William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe (2009)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe is a documentary film which premiered in 2009.

 

It was shown on US television (PBS) in 2010; it is an episode of the long-running program POV (Point of View) (season 23 episode 02).

 

The topic is the life and career of William Kunstler, a famous and controversial American lawyer and civil rights activist who took on cases and defended clients most other lawyers would never touch. Prime examples are:

 

** The Case of the Chicago Seven

** The Case of the Attica Prison Riot

** The Case of the American Indian Movement

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Producers and directors: Emily Kunstler (born 1978) and Sarah Kunstler (born 1976)

** Narrator: Emily Kunstler

** Run time: 85 minutes

 

Several persons are interviewed in the film. The complete list is quite long, but I have decided to list all names in order to show you that Emily and Sarah put a lot of effort into this film about the life and career of their father.

 

Some of the persons who are interviewed here were quite old at the time when they were interviewed. Some of them are no longer alive. Here are the names (listed in alphabetical order):

 

** Herman Badillo (1929-2014) – US Congressman 1971-1977 – Attica observer

** Dennis Banks (1937-2017) – AIM leader

** Clyde Bellecourt (born 1936) – AIM leader

** Harry Belafonte (1927-2023) – actor - artist – civil rights activist

 

** Daniel Berrigan (1921-2016) – Jesuit priest – activist

** Julian Bond (1940-2015) – civil rights activist – chairman of the NAACP

** Jimmy Breslin (1928-2017) – journalist

** Alan Dershowitz (born 1938) – lawyer

 

** Phil Donahue (born 1935) - journalist

** Elizabeth Fink (1945-2015) - lawyer

** Jean Fritz (1915-2017) – juror in the case of the Chicago Seven

** Karin Kunstler Goldman – lawyer – William’s daughter

 

** Tom Hayden (1939-2016) – student activist – defendant in the case of the Chicago 7 or 8

** Bruce Jackson – professor, SUNY, Buffalo

** Gregory Joey Johnson (born 1956) - activist

** Ron Kuby (born 1956) – lawyer – William’s law partner 1983-1995

 

** Margaret Ratner Kunstler – lawyer – William’s wife - mother of Emily and Sarah

** Nancy Kurshan (born 1944) - activist

** Gerald Lefcourt (born 1941) - lawyer

** C. Vernon Mason - lawyer

 

** William Means – AIM leader

** Michael Ratner (1943-2016)

** M. Paul Redd – civil rights activist

** Yusef Salaam = defendant in the Central Park case – convicted 1990 – exonerated 2002

 

** Bobby Seale (born 1936) - defendant in the case of the Chicago 7 or 8

** Barry Slotnick (born 1939) - lawyer

** Michael Smith – prison guard during the Attica Prison riot in 1971

** Lynne Stewart (1939-2017) - lawyer

 

** M. Wesley Sweringen (born 1927) – FBI agent 1951-1977

** Madonna Thunderhawk (born 1940) - AIM

** Leonard (Len) Weinglass (1933-2011) – lawyer

 

Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to illustrate the life and times of William Kunstler. Archive footage makes it possible for us to meet the main character: William Kunstler (1919-1995). When Emily and Sarah made their film, he was no longer alive.

 

When a child makes a documentary film about a parent, there is always a risk that something may go wrong. The film may be too positive or it may be the opposite: too negative.

 

A film which is too positive or too negative will not be of much interest to the general public. In this case, two daughters are making a film about their father. Fortunately, they did not go to extremes.

 

Emily and Sarah have created a serious and valuable film about the life and career of their father. It is a loving portrait, but it is not uncritical. As far as I can tell, it is honest and fair. 

 

They want to tell us the whole story. They want to tell us all that is relevant. The result is a fascinating account of the life and times of William Kunstler: the man, the father, and the lawyer.

 

What do reviewers say about it? 

 

Here are some results:

 

62 percent = Meta

77 percent – IMDb

78 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

79 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

 

As you can see, the ratings are quite good. But if you ask me, they are not good enough.

 

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of 100 percent (five stars).

 

PS # 1. The title of this film Disturbing the Universe is borrowed from a book by the British-American scientist Dyson Freeman (1923-2020) whose autobiography Disturbing the World was published in 1979.

 

PS # 2. Who We Are: A Chronicle of racism in America is a documentary film which premiered in 2021. 

It is directed by Emily and Sarah Kunstler. 

My review of this film was posted in June 2023:

Who We Are

 

PS # 3. The trial of the Chicago Seven or Eight is the subject of two historical dramas:

 

** Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 (1987) – In this movie, the role of William Kunstler is played by Robert Loggia

** The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) – In this movie, the role of William Kunstler is played by Mark Rylance

 

REFERENCES

 

# 1. BOOKS BY WILLIAM KUNSTLER

 

** My Life as a Radical Lawyer (1994) (1996)

** Politics on Trial: Five Famous Trials of the 20th Century (2001) (2002)

** The Emerging Police State: Resisting Illegitimate Authority (2004)

 

# 2. A BIOGRAPHY

William Kunstler: The Most Hated Lawyer in America by David J. Langum (1999)

 

*****

 

 

The two sisters:

Emily and Sarah Kunstler

(Emily on the left and Sarah on the right)

*****

The Glorias (2020)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Glorias is a historical and biographical drama which premiered in 2020.

