HASKELL WEXLER, ASC and MEDIUM COOL (1969), PART 1

I posted about this film precisely three years ago, on August 11, 2020 (Medium Cool, Haskell Wexler, ASC and This Very Moment).  I addressed a single scene and segued into commentary on my personal relationship with Wexler.  The current post sprouted from an encounter with the January 1970 issue of American Cinematographer and the article by Herb Lightman, titled, The Filming of Medium Cool.  Lightman was a long-time editor of the magazine and I’m using his work as a touchstone to make some important points.

            Fifty-four years after its release, Medium Cool remains an amazing achievement.  Wexler – whom we more easily recognize as a multi-Oscar-winning cinematographer and ASC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient – wore quite a few hats while making this film.  In addition to writing the script, he fulfilled every auteurist’s fantasy by co-producing, directing and photographing it, as well.  And keep in mind, this was no Super8, crowd-sourced home movie or trendy indie of the moment.  Medium Cool was a major Paramount production intended for wide distribution.  Considering the film’s subversive narrative and dearth of marquee names, this never fails to astonish me.  Today, directors of studio movies are limited to a few subjects and must go through hell to get them made.

            Fortunately for Wexler, things were different when he began his crusade.  I’ve said this before, yet it bears re-stating.  By every measure imaginable, we are living in irrational times.  But compared to the madness afoot during principal photography of Medium Cool in the summer of 1968, our world looks like Barbieland.

            I’ll let Lightman do the heavy lifting.  His account is fascinating.

             Bonus fact: Medium Cool scored the AC cover that month.  This’s no small thing to achieve today; back then, it was huge!  It’s also important to note what an achievement completing the film was for Wexler.  It’s a small, personal, idiosyncratic statement that even in its more freewheeling era had to have been a hard sell to studio executives.  If anyone proposed something like that in 2023, they’d be laughed right out onto Melrose Avenue!

            Part One of the article appears below.  Come back for Part Two on Tuesday.