This was a sobering documentary about The Weathermen, a radical offshoot of the Students for a Democratic Society, which was a student reform group in the mid 1960's. The Weathermen opposed the Vietnam war, racial oppression and the privilege of the wealthy; but what set them apart from other radical groups of the period was their embracing of violence as a means of accomplishing their goals.
The film describes the group's rise from within the general student left of the mid 60's and then their split to take a more action oriented approach. Several of the key members of the group are interviewed at length and these interviews are contrasted with film footage of the same people during that radical period. One gentleman who is now a community college professor has profoundly mixed feelings about the events with which he was involved. But for the most part the interviewees remain idealistic and even optimistic about the struggle they were involved in.
This is an important film and should be discussed not only due to it's value to history, but in conjunction with the events of the past couple of years. What's ironic is that The Weathermen were terrorists, destroying buildings and putting people in danger to draw attention to their cause. Why the radicalism in the wake of an unpopular war then but not now? Could we be heading in a direction again where people need to make difficult choices in order to stand up against what they feel is unjust?
The film describes the group's rise from within the general student left of the mid 60's and then their split to take a more action oriented approach. Several of the key members of the group are interviewed at length and these interviews are contrasted with film footage of the same people during that radical period. One gentleman who is now a community college professor has profoundly mixed feelings about the events with which he was involved. But for the most part the interviewees remain idealistic and even optimistic about the struggle they were involved in.
This is an important film and should be discussed not only due to it's value to history, but in conjunction with the events of the past couple of years. What's ironic is that The Weathermen were terrorists, destroying buildings and putting people in danger to draw attention to their cause. Why the radicalism in the wake of an unpopular war then but not now? Could we be heading in a direction again where people need to make difficult choices in order to stand up against what they feel is unjust?