STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: WHEN HE’S NOT GOING TO BED WITH RUTH (MARIANNA HILL, L), MEDIUM COOL’S JOHN CASSELLIS (ROBERT FORSTER, R) CONFRONTS THE CONFLICT
BETWEEN STORYTELLING AND TRUTH-SEEKING AT THE HEART OF DOC MOVIEMAKING(At one point Starkwell is temporarily
converted into a rabbi during a medical
experiment on inmates.)LEGACY: Allen revisited the mockumentary
genre with his more ambitious Zelig (1983).
Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and
Christopher Guest’s Waiting for Guffman
(1996), Best in Show (2000), and
A Mighty Wind (2003) unlocked the
rich possibilities of the genre hinted
at in Allen’s film.Medium Cool
(Haskell Wexler)The film on this list that’s most cemented
to the 1969 vibe is Medium Cool, which com-
bines footage of “real” events with conven-
tional moviemaking. Wexler’s strategy
goes far beyond stealing shots: The events
at play are central to the story of John
(Robert Forster), a conflicted documentary
maker. Against a backdrop of real-life
footage from the violence at the 1968 Demo-
cratic National Convention in Chicago,Eileen (Verna Bloom) searches for her son,
while actual bloodied protestors and baton-
wielding cops clash. Titled after media theo-
rist Marshall McLuhan’s notion of TV as
a cold medium, the film is a meditation
on the role of the moviemaker in capturing
“fact.” John faces the conflict between
“if it bleeds it leads” TV journalism and
capturing the story of people in the margins.
At dizzying turns, shifting cameras and POVs
shatter the third wall, until a final pan
to a movie camera that has captured a car
crash and the audience.LEGACY: Films that consider the nature
of news, fact, perspective and responsibility:
Network (1976), Broadcast News (1987),
and Nightcrawler (2014).They Shoot Horses,
Don’t They?
(Sydney Pollack)As much horror film as drama,
this is a grim look into the blacknessof the Great Depression. As Fonda’s
best role and Pollack’s best film,
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is
a claustrophobic look at a dance marathon
where contestants are reduced to self-im-
molation in the quest of an illusory $1,500
prize. Pollack creates a self-contained
world, with fleeting glimpses of sunlight
that only manage to highlight the crypt-
like interior of a dance hall that would not
be out of place in The Shining. Pollack
integrates flash forwards ingeniously.
Almost German expressionist in style,
these flash forwards heighten the general
sense of malevolence. In the end, the film
is, indeed, a horror film—one in which
the evil is poverty and hopelessness.LEGACY: A hard look at the collision
of desperation, money, and entertain-
ment. For cynics: the spate of television
reality competitions—Big Brother,
Survivor, The Amazing Race.
For the more hopeful: Lars von Trier’s
Dancer in the Dark (2000), Danny Boyle’s
Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and
Matteo Garrone’s Reality (2012). MM48 SUMMER 2019 MOVIEMAKER.COM
COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES / PHOTOFEST