Underground. 1976. Directed by Emile de Antonio.

(2/20/01-2/22/01)

This film is a documentary about the Weather Underground, a terrorist group which was responsible for twenty-four bombings. It combines interviews and archival footage.

I was at a disadvantage seeing this film because I am not familiar with the Weather Underground or its activities. The film appears to presuppose a certain amount of knowledge on the part of the viewer which I did not have. I really was not clear as to what these people had done and why. They seemed to be a sort of American version of the Baader-Meinhof gang and while I was sympathetic to their views that something was very wrong with American society and that the federal government was at the root of the problem, I didn't feel--or think--that I wanted to embrace the kind of society that they wanted to impose on us or that I liked their idea that disruptive violence was the way to go.

We see and hear about the bombing of a building around New York's Washington Square, but I didn't understand what that was all about. Why did they do that--for what purpose? Did they warn people in advance so that they could get out? I need to know a lot more details about this action before I can feel anything about it.

Then there was the bombing of the Capitol in Washington. In this case, they did call in a warning so that people could get out. And I suppose that I am a little bit more sympathetic about bombing a government building than private property. But I still wonder what it was that the Weather Underground hoped to accomplish by this action.

It is kind of poignant, hearing members of this group speak of the U.S. government as an obstacle that they seemed sure they could eliminate. It is 25 years later and the government is still going strong.

I really liked the use of archival footage. The first part of the film really held my interest where you hear spoken comments of members of the group and see the footage depicting what they are talking about. That really worked for me. One interesting piece of footage depicted Fidel Castro. I was surprised at how feminine his voice sounded.

I suppose I liked the archival footage because of the different color textures. That was interesting to me just on a visual level.

In the first part of the film we hear comments by the Weather Underground members. These are probably from interviews, but we don't hear the questions being put to them. Later on, Emile de Antonio becomes part of the film, asking and probing. He asks them questions about their feelings, their backgrounds. That part of the film is interesting--though I suppose it would be more so if I knew something about the group and its activities. It puts a human face on the group. But then there is a section in which they discuss their feelings about being filmed and having cameras pointed at them. This part is kind of corny, yet it too is something of its time. De Antonio is admittedly on their side; thefilm does not attempt to take an objective stance. It is there to let these people present their point of view.

They come across not particularly as arrogant--though some oftheir views might seem so--but as down-to-earth and professional. Indeed, one of them describes them as "professional revolutionaries." They give me the impression of having "thought it through." But they certainly don't know everything.

They attack capitalism (and the government as a tool of capitalism) and say that wealth was not created by people like the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts, but by the workers and that the capitalists stole it from the people. Yeah, that sounds good, but the capitalist entrepreneurs did the mental work and did the integrations that in large measure created the wealth and made these people's livelihoods possible. It does seem grossly unfair to have the millionaires living so well and the low-level workers living in poverty, but it isn't a simple case of stealing the wealth from the people.

The film ends with a defense of communism. I was surprised by the articulate defense of communism as an idea or philosophy that emphasized our connectedness as human beings. The speaker says that he believes that it is our connection to the others around us that makes us truly human--something like that. I had never heard communism described quite that way. And even though I don't agree with what he was saying, he put it in such a way that I respected his views and felt that perhaps they were worth more consideration. But then he went and said that they were completely against individualism and I woke up in a flash.

This film is an interesting document of its time. The fact that it was clandestinely filmed in a "safe house" didn't have much of an impact on me. I found it interesting for a while, but I wasn't able to sustain that interest all the way through. I was fidgeting.