Chicago 10

The time: August 1968. The place: the Chicago Amphitheater, host to that year's Democratic National Convention. The event: the riots that broke out when an assortment of "hippies, yippees and just plain kids" took to the streets to protest the US' continuing involvement in the Vietnam War. The march and sit-in, originally billed as a "Festival of Life," turned violent when the ramped-up police and National Guard forces, estimated at well over 25,000 strong, began tear-gassing and billy-clubbing the demonstrators on the last night of the convention – in full view of the nation's citizens who watched in shock and amazement as it unfolded on their TV sets at home.

The demonstrations were largely organized by The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, from whose leadership ranks would come many of the men destined to go down in the annals of anti-establishment folklore as the Chicago 7 (the 10 of the title comes from the inclusion of Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale, who had his trial severed, and the two lawyers). After the incident, these men were placed on trial, charged with conspiracy and with violating the Anti-Riot Act of 1968. All seven - David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, William Kunstler, Jerry Rubin, Rennie Davis and John Froines – were to wind up spending at least some time behind bars for their "crimes." Written and directed by Brett Morgan, the documentary "Chicago 10" blends amazing archival footage with animated re-enactments of the trial – based on actual court transcripts – with A-list actors like Hank Azaria, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider and Liev Schreiber providing the voices.

The movie provides a fascinating glimpse into not only those turbulent times but the minds of the men who helped to bring them about. For instance, it's amusing to note how the defendants treated the trial itself almost as if it were some form of subversive street-theater, in the hopes of antagonizing the conservative judge, Julius Hoffman (they really DO seem to have gotten under his skin), and destroying the court's authority in the process. Also, in the months when the trial was going on, the defendants would fan out across the country on their off-hours, lecturing on colleges campuses – with most of the speaking fees going to defray the cost of the trial - raising awareness among the students and becoming counter-culture celebrities and spokesmen for a whole new generation of politically activated youngsters. Then the men would return to Chicago to resume their roles in the trial.

The final twenty minutes or so of the movie - as we watch the government forces move in to disperse the protesters and the subsequent chaos that ensued - are riveting and eye-opening to say the least. But the whole movie is engaging and informative and reminds us of just how fragile a thing the right to free speech and assembly can be even in a country that prides itself on that being the very foundation upon which its democracy is built.

The Kid Stays in the Picture was a great documentary with a refreshing style that managed to keep me hooked into a subject that I honestly wasn't very interested in. So I was extremely excited to see Brett Morgen creating this documentary about history that I was very interesting in and.. Well, Morgen probably reached a little too far on this one.

This documentary is a mix of the very powerful archive footage of the demonstrations and events leading up to them, and a rather insipid animated recreation of the trial. There are no retrospective interviews (many of the 8 are now deceased) and there is no narration - both omissions that suit the style of the director and help emphasize the time and place of the events.

The archive footage could possibly have carried the film by itself. But this documentary is also about the trial. Without any footage or audio of the trial, how do you recreate it so that it appears as the farce that it was - while doing justice to the amazing news footage of protesters being maced and beaten? To do so would honestly have been an amazing accomplishment. Animating the trial was a bold move, but the end result is visually inadequate and mixes poorly with the news footage.

I have no problem with the use of animation, but the animation itself is of very low quality and isn't rather creative. For the trial scenes, I believe the intention was to create a comic look and feel to highlight the nature of the trial itself - but the uninspired designs are too smoothly rendered with wooden mo-cap movement that appears borderline uncanny valley. Other demonstration scenes were animated in a hand drawn/cut out style at an extremely jerky 3-4 frames per second that is difficult to watch to say the least - thankfully they are short. The one redeeming quality of the animation is the voice acting which is top notch across the board, even if Hank Azaria's Abbie Hoffman sounds a lot like Moe from The Simpsons.

My other complaint is the soundtrack, which is about half a mix of 90's rap and another half a mixed bag of pop and metal. The music has no connection to time or events and seems to only take away from the authenticity of the events. I've read the interviews where Morgen describes this movie as being about now, and not 1968 - but I think that is a disservice to the Chicago 8. Sure, there is a war going on right now as was then - but in 2008 young people are more likely to protest high gas prices than the current war.

The story telling in Chicago 10 is inviting. Once inside it transforms the audience into witnesses. With your own senses you see what many have for decades refused to see. It is a work well done. 1968 was a year that changed the US of A as much as May '68 changed France. The movie is not an history lesson. This movie brings us into that time in a way that allows us to reflect not only upon what happened in Chicago, but moreover what was yet to come in the USA. The trial of the Chicago 7 almost did not happen. Ramsey Clark the US Attorney General until January 20, 1969 was not going to allow this case to be prosecuted. After January 20th, Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell made sure that the silent majority got their show trial. It backfired. The rest is in the movie.

Just saw this at the Sundance opening. An absolute life changing film. There aren't words that could ever describe the feelings evoked by this extraordinary film. You could feel the heart and soul poured into every frame- and the mix of animation and incredible soundtrack was so moving. An absolute must see for anyone who needs to be reminded that they are the difference that is needed to stop the current war and the violence that is inherent today and since the beginning of time. This film leaves you feeling like standing up and taking flight and making a move toward what is truly important- the pursuit of peace and all that comes with-it- making a stand, courage, understanding yourself and your place in the world and knowing when to say when. I truly believe this film will change many lives.

In 1968 thousands of young people got angry and rioted as an unpopular President expanded an unpopular war overseas. As Ryan Harvey sung recently "The Times They *Aren't* A Chaning". The documentary footage from the protests is amazing, timely, and very reminiscent of news footage from recent political protests in North America. The animated sequences could have been better. They have the look of a very low budget show on Cartoon Network. Occasionally, a different kind of animation is used and this one is less realistic but much more effective. I'm not sure why this type of animation wasn't used throughout the trial sequences.

Roy Scheider I must add was very effective and creepy as Judge Hoffman, the authoritarian and one-sided judge who presided over the trial.

The movie is a reminder that things aren't changing but it's always important to fight.