1971
DVD
Review by Kam Williams
Challenge
Authority Documentary
Recounts How Radicals Uncovered FBI Cointelpro 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:
First Run Features
DVD
Extras: 85-minute conversation with Edward Snowden about 1971 and the
Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI.
To order
a copy of 1971 on DVD, visit:
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