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The Weather Underground
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The key players in the radical movement known as the Weather Underground are skillfully brought to life in this Oscar-nominated documentary. The Weathermen were born of sixties protest, but took their scheme to overthrow the U.S. government to especially violent extremes. Never a well-populated movement, the Underground petered out as its leaders aged during the seventies; by decade's end, weary of hiding, most of them had turned themselves over to the authorities. That journey, by which a fire-breathing revolutionary such as Bernadine Dohrn became a (still fiery) gray-haired wife and mother, is an intriguing one. This film, rich in period footage (and some unnecessary sensationalism) captures the era somewhat broadly. But the present-day interviews with the participants, contrasted with their radical selves, provides an exceptionally detailed look inside the organization itself. It's not a nostalgic look back, and the overall mood is sobering rather than celebratory. Lili Taylor provides the narration. --Robert Horton
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The Weather Underground
- DVD: 0 pages (2004-05-25)
- Publisher: NEW VIDEO GROUP
- Label: NEW VIDEO GROUP
- Starring: Tse-tung Mao, Walter Mondale, Brian Flanagan (II), Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon
- Director: Sam Green (II), Bill Siegel
- Encoding: Region 1
- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
- Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1,
- Rated: Unrated
- Studio: NEW VIDEO GROUP
- DVD Release Date: 2004-05-25
- Run Time: 92
- ISBN: 0767063686
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 62 reviews
- Sales Rank in DVD: #5797
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The Weather Underground 2008-11-17
Comment: I was in law enforcement during this period of time. This documentary seems to be very well done, factual and accurate in all matters.
I am very excited to witness how our nation will change (my hope is for the better) during the next four years under the leadership of Barack Obama.
However, it is my hope that our "President-Elect", Barack Obama will distance himself from all former Weathermen members, especially William (Bill) Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn.
Respectfully,
R. Greenleaf - Utah
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: They were nuts, and here's why ... 2008-11-17
Comment: Still wide-eyed and bushy-tailed in 2004 as they were in the 60s and 70s when they bombed the establishment, these '60s burnouts tell their tale effectively in this documentary with nice stock footage of the era and a good soundtrack featuring the likes of '60s jazzer Gil Scott Heron. Though similarities to today's climate are argued in the commentary track, the idea of overthrowing the government seems as unlikely now as it did 40 years ago. Kids today don't get this earnest, and crazy. The human waste of David Gilbert, in prison for 75 years, is one of the film's most powerful images. He is clear and precise and could have been a great contributor to society. Were they all crazy? No, but the things they did seem so quaint and futile and misdirected today, just as they did then. Great film.
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Best Friends 2008-11-04
Comment: The Weather Underground is a flop of a movie attempting to romanticize murderous, barely lucid idiots. It stars Barack Obama's best friend William Ayers. For the purposes of this review I am forced to give it at least one star. Nuff said.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
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Summary: "We didn't do it but we dug it" 2008-10-29
Comment: I've had a lifelong fascination with radical groups. Religious heretics of the 11th century or the Jacobins in revolutionary France or the Symbionese Army, they all fascinate me. What drives them, what makes them fight against incredible odds, what makes them give up, it all fascinates me. Only recently has there been a serious body of work on the radicals of the 1960s that attempts to address these questions.
Green and Siegel's contribution to this is the documentary The Weather Underground, the story of how the ultra-militant Weatherman organization grew out of the non-violent SDS. Packed with interviews of many of the main characters - including Mark Rudd (of the Columbia U takeover fame), Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Brian Flanagan and David Gilbert - and interspersed with period news footage the film provides a sense of the rage that fueled the Weathermen and the regret with which they now regard the past.
Which is not to say that the film is a mea culpa. Most of the interviewees are at pains to explain what they did and why it seemed the only thing to do at the time; not to ask for forgiveness. The interviewees seem so calm and reasonable you could forget what they're talking about which is essentially acts of terrorism and revolution.
