list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around The Weather Underground on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/The_Weather_Underground/220078/default.aspx Title: The Weather Underground
Year: 2002
Director: Bill Siegel, Sam Green
Plot: Sam Green and Bill Siegel's documentary about a radical group whose stated goal was the violent overthrow of the U.S. government details a valuable chapter in the history of the '60s protest movement and leftism in America. The Weathermen were a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), one of the driving forces behind the period's mass protests against social injustice and the Vietnam War. Frustrated by SDS's adherence to non-violent dissent, the Weathermen broke off and adopted a more combative approach. As the student protests ebbed in the 1970s, the group went underground and shifted tactics, embarking on a terrorist campaign against the U.S. government. For years, the Weather Underground evaded the authorities' grasp, even as it pulled off high-profile bombings against government targets. Their momentum petered out in the 1980s, as one by one the organization's members surrendered after years on the run. The Weather Underground uses extensive archival footage and revealing interviews with the surviving members to trace the group's evolution and place their actions in the context of the period's tumultuous events. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 10
Number of Lists: 6
Number of blog posts: 3
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:37:39 GMTThe Weather Underground2002Bill Siegel, Sam GreenSam Green and Bill Siegel's documentary about a radical group whose stated goal was the violent overthrow of the U.S. government details a valuable chapter in the history of the '60s protest movement and leftism in America. The Weathermen were a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), one of the driving forces behind the period's mass protests against social injustice and the Vietnam War. Frustrated by SDS's adherence to non-violent dissent, the Weathermen broke off and adopted a more combative approach. As the student protests ebbed in the 1970s, the group went underground and shifted tactics, embarking on a terrorist campaign against the U.S. government. For years, the Weather Underground evaded the authorities' grasp, even as it pulled off high-profile bombings against government targets. Their momentum petered out in the 1980s, as one by one the organization's members surrendered after years on the run. The Weather Underground uses extensive archival footage and revealing interviews with the surviving members to trace the group's evolution and place their actions in the context of the period's tumultuous events. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide10Taggedy Taggged (6-10)633http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t44719uxqot.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/The_Weather_Underground/220078/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/karina/archive/2008/10/14/36286.aspx Post By: Karina
Post To: Karina on SpoutBlog
Post Date: 10/14/2008 12:01:18 PM
Body: Striking while the “Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist” iron is hot, AJ Schnack has published a post on his blog by Sam Green, the co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Weather Underground. Green, who says Ayers has “become a good friend” of he and his co-director Bill Siegel, talks about the frustrations of watching his subject become a Republican talking point. As Green points out, the McCain/Palin argument connecting Obama to Ayers compltely omits any explanation for how a “terrorist” can become a “Distinguished Professor” thanks to thirty years of cultural evolution. “To have all of his work, and what he’s about, so publicly misrepresented must be extremely painful,” Green writes. “There really is nothing, or at least nothing significant, at the heart of the Ayers-Obama connection.” More here. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth
]]>Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:01:18 GMTKarinaKarina on SpoutBlog10/14/2008 12:01:18 PMStriking while the “Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist” iron is hot, AJ Schnack has published a post on his blog by Sam Green, the co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Weather Underground. Green, who says Ayers has “become a good friend” of he and his co-director Bill Siegel, talks about the frustrations of watching his subject become a Republican talking point. As Green points out, the McCain/Palin argument connecting Obama to Ayers compltely omits any explanation for how a “terrorist” can become a “Distinguished Professor” thanks to thirty years of cultural evolution. “To have all of his work, and what he’s about, so publicly misrepresented must be extremely painful,” Green writes. “There really is nothing, or at least nothing significant, at the heart of the Ayers-Obama connection.” More here. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/10/14/36285.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 10/14/2008 12:01:06 PM
Body: Striking while the “Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist” iron is hot, AJ Schnack has published a post on his blog by Sam Green, the co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Weather Underground. Green, who says Ayers has “become a good friend” of he and his co-director Bill Siegel, talks about the frustrations of watching his subject become a Republican talking point. As Green points out, the McCain/Palin argument connecting Obama to Ayers compltely omits any explanation for how a “terrorist” can become a “Distinguished Professor” thanks to thirty years of cultural evolution. “To have all of his work, and what he’s about, so publicly misrepresented must be extremely painful,” Green writes. “There really is nothing, or at least nothing significant, at the heart of the Ayers-Obama connection.” More here. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:01:06 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com10/14/2008 12:01:06 PMStriking while the “Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist” iron is hot, AJ Schnack has published a post on his blog by Sam Green, the co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Weather Underground. Green, who says Ayers has “become a good friend” of he and his co-director Bill Siegel, talks about the frustrations of watching his subject become a Republican talking point. As Green points out, the McCain/Palin argument connecting Obama to Ayers compltely omits any explanation for how a “terrorist” can become a “Distinguished Professor” thanks to thirty years of cultural evolution. “To have all of his work, and what he’s about, so publicly misrepresented must be extremely painful,” Green writes. “There really is nothing, or at least nothing significant, at the heart of the Ayers-Obama connection.” More here. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/jimbell/archive/2007/4/29/7834.aspx Post By: JimBell
