Medium Cool

Medium Cool follows John Cassellis, a television news cameraman in Chicago during the summer of 1968, a time of political tension and street clashes. While covering violence and racial unrest in the city's poorer neighborhoods, he learns that his station has been passing his footage to the FBI to help identify suspects. His objection to this arrangement costs him his job, and he drifts toward the Democratic National Convention, where the protests and police response pull him and the people around him directly into the events he had been filming.

Haskell Wexler directed and wrote the film, his first as director, and produced it with Tully Friedman and Jerrold Wexler. Wexler went on to direct Latino in 1985. Robert Forster plays John, with Verna Bloom as Eileen, Peter Bonerz as Gus, Marianna Hill as Ruth, Harold Blankenship as Harold, and Charles Geary as Harold's father, among a credited cast of twenty-one. The film mixes its fictional story with documentary footage shot during the actual convention disturbances, so its characters move through real crowds and real confrontations.

Released in August 1969, the film took about 6 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.2 out of 10 from roughly 5,200 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.6 out of 10 from a much smaller group of 86 voters. A critics' rating of 8.3 out of 10 from 26 reviews places it noticeably above both audience scores.