Medium Cool

Haskell Wexler (director, screenwriter)
Robert Forster, Marianna Hill, Harold Blankenship, Peter Bonerz, Janet Langhart (starring)

Los Angeles: Paramount Pictures, 1969. Three vintage borderless reference photographs from the 1969 film, a highlight of early New Hollywood cinema. One shows actor Harold Blankenship, the other with actors Robert Forster, Peter Bonerz, and Janet Langhart. One with a printed mimeo snipe affixed to the verso along with the stamp of Paramount Pictures, the other with the stamp of Israel Film Archive on the verso.

A hardened and dubiously ethical television cameraman finds out he is being watched by the FBI amidst the tumultuous protests taking place around the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Highly influential for its groundbreaking use of factual historical events interspersed with fictional narrative.

Featuring early music by Frank Zappa's band Mothers of Invention, and addressing underlying social issues of race, gender, and poverty, the film frankly depicted much of the growing countercultural movement of the late 1960s, even going so far as to use real-life footage of civil disobedience occurring in 1968 Chicago. Due to its startlingly political narrative, as well as nudity and language, the film was originally given an X rating by the MPAA, though by 1970 this would be downgraded to an R.

One photograph 10 x 8 inches, one photograph 9.5 x 7.25 inches. Near Fine.


Criterion Collection 658. Spicer US Neo-Noir.


[Book #149604]