There are moments of dark, unintentional humor along the way. Like the footage of the blonde, gum-chewing preppie who tells the reporter they're going to take on the police with "more physical confrontation, whatever's necessary", all the while snapping her Juicy Fruit. Or when Bernardine Dohrn's sister proclaims her actions "Right on and she's far out." I found myself sympathizing with the Black Panther spokesman who dismisses the Weathermen as "muddle-headed." For all their fierce beliefs, they seem to be playing at revolution, casting themselves in the role of revolutionaries based on what they've read rather than what they've experienced. Their efforts to turn themselves into a communist cadre never seem to rise much above leaving in communes, group sex and eating "oatmeal with nothing on it" and "psychological tricks" that one describes as "so cultish."
Yet their beliefs are not simply whims. Rudd and Jaffe speak convincingly of their conviction that doing nothing was a form of participating in the oppression they perceived. Each member made sacrifices to "go underground", a phenomenon one describes as a "state of information control." They saw themselves at war with an oppressive, murderous state and told themselves they were willing to do whatever it took to overthrow it.
And therein lies the rub. As ex-Weatherman Brian Flanagan puts it: "If you think you have the moral high-ground ... you can do some really terrible things." Those terrible things including bombings. It's quite something to see Ayers' and Dohrn's contortions to pat themselves on the back for making a big effort to make sure no one ever got hurt as a result of their bombings. There are several problems with that. First and foremost, once you set a bomb, all bets are off. No matter how many warnings you send out or precautions you take, one mistake or unanticipated action is likely to end in the death or dismemberment of another. All their efforts could have been undone by one act of bad luck. Second, this requires them to go to further contortions to distance themselves from the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion. Describing it as "an autonomous group in New York City" starts off the fun, as if the "group" in NYC had little connection to the rest of the Weatherman. The film includes quotes of regret from most of the interviewees but no exploration for the greater toll the bomb may have taken had it not exploded prematurely.
Green does a good job of trying to present both sides of the story, however, with Todd Gitlin presenting a dissenting New Left view of the Weathermen. The former radicals, in interviews and quotes from letters and memoirs, convey the sheer boredom of life underground. No jobs, no prospects: in a weird way they finally did live the lives of the oppressed they claimed to fight for.
Whether you watch this for entertainment or for enlightenment or both, The Weather Underground delivers. Green and Siegel have begun the effort to "Tease out what was right from what was wrong."
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Stormy Weather 2008-10-15
Comment: "The Weather Underground" is an interesting documentary about the less peaceful side of the peace movements of the '60s. The Weather Underground is largely forgotten,compared to the Summer of Love in '68,or the Black Panthers. They started out as starry-eyed idealists in Chicago who wanted peace,racial equality,and the end of the Vietnam War. The Weather Underground was mainly composed of privileged white students who championed the causes of the poor and minorities. They decided to be "revolutionary." This documentary walks the fine line when it comes to their seemingly admirable causes and their terrible actions.
"The Weather Underground" starts with starry-eyed idealism,but the "revolution" becomes ugly. As Todd Gitlin,a former member of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) says,they came to the point where mass murder was considered a viable option. Former Weathermen David Rudd and Brian Flanagan (the former won on Jeopardy! recently,the latter is a barkeeper) have repented of their actions. For the Weathermen,"revolution" came to mean destroying property,and perhaps lives,in the process. They went from "make love,not war" to making war on civilians. They blew up the Haymarket statue several times. While they claim they only destroyed property and spared people,they injured their victims;as a result,a judge was paralyzed from the neck down and a policeman was killed. The Weathermen thought their actions were justifiable because of the Vietnam War. The Weather Underground seriously thought bombing the Pentagon would somehow lead to peace.
The Weather Underground wanted a Communist revolution in the US. They found inspiration in Cuba. They wanted to redefine society,with slogans such as "Smash Monogamy!" (it's ironic to see Weatherman William Ayers&Bernadine Dohrn living a bourgeois family life,instead of being in a commune)
"Weather Underground" is still a relevant documentary today. Former Weathermen like Mark Rudd and Brian Flanagan have matured,soberly seeing their idealism gone profoundly wrong. Others,like William Ayers (now a professor) and Bernadine Dohrn (now leading a child&family services project),justify their actions. They reminisce glowingly about the "Days of Rage." It's genuinely chilling.
"Weather Underground" is a barometer of the '60s... and today.
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