The Weather Underground - 2002

The Weather Underground explores the unbelievable story of the Weathermen, the the real violence.

notorious group of 70 s radicals who, outraged by the Vietnam War and racism in America, went underground to wage a low-level war against the U.S. government, bombing targets across the country that they felt symbolized

From pitched battles with police on Chicago's city streets, to bombing the U.S. Capitol building, to breaking acid-guru Timothy Leary out of prison, this carefully organized clandestine network attempted to incite a national revolution, while successfully evading one of the largest FBI manhunts in history.

One of the top documentaries, this award-winning film interweaves extensive archival material with modern-day interviews to explore the incredible story of The Weather Underground.

As former members reflect candidly about the idealistic passion that drove them to bring the war home, they paint a compelling portrait of troubled and revolutionary times, with unexpected and often striking connections to the current world situation.

When the Beatles land in America in the early 1960s, young men wearing their hair long strike the nation as an abomination. But within a few years, youthful rebellion grows more severe: Witness the Weathermen, the radical antiwar activists who mobilize (unsuccessfully) to overthrow the U.S. government. With contemporary interviews and archival footage, this documentary elucidates the Weather Underground's controversial history and continuing significance.

The Weather Underground is a 2002 documentary film based on the rise and fall of the American radical organization The Weathermen. Using much archive footage from the time as well as interviews with the Weathermen today, the film constructs a linear narrative of the organization.

The film, directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel won the audience choice award at the Chicago Underground Film Festival and went on to be nominated for an Academy Award in 2004.

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

Synopsis:

A group of young American radicals announced their intention to overthrow the U.S. government. In 'The Weather Underground', former Underground members, including Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Mark Rudd, David Gilbert and Brian Flanagan, speak publicly about the idealistic passion that drove them to "bring the war home" and the trajectory that placed them on the FBI's most wanted list. Fueled by outrage over racism and the Vietnam War, the Weather Underground waged a low-level war against the U.S. government through much of the 1970s--bombing targets across the country that they considered emblematic of the real violence that the U.S. was wreaking throughout the world. Ultimately, the group's carefully organized clandestine network managed to successfully evade one of the largest manhunts in FBI history, yet the group's members would reemerge to life in a country that was dramatically different than the one they had hoped their efforts would inspire. Extensive archival material, including, photographs, film footage and FBI documents are interwoven with modern-day interviews to trace the group's path, from its pitched battles with police on Chicago's streets, to its bombing of the U.S. Capitol, to its successful endeavor breaking acid-guru Timothy Leary out of prison. The film explores the Weathermen in the context of other social movements of the time and features interviews with former members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Black Panthers. It also examines the U.S. government's suppression of dissent in the 1960s and 1970s. Looking back at their years underground, the former members paint a compelling portrait of troubled times, revolutionary times, and the forces that drove their resistance.