This film is a mixture of documentary footage and conventional narrative.
It tells the story of a tough news camera-man (Robert Forster) who falls for a young widow (Verna Bloom) and befriends her thirteen-year-old son, against the back-drop of the riots in Chicago in 1968.
The film utilises both professional actors and non-professionals, to very good effect. In fact there are scenes, such as the riot sequences, where there is a genuine sense of danger.
The main flaw in the film is that the love story is not well-handled and often quite dull, the far more interesting events are happening elsewhere.
This is a deeply political work and is savagely critical of the callous and cynical media, which distorts people's perceptions of the world.
Worth watching for anyone interested in the sixties, political cinema or American independent film.
Great soundtrack too.
