The Sixth Side of the Pentagon
Directed by Chris Marker and Francois Reichenbach
Written by Chris Marker
1968/France
IMDb link
First viewing/Criterion Channel
[box] And it’s one, two, three/ What are we fighting for?/ Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn/ Next stop is Vietnam – “Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag”, Country Joe and the Fish[/box]
French directors capture the carnival atmosphere and brutality of the March for Peace on Washington.
On October 21, 1967, thousands of anti-war protestors gathered in Washington to demonstrate against the War in Vietnam. They were joined by pro-war activists and neo-Nazis staging counter demonstrations plus hundreds of military police struggling to keep the protestors in line and away from the Pentagon.
I enjoyed this time capsule of the TV news that plagued our family dinner-time drama in 1968. I think there’s enough stuff for people to get that riled up about now but it might take sending unwilling boys off to die to stir up the intensity of these protests.
Country Joe McDonald in Woodstock (1969)
