New Arrival Medium Cool (#658)

It’s 1968, and the whole world is watching. With the U.S. in social upheaval, famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler (DAYS OF HEAVEN) decided to make a film about what the hell was going on. His debut feature, MEDIUM COOL, plunges us into that moment. With its mix of scripted fiction and seat-of-the-pants documentary technique, this story of the working world and romantic life of a television cameraman (JACKIE BROWN’S Robert Forster) is a visceral, lasting cinematic snapshot of the era, climaxing with an extended sequence shot right in the middle of the riots surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. An inventive commentary on the pleasures and dangers of wielding a camera, MEDIUM COOL is as prescient a political film as Hollywood has ever produced.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New, restored 4K digital film transfer, approved by director Haskell Wexler, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition

Two audio commentaries, one featuring Wexler, editorial consultant Paul Golding, and actor Marianna Hill, and the other featuring historian Paul Cronin

New interview with Wexler

Extended excerpts from Look Out Haskell, Its Real!, a documentary by Cronin about the making of Medium Cool, featuring interviews with Wexler; Golding; actors Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, and Robert Forster; Chicago historian Studs Terkel; and others

Excerpts from Sooner or Later, Cronins documentary about Harold Blankenship, who plays Harold in the film

Medium Cool Revisited, a new half-hour video by Wexler about the Occupy movements protests against the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago

Trailer

English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic and programmer Thomas Beard