CAHUN YOUR ENTHUSIASM (4)
By:
January 13, 2026
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… anti-fascist art! Series edited by Josh Glenn.
MEDIUM COOL
When cinematographer Haskell Wexler was offered a directing gig adapting The Concrete Wilderness (Jack Couffer, 1967) he had a radical idea. The year was 1968. The Vietnam War was on prime-time TV. Wexler’s documentary eye was evident in The Bus, shot on a Freedom Ride to DC in ’63. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April ’68. Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June ’68, just after winning the California primary. Civil Rights unrest and anti-war protests escalated to a tinderbox set for a spark. Wexler wanted to catch the impending volatility on film as it unfolded.
Inspired by the novel’s premise, that of a country boy transplanted to the city who falls in love with a dog, Wexler traded out the dog for rooftop pigeons and wrote a new narrative. His friend Studs Turkel provided Wexler legit entrée into a poor Appalachian community in the Chicago projects and Wexler set the boy’s story there. It was three months before the August 1968 Chicago DNC. Wexler knew that if he took his camera into the chaos, he could capture lightning.
He quickly wrote a prescient script, making informed guesses as to what could happen next. He followed the fictional boy Harold and his mother Eileen on a trajectory to meet cameraman John (Robert Forster), a stand-in for Wexler himself. In John’s opening scene, he films a woman injured in a car wreck. John gets his shot before calling an ambulance, encapsulating the “if it bleeds it leads” detachment of TV news.
Once the fictional protagonists are set on a collision course, Wexler turns his camera to reality — the seeds of chaos. Wexler films National Guardsmen playacting real troops in “battle” with soldiers dressed as “hippie” protesters. This ominous footage is laced with anxious laughter and clouds of talcum powder “teargas.” Wexler films real Black Power militants as they break the fourth wall and yell at “him,” the cameraman. One radical accuses the soundman of being a cop, something the fictional film crew deny. Back at the TV station, John discovers his boss has been sharing his footage with the FBI. He protests and is fired, marking the beginning of John’s awakening.
The film slate still says “The Concrete Wilderness” but the film’s real subject is the media itself. When Wexler realizes they need a new title, someone suggests Medium Cool, a phrase (describing the medium of TV) from McLuhan’s Understanding Media. John’s next fictional job is shooting the real DNC. As “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays and votes are counted, John is oblivious to the better news story outside. Eileen’s fictional character and the real actress (Verna Bloom) merge as Eileen/Verna wanders, shocked, into the live chaos while protestors chant “The whole world is watching.” Wexler heads into the mayhem right behind her, and films Eileen/Verna watching cops bashing the heads of the protestors. Wexler again gets gassed, but this time it’s the real thing.
Wexler, a prescient and deft filmmaker, wandered, as if by happenstance, but with clear intention, smack into the exact film he wanted to make. A masterpiece of cinema verité, Medium Cool ends in an homage to Godard, as Wexler pivots his camera to shoot you, the viewer.
CAHUN YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Mark Kingwell on ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON | Lynn Peril on ZAZOUS | Judith Zissman on DIE GEDANKEN SIND FREI | Annie Nocenti on MEDIUM COOL | Mike Watt on FASCIST | William Nericcio on LALO ALCARAZ | Josh Glenn on THE LADY VANISHES | Carlo Rotella on INQUIETUD | Heather Quinlan on CASABLANCA | Adam McGovern on HEART OF GLASS (Mad Jenny) | Matthew Battles on WOODY’S GUITAR | Carl Wilson on PALACES OF GOLD | Ramona Lyons on UPRIGHT WOMEN WANTED | Lucy Sante on CAMOUFLAGE | Adelina Vaca on TBD | Tom Nealon on THE BARON IN THE TREES | Nikhil Singh on PARIS PEASANT | Mandy Keifetz on THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED | Gordon Dahlquist on THE CONFORMIST | Alex Brook Lynn on WHY WE FIGHT | Gabriela Pedranti on THE ETERNAUT | Heather Kapplow on ANTI-FASCIST PASTA | Marc Weidenbaum on (WHAT’S SO FUNNY ’BOUT) PEACE, LOVE, AND UNDERSTANDING | Peggy Nelson on PUPPETS | Sonia Marques on CARNATIONS AGITPROP.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!