Plot Summary
John Cassellis (Robert Forster) is a television news cameraman. In one of the opening scenes, a group of cameramen and journalists are discussing the ethical responsibilities within their profession: When should filming a gruesome scene end and human responsibility to try to save a life begin? As viewers we are presented with issues such as violence as spectacle, political and social discontent, extreme racism, and class divisions. The film is constantly juggling documentary footage with feature film image. Among his sources, Wexler uses footage from military training camps in Illinois for military troops preparing for planned demonstrations by students and anti-war activists during the Democratic National Convention later that summer.
Cassellis is seemingly hardened to ethical and social issues; he is more concerned with pursuing women like Ruth (Marianna Hill). Yet once Cassellis finds out that his news station has been providing the stories and information gathered by the cameramen and news journalists to the FBI, he becomes enraged. The news station creates an excuse to fire him, and Cassellis is let go. Subsequently, Cassellis meets a widow, Eileen, whose husband has died in the Vietnam War. Eileen (Verna Bloom) and her son, Harold, have moved from West Virginia to Chicago and Cassellis grows fond of them both.
The film concludes with a scene in which Eileen is walking through rioting crowds, based on Wexler's footage of students in Chicago demonstrating during the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 1968. Her son has gone missing and she is desperately seeking Cassellis for help, but he is filming the convention. As a result, the fictional story and real-life brutality merge. The director explained that he planned his principal filming schedule to coincide with the convention, expecting that a riot would occur. The 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity resulted in a riot. There was a Congressional Investigation that concluded that this riot was a "police riot" based on massive evidence that the police moved in with violence on a mostly legal demonstration.
The title comes from Marshall McLuhan's work in which he described TV as a "cool" medium. The "cooler" the medium, "the more someone has to uncover and engage in the media" in order to "fill in the blanks." The movie questions the role and responsibilities of television and its newscasts.
The music in the film was assembled by guitarist Mike Bloomfield (Haskell Wexler's cousin). The film features contemporary music from the early Mothers of Invention albums by rock musician Frank Zappa, as well as the Love instrumental "Emotions" over the opening credits. Wexler has said the scene under the opening credits with the bike messenger delivering film to the television station was inspired by the film, Black Orpheus (1959).
Read more about this topic: Medium Cool
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