The Weather Underground

It's amazing and not surprising that some of the remaining members of the Weathermen and Weather Underground would say that they would do what they did again. I'm surprised, with all of the underground groups and militias in the United States, that history has not repeated itself.

While I don't fully condone what these people did, I am supportive of their stance against the war in Vietnam, and I'm sure they feel the same way about our present war with Iraq. I would not have been a member of a local non-violent anti-War group if I didn't.

If you really want to learn about a part of history that your high school history teacher will never go into during a discussion of the Vietnam War, then pick up this documentary; if you are a teacher, this documentary should be used as a supplemental aid to your lesson plan on the counterculture and Vietnam discussions.

this is the first time I have reviewed a film I have ordered , all of the events in this film happend in my time frame I was 19
in 1990 , I have no recolection of these events , at least in this day and age the Intrnet would bring out news , very mucha hiden history , trouble is every time I tell some one about it the want aloan of the DVD , get a hold of this and if you want to lose it tell your friends tomas

thomas Brawley 14 alderston place bellshill scotland

The longer I watched this documentary, the more my mind kept drifting back to my days of protest in the 60s and early 70s --picketing draft boards, marches for peace and just speaking out.
I followed Martin Luther King in his efforts and vowed to be non-violent. But it was a learning experience to see more about those who went on to some violence,although described as against property and buildings, not people
But what about today? My first thought was whether under the Patriot Act, some federal officials would be monitoring my rental of this DVD. Wow!
I would like to learn who the insurgents in Iraq are, and more about their motives. Also others described as insurgents around the world. Which ones are terrorists, and which ones perhaps patriots fighting occupation by a foreign power, or globalization?
And what can we do, what should we do in the present? What can we learn from the experience of the Weather Underground? I agree with other reviewers that the movie is rather sympathetic to the Weathermen and Weatherwomen. But it excells in having them tell a lot of their own story. If nothing else, the movie revived a lot of old direct action memories from my past, and left me wondering what to do here, now, and tomorrow to make this a better (and hopefully more peaceful) world.
Definitely see it, and see what you think.

This film changed my view about a the weathermen and women, and it moved me deeply. You come to understand why they did what they did, and if you are my age of 50, you remember your own urgent and desperate feelings of being responsible to make a difference with the war in Vietnam and the horrible pain it caused for millions of innocent people. The Weathermen were part of a huge movement all over the world, and they chose the way of militant action, which was a dead end lane in many countries, especially here in Europe. Their way was special though, they had the courage to stop their plans to kill right in the beginning - after a shocking blast that killed three of themselves - and expressed their protest against the murdering war by destroying buildings, but without hurting anybody.
I was impressed and touched by the honesty and self-awareness of the 5 people of the former Weather Underground, who shared their thoughts and fears and insecurities about that decade and their actions. Dealing with your own history and impact with care and respect for the person you were, accepting different views today without discrediting your past as foolish or stupid; taking another stand in the world today without getting rid of your ideals of a better world with freedom and dignity for every living being - that's what I took with me from this film. Thank you for the good work. Annette Schiffmann in Heidelberg, Germany

This documentary traces the history, activities and current lives of the Weathermen Underground, from about 1969, when they broke off from SDS, to today. Most of the old familiar faces are represented: Bernardine Dohrn, Mark Rudd, Bill Ayers, David Gilbert, Laura Whitehorn, Naomi Jaffe, Kathleen Cleaver, etc. They started as a holier-than-thou faction dedicated to "direct action," beginning with the "Days of Rage" in Chicago in which their "revolutionary acts" consisted of breaking windows of upscale stores. They then graduated to setting off bombs in public buildings. They also formed communes in which anything smacking of civilized behavior was regarded as "bourgeois," and all conventions were to be abandoned, including monogamous and heterosexual sex.
The level of sanctimony, arrogance and sheer, unadulterated stupidity overwhelmed me, as they issued manifestos in which they loftily decreed that anyone enjoying a Thanksgiving or Xmas dinner in the face of the Vietnam genocide, oppression of blacks, etc., was an enemy and was complicit, yadda-yadda. After the famous Village townhouse blast, they went underground, and as the Vietnam war ground down and other movements rose (feminism, gay rights, etc.), they eventually gave themselves up.
Their "movement" was a study in futility, never accomplished anything, died of inanition. It was also dangerous. They seemed to be motivated by nothing more than delayed adolescent rebellion, guilt over their (mostly) overprivileged backgrounds, desperation to "prove themselves" to the Black Panthers, who alternately scorned them, ripped them off and (correctly, IMO) saw them as a threat--mindless Weathermen violence brought big heat down on the Panthers, who were shot and killed by police while the all-white Weathermen walked.
The modern interviews are interesting. Most of them look befuddled and sound regretful. In fact, only a few of the white-skins served any time in jail, despite their admitted violence, because the legal system that they hated ruled that the FBI had violated their rights via break-ins and other illegal "Cointelpro" tactics used against them. The FBI Director was indicted, not most of the Weathermen. Some of them try to justify their violence by claiming that the war in Vietnam made them "crazy," and hasten to point out that they timed their bombings to avoid hurting people. But David Gilbert is serving a 75-year sentence in Attica for his part in the famous 1980 Brinks robbery that left three cops (including a black man) dead.