The Sixth
Side of the Pentagon
by Chris Marker and Francois Reichenbach
First Run/Icarus Films, Brooklyn, NY,
2007
DVD, 26 mins., B/W
The
Embassy
by Chris
Marker
First Run/Icarus Films, Brooklyn, NY,
1973
DVD, 21 mins., B/W
Both videos are on the same DVD:
Sale/DVD: $348; rental/DVD: $100
Distributors website: http://www.frif.com.
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
Saginaw Valley State University
mosher@svsu.edu
The Sixth Side of the Pentagon,
directed by Chris Marker and Francois
Reichenbach, is a 26-minute documentary
film of an antiwar demonstration that
assembled at the headquarters of the US
military in 1967. The film quotes the
official figure of 35,00 marchers assembled
in protest on that summery October day,
representing groups opposed to US troops
in Vietnam that were motivated by politics
"from Ghandi to Castro". Like
the similar demonstrations filmed by New
York Newsreel, Marker and twA as no-nonsense
as Bunuels "Land Without Bread",
Markers narrative is like a play-by-play
football game. The film is fast moving,
made up of short cuts, prefiguring the
MTV rock video style by 15 or 20 years.
In a prelude to the main event, we glimpse
the organizing committees tiny office,
people on the phone, and a tiny counter-demonstration
by American Nazis. Young men begin returning
their draft cards to the government, and
a speaker mentions the days symbolic
"revolt of Negroes". The demonstration
begins in earnest with a moment of silencemonumental
when observed by a crowd of 35,000 or
morein memory of Che Guevara,
recently killed in Bolivia. Chaplain William
Sloane Coffin of Yale University carries
a weird, militaristic torch. Folksingers
Peter, Paul and Mary strum and croon.
The crowd shots show many young demonstrators
with transistor radios pressed to their
ears. Marker compares the moment to the
"start of a country fair."
Various chants erupt, including "Hell
no, we wont go!" A puppet show
is staged, and a commentator links the
event to resistance movements in Vietnam,
Bolivia, and Israel. We see the approaching
figures marching from the Lincoln Memorial
to the Pentagon, and the camera pans at
belt-level over linked arms. Teenage and
20-something marchers wear bells, sandals,
ponchos, and loafers. Theres banner
this reviewer has seen recently applied
to the Iraq war, SUPPORT OUR G.I.SBRING
THEM HOME"
"Out, demons, out!" chant Ed
Sanders, Allen Ginsberg, and fellow Yippies
who commence to levitate the Pentagon
(it is noted they were issued an official
permit limiting them to only 10 yards
above the ground). Other demonstrators
are ready for "direct action",
sporting Vietcong flags and motorcycle
helmets, despite organizers pleas
to "Keep nonviolent!." Marker
romantically compares them to the battle-ready
troops at Agincourt. As demonstrators
are shoved by billyclub-wielding white-gloved
policemen, we appreciate how the documentary
camera is in the thick of things. Over
a chant of "Peace now!" we witness
the abuse of a very young, frightened
woman demonstrator, and the steadfastness
of grizzled antiwar World War Two (or
One?) veterans. The narrator announces
"Other wings unfold. The county fair
is over."
Ten demonstrators get into the Pentagons
entrance hallway, opposed by helmeted
marshals with clubs. A kid implores "Why
are you scared, man?" to frightened,
gum-chewing soldiers, a look of terror
on a vulnerable guard. Marker switches
from color to black and white footage.
A woman throws a flower down before the
troops guns, daring them to pick
it up. Athletic demonstrators climb to
a second-story terrace on ropes, and burn
their draft cards there. The remaining
demonstrators huddle in the night around
campfires.
At sunrise, we see silhouettes of helmeted
troops; according to earlier narration,
three thousand soldiers had been sent
to meet the demonstrators. A sequence
of still photographs show demonstrators
who spent the night in jail, including
Norman Mailer, who then turned the experience
of the demonstration into the book Armies
of the Night. The narrator says that,
despite the comforts of TV and sandwiches,
the experience helped radicalize many
of the arrested protesters, who have "moved
on to political action". Marker seeks
a summarizing analysis and questions the
demonstrations effect on the war,
and on society. An answer is provided
by a 15 year-old girl who attended the
demonstration: "I have changed."
At this simple truth, the film ends on
a shot of a students fresh, young
face.
The second film on the DVD, The Embassy,
is a 21-minute tale from 1973. It purports
to be a found super-8 film documenting
the plight of political refugees who found
sanctuary in a townhouse-like embassy
following a military coup in their unnamed
country. The movies initial audience
would have been cognizant of the coup
that, on September 11, 1973, overthrew
the government of Chile. Tense but placid
narration recounts horrors and displacement,
including a shooting on the street directly
below. People dine, are caught worrying,
in long silent shots, as if surreptitiously
glimpsed. We see the middle-class people
in silhouettes, and there is "not
one worker" among them. The man about
60 with a Russian name falls asleep on
the floor.
"Through the windows, we see a dead
city." The military security headquarters
has two floors lit all night. Time passes,
though all residents of the embassy are
evidently bathing regularly and finding
sufficient clothing. A child plays with
a pet turtle. People sing folk songs with
a guitar. The cordial Ambassador vacuums
the carpet himself, as his wife watches.
As there is no photo lab on the premises
to process the film, "the images
stay in suspension, like us." This
is a slight film, but interesting. It
seems improvised, as if Marker were at
a party and wondered what kind of political
film he could make, indoors with these
people, in one long weekend afternoon.
The group finally leaves in a van leading
to their exile, passing through a city
theyve "known since age three".
Like the Hollywood movie of that era,
Planet of the Apes, the films
denouement (I wont spoil it with
precision) is the revelation that the
refugees home country is a "first
world" one.