1971 (FILM REVIEW)
1971
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Headline:
Whistleblower Documentary Recounts Break-In Uncovering
Illegal FBI Surveillance Program
On the evening
of March 8, 1971, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier squared-off in a heavyweight
championship bout billed as The Fight of the Century. At that very same moment,
while the rest of the world’s attention was riveted on Madison
Square Garden,
eight antiwar activists used that event as a distraction to stage a daring break-in
of an FBI field office in Media,
Pennsylvania.
The meticulously-planned operation
went off without a hitch, and they managed to cram every file on the premises into
suitcases. The audacious octet had no idea until later that they had purloined shocking
proof of the Bureau’s wholesale violations of U.S. citizens’ Constitutional rights
via an illegal counterintelligence program nicknamed COINTELPRO.
Dubbing themselves, the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the
FBI, the group Xeroxed the evidence and mailed photocopies to numerous news
outlets, most of which refused to publish them. But once one magazine finally did
print it, a righteous national outrage ensued. And J. Edgar Hoover ended up
with egg on his face, given how he had been using taxpayer money to entrap and
spy on any liberals whose politics he did not share.
All of the above is recalled in fascinating fashion in 1971, a
whistleblower documentary directed by Johanna Hamilton. What’s interesting to
hear is how the participants in the theft eluded capture by the authorities for
decades. In fact, the only reason their identities are even known now is
because they decided to ‘fess up for the sake of this film.
A belated tribute to some fearless patriots with the gumption to
expose the FBI’s lawless ways and the wherewithal to evade apprehension by the
Bureau to boot!
Excellent
(4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 80 minutes
Studio: Fork Films
Distributor: The Film
Collaborative
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