IMDb RATING
7.2/10
4.7K
YOUR RATING
A TV news reporter finds himself becoming personally involved in the violence that erupts around the 1968 Democratic National Convention.A TV news reporter finds himself becoming personally involved in the violence that erupts around the 1968 Democratic National Convention.A TV news reporter finds himself becoming personally involved in the violence that erupts around the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 4 nominations
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe main character was originally called "John Cassavetes" and was in fact going to be played by actor-director John Cassavetes. When he withdrew from the film due to a scheduling conflict, the character's name was changed to "John Cassellis" and Robert Forster was cast in the role.
- GoofsWhen Eileen enters the L looks for Harold, she is wearing a white hair band, but when they show her sitting on the L, the hair band is missing.
- Quotes
John Cassellis: If I gotta be afraid in order for your argument to work, then you got no argument.
- Crazy creditsStuds Terkel is credited as "Our Man in Chicago".
- Alternate versionsDue to copyright disputes, all video releases feature some different songs on the soundtrack from the theatrical version.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
- SoundtracksSweet Georgia Brown
by Ben Bernie, Kenneth Casey and Maceo Pinkard
Performed by Brother Bones
Courtesy of Tempo Records
Played during roller derby scene
Featured review
Captures the time, place and feeling
Movies have a way of capturing the moment better than recreating it. I can only dread what a recreated 1968 in Chicago would look like from a Hollywood perspective. It would probably resemble something out of Forrest Gump. But Medium Cool happened to capture some brutal fight scenes with police in Chicago as well as scenes from the black ghettos. You can't recreate this stuff. This isn't a documentary but cinema verité and combines fiction and non-fictional elements. It's all shot with Chicago of 68 in the background. A landmark and infamous year for the US with the assassinations of RFK and MLK as well as the 1968 Democratic National Convention which was met with severe state repression. The state wasn't negotiating at this time, it was brutally sending men off to war and attacking those at home with the hired goons of the police force.
It's a great movie which manages to combine fiction and non-fiction and shows us what the sixties were really like. It wasn't all love beads and LSD, although there is an amusing psychedelic sequence which takes place in a club.
I think what I liked most was that even people who were non-political were being dragged into the politics of the time. Events were that serious at the time and people had to begin picking sides, the pleasant, white, middle-class interior of the Chicago DNC or outside fighting and raging against the police.
It's a great movie which manages to combine fiction and non-fiction and shows us what the sixties were really like. It wasn't all love beads and LSD, although there is an amusing psychedelic sequence which takes place in a club.
I think what I liked most was that even people who were non-political were being dragged into the politics of the time. Events were that serious at the time and people had to begin picking sides, the pleasant, white, middle-class interior of the Chicago DNC or outside fighting and raging against the police.
helpful•82
- GethinVanH
- May 23, 2009
- How long is Medium Cool?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $800,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 51 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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