 

The main character is the American feminist Gloria Steinem who is an activist and an author. In 1972 she was a co-founder of Ms. Magazine.

 

Here is some basic information about this biopic:

 

** Director: Julie Taymor

** Writers: Julie Taymor and Sarah Ruhl

** Based on the book My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem (published in 2015)

** Run time: 147 minutes

 

Gloria Steinem was born in 1934. This biopic covers her life and career over several decades: from the time when she was a child until the present day when she is a mature adult.

 

The story does not follow a chronological line from the distant past to the present day. Instead, it jumps back and forth in time. At first this is a bit confusing. But after a while you will get used to it and when you understand the system, you will be able to understand what is going on.

 

To cover so many years, four different actors were chosen to play the role of Gloria:

 

# 1. Ryan Kiera Armstrong is the child

# 2. Lulu Wilson is the teenager

# 3. Alicia Wikander is the young adult (age 20-40)

# 4. Julianne Moore is the mature adult (age over 40)

 

This biopic is a combination of two elements:

 

(1) The facts of life

(2) A fantasy or a dream

 

There are four Glorias here! In some scenes, two of them or three of them meet each other, talk to each other, and offer advice to each other about what to do in life!

 

The remaining cast includes the following:

 

** Betty Midler as Bella Abzug (1920-1998) – feminist – activist – lawyer - politician

** Janelle Monae as Dorothy Pitman Hughes (born 1938) – feminist – author - in 1972 co-founder of Ms. Magazine

** Lorraine Toussaint as Florynce Kennedy (1916-2000) – lawyer – feminist

** Kimberley Guerrero as Wilma Mankiller (1945-2010) – Native American – Cherokee activist

 

** Mango Moorer as Barbara Jordan (1936-1996) – lawyer – civil rights activist

** Monica Sanchez as Dolores Huerta (born 1930) – labor organizer

** Timothy Hutton as Leo Steinem – Gloria’s father

** Enid Graham as Ruth Steinem – Gloria’s mother

 

Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. I could mention many of them here, but I am not going to do that. I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. I will, however, have to mention a few details in order to explain my rating (see below).

 

While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here.

 

Some details have been added or changed or excluded for practical reasons or dramatic purposes.

 

As stated above, some scenes are based on a fantasy or a dream. But otherwise, the story is true.

 

What do reviewers say about this historical and biographical drama? Here are the results of three review aggregators:

 

54 percent = IMDb

58 percent – Meta

64 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

67 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

 

As you can see, the ratings are neither bad nor great. They are average. They correspond to something like three stars on Amazon.

 

If you ask me, these ratings are too low. On the other hand, I cannot go all the way to the top, because there are at least two flaws which cannot be overlooked. Let me explain:

 

# 1. In the year 2000, when she is more than 60, Gloria marries Christian Bale. The marriage does not last long, because he dies just three years later, in 2003. But this is not the point here. What I want to say is this:

 

** How did this happen?

** Where did he come from?

 

Christian Bale appears out of the blue and she marries him, even though he she has been opposed to the institution of marriage for most of her adult life!

 

The marriage ceremony, which appears towards the end of the movie, is performed by a Native American, Wilma Mankiller, who is a close friend of Gloria. It is a big deal. But it does not really fit with what we have been told so far.

 

When it comes to her personal life, some parts are covered, while other parts are excluded. We see her mother and her father. But we never see her with a boyfriend. Are we supposed to believe that Gloria Steinem never had a boyfriend?

 

Obviously, she did have boyfriends, but we never see them in the movie. This is an odd detail to exclude in a biopic about a famous feminist.

 

# 2. Gloria has an older sister. Her name is Susanne Steinem Patch and she lived from 1925 to 2007. She was a gem stone expert and a lawyer. But you would not know any of these facts from watching this movie.

 

In this movie, we meet her mother and her father, but we never meet her sister! This is an odd detail to exclude from the story of Gloria’s life.

 

CONCLUSION

I like this movie and I want to give it a good rating, but as you can see, there are some flaws which cannot be ignored. I have to remove one star because of them. Therefore, I think this drama deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).

 

PS. The following review is available online:

 

Adrian Horton,

“Gloria Steinem biopic is a laughably shoddy mess,”

The Guardian, 29 September 2020.

This review offers 1 of 5 stars (a rating of 20 percent)

If you ask me, this rating is not fair. It is far too low.

 

REFERENCES

 

** Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem by Carolyn Heilbrun (1995)

 

** Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique by Sydney Ladensohn Stern (1997)

 

** Ms. Gloria Steinem: A Life by Winifred Conkling (2020)

 

*****

 

Gloria Steinem (born 1934)

 

*****