Film

FTA

Name: FTA
Genre: Comedy, Documentary, Music
Released: 1972
Cast: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Pamela Donegan, Len Chandler, Michael Alaimo

Musical

A 1972 documentary capturing Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland's guerrilla theatre tour, performing anti-war comedy and music to soldiers near military bases during Vietnam. Raw, agitprop, funny, and confrontational—a time capsule of radical activism at its most earnest. For anyone curious about how artists weaponized entertainment against war, or what the American left actually believed then.

If you liked this

Coming Home1978

Jon Voight and Jane Fonda explore anti-war sentiment and sexual liberation in this intimate drama about a soldier's wife and a paralysed veteran. Fonda's real-world activism gains emotional texture here.

But It's a conventional narrative drama, not a documentary, so it softens the radical edge into melodrama. The 1970s earnestness may feel heavy-handed now.

The Trial of the Chicago 72020

Aaron Sorkin's energetic courtroom drama about activists prosecuted after the 1968 Democratic Convention, capturing the same era's left-wing ferment and government paranoia with crackling dialogue.

But It's sanitised for Netflix and awards season. The real events were messier and more chaotic than Sorkin's neat dramatic structure allows.

Alice's Restaurant1969

Arlo Guthrie's absurdist protest song becomes a semi-autobiographical film about draft resistance. Experimental, funny, and genuinely strange—folk protest filtered through 1960s counterculture logic.

But Structurally unconventional to the point of formlessness. If you want a traditional narrative, this will frustrate you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from FTA

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Monterey Pop1968

Both are documents of how musicians and performers used their platform to shape political consciousness in that specific moment. One looks forward with hope, the other looks forward with alarm.

D.A. Pennebaker's concert documentary captures the folk-rock generation's optimism and artistic brilliance. The performers FTA would have known—the same moment, same music, same politics—but from the festival stage instead of the protest tour.

But It's about a single event and without dramatic throughline. The mystique of 1960s counterculture can read as dated or naïve now.

Medium Cool1969

Haskell Wexler's fever-dream about a news cameraman during the 1968 Convention riots. Shot documentary-style with real unrest woven in, it captures the collision of media and activism better than any film.

But The politics are expressed through visual montage and mood rather than argument. Plot takes a back seat to atmosphere and provocation.

The War at Home1979

Documentary about the anti-war movement in Madison, Wisconsin using archival footage and interviews. Direct, unglamorous, and locally focused—shows how activism actually happened in American towns.

But Low budget and deliberately unglamorous. It doesn't build narrative tension or offer hero's-journey satisfaction.

Winter Soldier1972

Documentary of the 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation where Vietnam veterans testified about war crimes. Harrowing, credible, and completely overlooked—the anti-war movement from inside the military.

But Testimony-heavy and repetitive by design. It's a record of a hearing, not a shaped dramatic experience. Emotionally draining.

Johnny Got His Gun1971

Dalton Trumbo adapted his own pacifist novel about a soldier rendered a quadriplegic and blind. Surreal, angry, and visually inventive—anti-war art that refuses comfort.

But The metaphysical sequences are baffling and the film's formal experimentalism doesn't always land. It's a difficult watch by intention.

Nightcrawler2014

Both examine how cameras and performance intersect with power. FTA believed activists could use media as a weapon for good; Nightcrawler asks who the real predators are when the cameras are rolling.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a freelance cameraman who profits from urban chaos and violence. It's the dark mirror of Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool—the same question about media, complicity, and exploitation, but from 40 years later when cynicism has won.

But Deeply nihilistic and nasty. It offers no redemptive framework or political hope. After FTA's earnest activism, this will feel ice-cold.