Maybe because I haven't seen a documentary in quite some time, or because it really is that damn good, but I was completely riveted by THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND. It fucked me up, royally. And I don't mean that safe kind of being fucked up, where you say yeah, that was really something to see, now lets get back into the comfort zone of our everyday existence. This film _got_ to me, and even my alcohol binder afterward couldn't shake it. I don't know how you're supposed to see a man pulled aside seemingly at random and shot in the head with blood geysering out of his skull and not receive a visceral ass kicking. We see tremendously unsettling footage from the Vietnam War early on, as WEATHER tracks the rise and eventual fall of a group called Students for a Democratic Society (S.D.S.) whose sole purpose for being was to "bring the war home". As long as there was what most people collectively describe as a senseless war taking place, S.D.S. would attack the U.S. Government, with protests that began peacefully enough but quickly escalated. Police were a primary target.

THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND determines itself to make that particular war seem utterly ridiculous. Mass murder committed by us on them. So the clips we see in the beginning are a means of explaining, with as much impact as possible, why this faction came about and what they were trying to accomplish. Which was a lot more than just sending a polite message. It's disheartening to see how much we, the human race, seem so incredibly willing to harm and kill each other. I suppose its always been that way, but it's something I'd rather not fully accept at this early an age. Still, that's the point the movie is making, and it makes it; a pleasant picture is not painted.

There is expert interweaving of interviews with former members of S.D.S. as they are now, and as they were then, each giving his or her take on what they were able to change as a whole if anything. These were people who devoted a significant portion of their lives to a cause, would have done whatever necessary to ensure its survival (the occasional bouts with police brutality). They don't come off as delusional kids of America with pent-up rage issues on a kamikaze mission -- even though everyone involved pretty much knew it was suicide -- but as individuals who believed vehemently in what they were doing. It wasn't pointless, or irrelevant (although, as the film points out, it inevitably became that). And yet, violence begets violence; there are cold aftermaths, but no end to the cycle. So, I'm not sure if ultimately S.D.S. didn't just add to the problem.

I think the film starts to cover just a little too much information, and as a result, focus blurs toward the end. But, no stone is left unturned on this subject matter. And, as a meditation on violence and the evil that men are capable of when they think that right is on their side, THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND is stark and fascinating. Just this side of sensationalistic, actually. It take an unflinching look at a certain ugly period of our history, and pins you to your seat.

OWNING MAHOWNY