Bob Dylan song.

The Weathermen, later known as the Weather Underground after the members went into hiding, utterly failed to achieve any of their objectives. Their first big action occurred in Chicago when the group launched their own version of Kristalnacht, called "The Days of Rage." The Weathermen and their associates roamed through the streets of Chicago, breaking windows, fighting with cops, and generally making a huge nuisance of themselves. Surprisingly, this little action failed to rouse the citizenry from their capitalist coma, a realization that seemed to shock this merry bunch of pranksters. Angered by this failure, the Weathermen decided to take up bomb making as a hobby. What followed were years of targeted bombings against such diverse targets as corporations, government institutions, universities, and other structures serving the "enemies of the people." The Weather Underground suffered setbacks, too, like the accidental detonation of a bomb that killed radicals Ted Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins in a New York City townhouse on March 6, 1970. Still, the revolution must go on, so over the next several years the bombs continued to explode across the country as the Weather Underground continued to release written or tape recorded "communiqués" justifying their violent actions. By the early 1980s most of the members turned themselves into the authorities, exhausted from their years of living in hiding.

Why two paragraphs of tedious summary about an irrelevant political group long gone from the American landscape? Because this fascinating documentary, "The Weather Underground," covers most of this material in minute detail through a collection of vintage news reports, documents, film footage, recreations, and interviews. Made a couple of years ago and aired widely on PBS, which is where I saw part of it and wanted more, the documentary revisits many of the principal players more than two decades after the group dissolved. We get to see and hear Billy Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Mark Rudd, Naomi Jaffe, David Gilbert, Brian Flanagan, and Laura Whitehorn reminisce about their days as revolutionary fighters battling for the soul of America. Moreover, interviews with former SDS leader Todd Gitlin, former Black Panther Kathleen Cleaver, and FBI agent Don Strickland provide a different point of view on the activities of the Weather Underground. By listening to these people recount their experiences, we learn more about how angry radicals became over the murder of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, about how the group helped Timothy Leary escape from prison, and learn to marvel in awe at the massive comb over Mark Rudd sported as a young communist revolutionary.

It's not too difficult to see where the filmmakers' loyalties lie regarding the activities of the Weather Underground. Although careful not to make them look too cool, it's fairly obvious the presentation aims to present these characters as admirable figures. They placed a baseball bat in Billy Ayers's hands as he strolled down memory lane remembering the "Days of Rage" fiasco. While we could write off this stunt as sensationalism, it's more problematic to examine the questions put to the various members. Why did Kathy Boudin's name never come up in the film? Probably because Boudin, unlike many members we see here, did kill people in the name of a revolutionary cause. In the early 1980s, she joined the Black Liberation Army and took part in an armored car robbery that resulted in the deaths of two police officers and a security guard. The ghost of Boudin is apparently a problem the filmmakers wished to avoid, although I should credit them for interviewing David Gilbert, a man currently serving a life sentence for his involvement in the same crime. It just seems most of the questions don't dig too deeply into the questionable practices of the Weather revolution. Then again, maybe they don't need to; several of the former members appear as though they're having problems coming to terms with their past behavior. That's a hopeful sign.

Although I've had rough words in the past about these people and their despicable actions, I had a tough time disliking them in the film. A few of them, primarily Mark Rudd and Brian Flanagan, seem like people you could sit down with for a few hours and have an interesting conversation about any topic. The commentary track with Ayers and Dohrn is well worth a listen primarily for the realization that even stolid commies have a self-deprecating sense of humor. But you also discover that several of these people aren't quite ready to repudiate their former positions. I think it was Laura Whitehorn who said she would do it all over again if given the chance, a view that is hardly encouraging. Give this one a watch, though. It's mesmerizing.

This is a sophisticated treatment of a controversial subject, and is absolutely captivating in its presentation!! Whether you know about the zeitgeist of the 60s and 70s or not, this film will immerse you in the radical half of it. An outstanding presentation of the range of disturbing events and issues that made activists and radicals so impassioned, the film also includes such topics as Vietnam, the Black Panthers and the Cointelpro papers... This is a MUST-SEE and should be useful for college instructors and students for a long time to come!

Many documentary film-makers don't play fair. They ignore any fact or argument that doesn't support their position, and edit their footage in a way that forces you to accept their views. Their goal is not to inform, but to persuade.