Post To: JimBell Blog
Post Date: 4/29/2007 6:47:00 PM
Body: The Weather Underground is a documentary about the small group of radicals who split off from the Students for a Democratic Society and turned to violent protest from 1969 until the end of the Viet Nam war in 1975. The two film makers, aged 37 and 41, wanted to understand what they had only heard bits about, and they wanted to present an objective view to a younger audience. In this regard, interviews with Underground members David Gilbert (in prison), Bernadine Dohrn (a professor), Bill Ayers (a professor), Mark Rudd (a math instructor at a community college), Naomi Jaffe (a woman’s activist), Laura Whitehorn (a woman’s activist), and Mr. Flanagan (a bar owner) are intercut with interviews with Don Strickland, one of the FBI agents who tried unsuccessfully to track and catch members of the Underground, Todd Gitlin, a left-wing activist still angry at the Underground’s hijacking of the student left, and other people such as Walter Mondale, saying that, instead of ending the Viet Nam war, street violence only gave Nixon an excuse to call for solidarity and then continue the war. To make the Underground’s bombings comprehensible, the film makers spend considerable time establishing the context of the late 60s and early 70s. One thousand innocent people a day were being killed in Viet Nam. The Underground slogan was “Bring the war home” so that complacent Americans would wake up and object to the killing. At the same time, there was a larger, global context of revolution—France, Angola, China, Japan, and many other places—creating the notion that power might actually devolve to the people. The Underground, many of whom were Jewish, often said amongst themselves, “We refuse to be good Germans” and sit by while the government kills people at home and abroad. In 1970 in Chicago, the police went into the house of a charismatic black speaker named Fred Hampton, shot him while he slept, claimed there was a gun battle in the hallway, and left the scene for tour groups to see his blood-soaked bed. At this point the Weathermen went underground, and over the next few years conducted 25 bombings, carefully avoiding injuring anyone, and labelling each bombing as a direct protest against some government action—killing inmates, bombing Cambodia, and so on. When the Viet Nam war ended, the Underground fell apart and some members turned themselves in. Interestingly, the FBI had used so many illegal tactics in gathering evidence against them, that almost no members of the Underground did jail time. For those viewers who want documentaries to be “objective” rather than propaganda pieces, The Weather Underground is a classic, informative, and thought-provoking example.Jim Bell
]]>Sun, 29 Apr 2007 22:47:00 GMTJimBellJimBell Blog4/29/2007 6:47:00 PMThe Weather Underground is a documentary about the small group of radicals who split off from the Students for a Democratic Society and turned to violent protest from 1969 until the end of the Viet Nam war in 1975. The two film makers, aged 37 and 41, wanted to understand what they had only heard bits about, and they wanted to present an objective view to a younger audience. In this regard, interviews with Underground members David Gilbert (in prison), Bernadine Dohrn (a professor), Bill Ayers (a professor), Mark Rudd (a math instructor at a community college), Naomi Jaffe (a woman’s activist), Laura Whitehorn (a woman’s activist), and Mr. Flanagan (a bar owner) are intercut with interviews with Don Strickland, one of the FBI agents who tried unsuccessfully to track and catch members of the Underground, Todd Gitlin, a left-wing activist still angry at the Underground’s hijacking of the student left, and other people such as Walter Mondale, saying that, instead of ending the Viet Nam war, street violence only gave Nixon an excuse to call for solidarity and then continue the war. To make the Underground’s bombings comprehensible, the film makers spend considerable time establishing the context of the late 60s and early 70s. One thousand innocent people a day were being killed in Viet Nam. The Underground slogan was “Bring the war home” so that complacent Americans would wake up and object to the killing. At the same time, there was a larger, global context of revolution—France, Angola, China, Japan, and many other places—creating the notion that power might actually devolve to the people. The Underground, many of whom were Jewish, often said amongst themselves, “We refuse to be good Germans” and sit by while the government kills people at home and abroad. In 1970 in Chicago, the police went into the house of a charismatic black speaker named Fred Hampton, shot him while he slept, claimed there was a gun battle in the hallway, and left the scene for tour groups to see his blood-soaked bed. At this point the Weathermen went underground, and over the next few years conducted 25 bombings, carefully avoiding injuring anyone, and labelling each bombing as a direct protest against some government action—killing inmates, bombing Cambodia, and so on. When the Viet Nam war ended, the Underground fell apart and some members turned themselves in. Interestingly, the FBI had used so many illegal tactics in gathering evidence against them, that almost no members of the Underground did jail time. For those viewers who want documentaries to be “objective” rather than propaganda pieces, The Weather Underground is a classic, informative, and thought-provoking example.Jim Bell http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/documentary/MemberTagFilms.aspxdocumentary
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