Analysis Of Haskell Wexler's Film Medium Cool

Medium Cool Analysis By 1968 in America, police violence had escalated significantly, racial tensions had heightened, and there was growing dissent over the war in Vietnam. With all of the political issues taking place, there was a strong and general distrust in the American government and local authorities. In Haskell Wexler's film “Medium Cool”, the media is desensitized to the events that surround it. The film explores the exploitation of journalism, the responsibility that reporters hold in context to their stories, and the nature of the camera. The government may be seen as the problem to some for the political violence that came from this time, but I’d argue that Medium Cool highlights just how corrupt and unethical the media really is. Instead of tear gas, guns, and batons, the camera is the ultimate weapon. “Is that thing loaded?” jokes the manager of the shooting range during an interview. The nature of the

But since reality is at the hands of reporters and cameramen, achieving the truth isn’t always the case. One scene in particular that showcases this idea is when John and his girlfriend Ruth are in bed together. She recalls a scene from the Italian film Mondo Cane, in which sea turtles are filmed crawling the wrong direction to lay their eggs and eventually die because of the radiation from a bomb that was released. The question that is raised is, did the cameraman turn the turtles around after shooting them? Should they have? Would it be a violation of their role as objective observers? This scene reveals the idea that the media has the ability to influence and manipulate what it’s viewers are seeing. People have been conditioned to believe what is presented to them on screen, therefore they don’t always question the truth behind what they are seeing. Their reality lies in the hands of the