A cautionary tale that could have been made today

“People rarely say the real reasons for things. Big corporations never do. Just politics…plain bureaucratic politics.”

Medium Cool is very much a directionless slow-burn, more in favor of creating this cinéma vérité set piece that blends fiction with documentation of the political angst and turmoil of 1968. Along with Network and All The President’s Men, Medium Cool sits in “The Big Three” of films from this era that tapped into the publics growing mistrust towards their domestic governments and news outlets that, as they so kindly tell us, we’re “supposed” to have trust and faith in. And it hasn’t gotten any better since ’68, has it? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

I believe Medium Cool to be not only the most prescient of the three, but the most terrifying. Its aged better than any fine wine possibly could, especially now in the social media age where everyone has a camera sticking out of their pockets. We’ve become too complicit in this culture of filming tragedy, turmoil and death before our very eyes, waiting for someone else to intervene and actually do something about it. But is something actually ever done?

And there’s no better film that truly understands that exhaustive feeling we’re all used to by now of news and politics, politics and news, being beaten into our brains, psyche and livelihood twenty-four seven, three sixty-five that we can’t even have one moment of peace, quiet and serenity. One flick through your phone, some building halfway across the world has blown up with over 500 causalities killed. Flick through your phone again, some public figure or celebrity has said something that they probably shouldn’t have said or has been completely misrepresented. Another flick, two sides are pitted against each other, causing more and more division in a world where there’s enough to fill an ocean. And out of that agenda-setting comes discussion, clashing, argument and violence until the next roll of news comes along, makes us forget the previous turmoil to set up the next. Rinse and repeat. Take me back to the superior days where my number one priority on Earth was playing The Simpsons Hit N Run on Ps2.

Its all in Medium Cool. A cautionary tale made over 50 years ago that could have been made today. It showed us its present in the hopes that we in the future do something about it. Yet like those who pull out their camera and hit record, we stood and did nothing.