MovieChat Forums > The Weather Underground (2003) Discussion > Don't miss David Gilbert on DVD

Don't miss David Gilbert on DVD


I thought this was a great film -- well paced, informative. I lived through this truly difficult period in history, and I thought the filmmakers and participants acquitted themselves very well.

One of the best 'peripheral' things about the DVD is the interview (in prison) with David Gilbert, a former Weather member who started as a pacifist and saw his life spiral out of control.

Gilbert is extremely articulate, and he brilliantly explains the awful angst that these people were going through, plodding along, not really have any precedent from which to draw inspiration or knowledge.

Gilbert is serving an absurd '75-to-life' prison term for a incident not related to Weather. With considerable dignity, he is still fighting, still aligned with the seemingly impossible struggle for some semblance of voice and equity in a hopelessly alienating capitalist system.

The interview is terrific. Gibert emerges, perhaps ironically considering the circumstances, as a most thoughtful spokesperson for eminent common sense.

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How do you figure the sentence for the MURDER of three people to be absurd?? I happen to live in the town where the 1981 Brinks Robbery happened; an armored car driver and two police men were gunned down by these thugs all in the supposed name of political activism. He belongs where he is and should rot there.

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My reference to 'absurd' had to do with the wording of the sentence and not David Gilbert's role in the murder case. He was in his late 30s when he was sentenced to '75-years-to-life'. If I follow that, it means if he lives to, say, 110 years old, he still won't be eligible for parole, but will still have to serve 'life'. I thought it was absurd. Why not just 'life imprisonment, with no chance of parole'? The wording reminded me of some guy sentenced last year to '245 years in prison with no chance of parole'. I'm sorry about the painful memories you have of that incident.

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I believe he was sentenced to three separate 25 years to life terms, one for each victim. Thank you by the way for your expression of sympathy, I have a lot of animosity for the man as he has never admitted his actions were wrong.

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"I believe he was sentenced to three separate 25 years to life terms, one for each victim. Thank you by the way for your expression of sympathy, I have a lot of animosity for the man as he has never admitted his actions were wrong."
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Yeah, as right as I feel David Gilbert is about *some* things, this attitude he has that the bank heist was somehow justifiable in a (supposedly) repressive society is just plain deluded and immoral, and really discredits much of what he advertises as a humanistic, empathetic philosophy toward his fellow humankind. Some people are comfortable with their own blatant hypocrisies, I guess.

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There's no justifiable reason why Gilbert and the others convicted should ever be released from prison. What they did was not a "revolutionary act," it was a bank robbery turned murder. Plain and simple.

Dohrn, Ayres, Rudd, and several of the others interviewed in the film said that the apartment explosion was the point when they realized that they could not take human life or their struggle would be worthless. Gilbert seemingly never came to that realization. The man's not a political prisoner, he's a murderer.

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I sent the DVD back to netflix before i read this post. I may get it again. i thought Gilbert was the best thing in the video. He seemed objective about the Weathermen, what they did, etc.

I am not justifying his actions. he was thief, but he seems to accept that he needs to pay for what he did

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