Medium Cool (1969) (Criterion Collection, 2 DVDs)

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It`s 1968, and the whole world is watching. With the U.S. in social upheaval, famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler (Days of Heaven) decided to make a film about what the hell was going on. His debut feature, Medium Cool, plunges us into that moment. With its mix of scripted fiction and seat-of-the-pants documentary technique, this story of the working world and romantic life of a television cameraman (Jackie Brown`s Robert Forster) is a visceral, lasting 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.