Assisted by a massive amount of contemporary interviews, the documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution appears at a very good time to reflect on the movement, its impact and its mistakes. The Black Panthers, of course, were the often militant and often misunderstood group that formed in urban areas all over America in the turbulent 1960s. Naturally, such an examination of the Panthers is timely because of Black Lives Matter, and worth a look to understand the context of its times. Many key members of the group’s inner circle are featured; two of the leaders of the Panthers, Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, are dead, and the other, Bobby Seale, is curiously missing from this film. But it’s a well-assembled, evenhanded look back at an important group that ultimately consumed itself, just like the rest of the 1960s.