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Review

An incendiary document of one of the most violent and passionate movements in American history, this film makes for chilling, viewing.

Sam Green and Bill Siegel's documentary is a balanced examination of the rise and fall of the Weathermen, a radical offshoot of the Students for a Democratic Society. Nearly 40 years ago, the Weathermen took up arms and explosives and went underground intending to overthrow the U.S. government, seeking an end to the war in Vietnam, racism and capitalism through guerrilla actions. While many may view their acts as reckless and foolhardy domestic terrorism, interviews with former members (both freed and incarcerated), chilling archival news clips and found footage explore the psychology of their revolutionary activism. Similarly, through FBI documents, the film reveals government suppression of political dissent in the '60s and '70s, as well as the role of other social movements of the time, particularly the Black Panthers. The film neither glorifies nor excoriates the members for their actions, preferring to let the participants themselves—including Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and Naomi Jaffe, all of whom are active in progressive causes today—recount their actions in a rhetoric tempered by the passage of time and hindsight.

 -- William Kline