Consider Michael Moore. I like his documentaries -- and I'm inclined to agree with him on the issues he's addressed (e.g., gun control, the war in Iraq, the arrogance and duplicity of the Bush administration) -- but they're far from unbiased. That's fine, of course, because he doesn't pretend to be neutral. He's an advocate who presents ideas and perspectives largely ignored by the mainstream press. His work is valuable (and often entertaining), but ultimately unsatisfying. I always leave a Micheal Moore film wondering what an informed person on the other side would have to say.

"The Weather Underground" is different. Though I'm sure the directors have strong feelings about their subject, they don't express them in the film. Instead, they present a balanced history of the Weathermen and let you form your own opinions regarding this controversial organization that endorsed the use of violence to protest the Vietnam War.

Because the directors resist every temptation to reveal (let alone impose) their personal views, people who watch the film often have wildly different reactions to it. I first saw the movie in a packed theater in Chicago. One of the interview subjects was Todd Gitlin, a former president of the SDS who was active in the anti-war movement but critical of the Weathermen. He seemed smart, sensible and thoughtful, and I found myself agreeing with most everything he said. But others in attendance actually hissed whenever he appeared on screen. I'm sure it would have been easy for the directors to make Mr. Gitlin appear either reasonable or misguided, but instead they let each viewer make his own assessment.

"The Weather Underground" is a great documentary: compelling, informative, thought-provoking, sometimes heartbreaking, and occasionally very funny. (The last scene, showing a former Weatherman where you'd never expect to see him, made me laugh out loud.) It's also worth owning, as it rewards repeated viewings.

The documentary Weather Underground is a fascinating look at the 1960s group that attempted to "bring the [Vietnam] War home" by committing bombings and other violent acts in the U.S. It is difficult to fathom why the WU genuinely believed it could overthrow the U.S. Government and replace it with a communist utopia. The film is thought provoking, but the filmmakers, unfortunately, chose not to discuss some of the worst behaviors of the WU's members.

The best part of WU, for me, was not the film's account of the WU's history; I've read several books on the group, so the history was already familiar.

What I found fascinating were the contemporary views of the former WU members. The former members have widely-differing views on whether the WU actions were justified. Some members defend the group's idealism, others concede that the WU violence was wrong. I think that it is fair to say that each former WU member still has some degree of angst about the group; none of the interviewees seems to be completely "at peace" with his or her participation in the group.

My main criticism of the film is that, while encouraging the viewer to think about SDS' actions, it does not mention many of the WU's most-shameful moments. For instance, the filmmakers fail to mention that:
a) Bernardine Dohrn lavishly praised Charles Manson and his followers for murdering "pigs" such as Sharon Tate. (Specifically, she said "Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach! Wild!").
b) Richard Elrod, an aide to Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley, was paralyzed by the injuries the WU's members inflicted on him during the WU's Days of Rage in Chicago in 1969. After Elrod's injury, the WU publication New Left Notes stated "Elrod is now paralyzed--hopefully for life. He won't be so quick to play pig next time."
c) Several WU "alumni" committed two murders during a 1981 armored-car robbery in New York. It is particularly bizarre that the filmmakers do not mention the case because they interviewed ex- WU member David Gilbert in prison for their film; the film tells the viewer that Gilbert is in prison, but never says why.
To be fair, the film does include several comments from Todd Gitlin (a former President of SDS, the group that spawned the WU) on the arrogance and ignorance of many WU members.

I still think that this film is well worth watching, providing viewers keep in mind that (as always) they are hearing and seeing only certain facets of the story. My wife and I watched the film together and we both found that the film caused us to think about the issues it raised long after we finished watching it. Whatever your politics, Weather Underground will make you think.

Something of a `Where are they now?' documentary profiling members of the radical group the Weather Underground three decades on. A splinter group of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society,) the Weatherman, as one interviewee notes, `stole' the student left from SDS at an acrimonious convention held in the late 1960s. Affirming an affinity with liberation movements across the globe - revolution was `in' back then, - identifying strongly with the Black Panthers, and in violent opposition to the Vietnam War, the Weathermen preached active resistance against America's `white imperialist' actions at home and abroad.

