The Weather Underground (2002)

Directors:

Sam Green
Bill Siegel (co-director)

Release Date:

13 November 2003 (Australia)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Plot:

The remarkable story of The Weather Underground, radical activists of the 1970s, and of radical politics at its best and most disastrous.

Plot Keywords:

1970s | Government | Radical | Underground | Resistance

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Lili Taylor	...	Narrator (voice)
Pamela Z	...	Narrator (voice)
Jim Lange	...	Additional Narrator (voice)
Evan White	...	Additional Narrator (voice)
Bernardine Dohrn	...	Herself (also archive footage)
Mark Rudd	...	Himself (also archive footage)
Brian Flanagan	...	Himself (also archive footage)
David Gilbert	...	Himself (also archive footage)
Billy Ayers	...	Himself (also archive footage) (as Bill Ayers) (as Bill Ayers)
Naomi Jaffe	...	Herself (also archive footage)
Todd Gitlin	...	Himself
Laura Whitehorn	...	Herself (also archive footage)
Don Strickland	...	Himself
Kathleen Cleaver	...	Herself (also archive footage)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fidel Castro	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Eldridge Cleaver	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Bob Dylan	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Jane Fonda	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Gerald Ford	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Billy Graham	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Fred Hampton	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Abbie Hoffman	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Dustin Hoffman	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
George Jackson	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Martin Luther King	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Timothy Leary	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Charles Manson	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Zedong Mao	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Walter Mondale	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Richard Nixon	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Ronald Reagan	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
James Robison	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Evelle Younger	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Sam Green
Bill Siegel		(co-director)

Produced by
Christian Ettinger	....	executive producer
Sam Green	....	producer
Mary Harron	....	executive producer
Carrie Lozano	....	producer
Sue Ellen McCann	....	executive producer
Bill Siegel	....	producer
Marc Smolowitz	....	producer

Original Music by
David Cerf		(as Dave Cerf)
Amy Domingues

Cinematography by
Andrew Black		(director of photography) (as Andy Black)
Federico Salsano		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Sam Green
Dawn Logsdon

Art Department
Janet Raugust	....	graphics

Sound Department
Jake Collins	....	location sound
Elise Hurwitz	....	location sound
Steve La Fayette	....	location sound (as Steve Lafayette)
Rich Pooler	....	location sound
David Westby	....	sound mixer
Andre Philippenko	....	assistant sound editor (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
David Fenton	....	additional camera
Greg Gricus	....	additional camera operator

Editorial Department
Herbert H. Bennett	....	colorist (as Herbert Bennett)
Herbert H. Bennett	....	on-line editor (as Herbert Bennett)
Angela Reginato	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Jerry Busher	....	composer: additional music
Brendan Canty	....	composer: additional music
Ian MacKaye	....	composer: additional music
Brooke Wentz	....	music clearances: The Rights Workshop
David Cerf	....	music editor (uncredited)
Amy Domingues	....	music editor (uncredited)
Bob Massey	....	composer: original music (uncredited)

Other crew
Lindsay Anderson	....	production assistant
Jason Cohn	....	production assistant
Charlotte Gutierrez	....	production assistant
Sarah Harbin	....	production assistant
David Harris	....	production assistant
John Lithgow	....	production assistant
Sarah Marx	....	production assistant
Guy Morrison	....	archival footage assistance
Kenn Rabin	....	archival footage assistance
Sara Sculley	....	production assistant
Lindsay Dellas	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Sarah Harbin	....	researcher (uncredited)
Terry L. James	....	digital film transfer (uncredited)

Thanks
Herbert H. Bennett	....	special thanks (as Herbert Bennett)
Tom Hayden	....	thanks
Guy Morrison	....	special thanks
Alex Trebek	....	thanks

Production Companies

• The Free History Project

Distributors

• Ideas for Films (2005) (France) (theatrical)
• Madman Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Roco Films (2002) (Non-USA) (all media)
• Shadow Distribution (2003) (USA)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (2004) (Finland) (TV)

Other Companies

• Aeon Sound  sound mixing
• Bay Area Video Coalition  production services
• Beyond Pix Productions  production services (as Beyond Pix)
• Complex Corporation  production services
• Film Arts Foundation  production services
• Law Offices of John M. FitzGerald, The  legal assistance
• Metropolis Editorial  production services
• Monaco Film and Video  production services (as Monaco Film & Video)
• Rights Workshop, The  music clearance
• Shearman & Sterling  legal assistance
• Sirius Sound  production services
• The Treehouse, North hollywood, California  production services (as The Treehouse)
• Varitel  production services
• Video Arts  production services

Also Known As:

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

New Zealand:R13 | Singapore:PG | USA:Unrated | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Berkeley, California, USA

Company:

The Free History Project

Quotes:

Mark Rudd:I cherished my hate as a badge of moral superiority.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Politics (2009) (V)

Soundtrack:

Jynueythek Ylow

Sad, but Important Film

The people in the film made many astute points. Rudd points out toward the end that violence is seen by the public as mental illness or some other chaos unless perpetrated by the government--in that case, violence is normal. I'm glad the Weathermen existed. How flat and hopeless the history of activism would be today without them. It seems that nowadays there is a stereotype of the college leftist activist as being a weak member of a highly privileged class who simply feels guilty about the privilege but is ultimately all talk--wants to keep his wealth in the end. The Weathermen defy this stereotype, putting themselves in full danger of losing everything and accomplishing incredible strategic feats against the government like freeing Timothy Leary and bombing government buildings. I suspect that such a defiance of stereotype is why I, who am college educated and a leftist activist type, never knew the names of the Weathermen, while I knew the names of the most prominent Black Panthers, like Eldridge Cleaver and Bobby Seale. It is a movement almost entirely ignored, even by leftist academics. As the film wraps up, one thing that is telling is that none of the featured Weathermen sold out and became capitalists like so many members of SDS. They're all currently doing things for the good of society even if they're no longer bombing buildings. Also, we learn from the film that people didn't simply lose interest in the left and anti-war/anti-capitalist activism, preferring to embrace the glorious consumerism of Reagan's America. The government beat it out of people. Particularly, the government killed the Weathermen's effectiveness when they forced them underground. Maybe the reason we don't have mass uprisings in the U.S. as in other countries is because our government is the most effectively repressive, it being the most powerful in the world.