"1971" is a documentary about a group of anti-Vietnam war activists taking their pacifism a step further. Responding to rumors that the FBI was spying on them, they planned and successfully pulled off a burglary of an FBI regional office in Media, Pa in 1971. What they found confirmed not only their fears but also that it was even worse than they previously imagined, especially as it relates to the formerly top secret program COINTELPRO. In dispensing the files to media outlets, this also served as a precedent for future whistleblowers such as in the cases of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. And that relevance continues to the present day. "1971" also serves as a neat visual companion to Betty Medsger's book "The Burglary" by using archival footage to visualize the times, while making suspenseful use of reconstructions.(As one of the journalists who received the files at the Washington Post, she is also interviewed in the documentary, along with the burglars.) At the same time, the book goes into greater detail, especially on the subject of how exactly J. Edgar Hoover's unchallenged cult of personality hurt the FBI over the decades.