Although director Bill Siegel must have sympathized with the subject, the graying radicals, neither the film nor his commentary track betrays an overbearing bias. The film moves, sometimes confusingly, from the SDS convention to the Days of Rage in Chicago in 1969, the Weathermen's first public protest that degenerated into a bat-wielding riot. Then it's on to a townhouse bombing where three Weathermen were killed when a bomb they were building to use at a military dance exploded prematurely. More bombing followed the townhouse bombing, although the ex-members, who went underground at that point, stress often that the bombings were symbolic actions only. No one was killed, they claim, and targets were carefully chosen. Police stations when a Black Panther was killed, State Department buildings in response to atrocities in Vietnam. Siegel strings together archive film, old newscasts, and the like to tell the story. Interspersed are talking-head interviews with surviving Weather Underground members. Visually it's all a little static. I've watched this film three times in the last week or so. There are two commentary tracks, one with director Siegel, the other with original Weather Underground members Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. I don't think it could have been cut much better, but with so many talking heads and footage shot from the inside of a moving car at an anonymous landscape, well, the eye starts to starve a bit.

THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND confronts us with an issue that is still with us and probably always will be. What are your responsibilities when confronted with what you believe is injustice? Is, as one ex-member asks at one point in the movie, doing nothing in the face of violence an act of violence itself? The brilliant thing about this movie is that it is open to many valid responses - you can view the Weathermen as committed idealists willing to risk their lives for social justice, or young, white children of privilege intoxicated with their own sense of moral righteousness and willing to bomb themselves, along with the whole anti-war movement, to the margins with their outrageous behavior. Some documentaries invite you to stroll down Memory Lane. THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND marches you through a nightmare battleground. The questions it raises about social action and responsibility are as valid now as they were thirty plus years ago.

This is a gem of a film. For a time period and group I knew little about, this film was a concise exploration of the whole movement. What is really interesting is seeing what has happened to these people over the years. Interestingly, most of them are teachers and are still active in political movements - just not dangerous ones. Well worth the time to see this.

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!

Fascinating look into the most radical student group of the 60s, which was responsible for a spate of bombings that stretched from 1970-75, mostly in response to the Vietnam War. Bill Siegel and Sam Green do a good job of piecing together the story and recreating the political climate which the Weathermen fed off. The documentary is told in retrospect, with former Weathermen looking back at their radical student years, when they felt it was necessary to "bring the war home," which became the anthem of the student movements. Siegel and Green also show the reaction to the Weathermen at the time. How they hijacked the SDS and were largely responsible for its demise before taking the movement underground. They attempted to ally themselves with other radical political groups like the Black Panthers, but the Panthers wanted nothing to do with the Weathermen who they regarded as misguided fools. But, the Weathermen were anything but foolish. Their tactics were indeed misguided, but as Mark Rudd later notes the war can do crazy things to you. It can f*ck with your mind. This documentary does more than most to come to terms with that era.

Shocking, engrossing, enlightening and ultimately heartbreaking, "The Weather* Underground" is a new documentary that should probably be seen by just about anybody who doesn't know its story and is at all interested in America and its past, present and future.

The movie is a brief history of the Weathermen, a radical group of anti-war, anti-racism protesters who, in the 1960s, splintered off from the Students for a Democratic Society and, as the Vietnam War grew and grew, became more and more aggressive in its tactics.

I knew a little about the group beforehand but had no idea that, for example, its members once bombed the U.S. Capitol. They also set off explosives at a New York City police headquarters, the Presidio in San Francisco, a Queens courthouse, a National Guard headquarters and at an office of the New York Department of Corrections, among other targets.

These actions are shocking and wrong in and of themselves, but in a post-9/11 environment, they take on an even larger sense of menace. But it's to the movie's credit that it's able to present these situations in a historical context without supporting or completely condemning the young people involved. Sam Green, with co-director Bill Siegel, strongly object to the methods of the Weathermen but are obviously and understandably sympathetic to the opinions and despair that motivated them.

"Every second, from 1965 to 1975, I was always aware that our country was attacking Vietnam," says former Weatherman Mark Rudd. "Our country was killing millions of people in Vietnam . . . This revelation was more than we could handle. We didn't know what to do about it."

Later, he adds, "I helped found an organization whose goal was the violent overthrow of the government of the United States."

Says Brian Flanagan, another ex-Weatherman (who, incidentally, once won $23,000 on "Jeopardy!"), "When you feel you have right on your side, you can do some horrific things."

Somehow, Green and Siegel managed to find and interview many of the other key participants, and the stark contrast between the Weathermen today and their old mug shots is striking -- some have rethought their actions while some seem just as committed now as then. But the tragic figures of the movie aren't just a group of young people whose enthusiasm and outrage led them astray, nor are they those that the group lashed out against, but everybody involved. "The Weather Underground" is a sad snapshot of a time that still resonates today.

The commentary by director Green is an extremely well-done track. Green is very adept at opening up the movie and explaining things that the film itself doesn't have time to go into detail about.