Chicago 10
March 29, 2008
Life imitating art and vice versa: no where is that more evident that in film. In the instance of documentaries life is art.
Opening this Friday in New York City, wider in the coming weeks is a new fresh look at events that took place 40 years ago in this country mirroring what we as 21st century citizens are facing again today.
Chicago 10 is filmmaker’s Brett Morgen’s (The Kid Stays in the Picture) exhaustive look at the events leading up to, during, immediately after the 1968 National Democratic Convention in Chicago and the subsequent trial that arose from clashes outside a downtown hotel. Eight defendants and two attorneys made up the Chicago 10. The men on trial were leaders of various anti-war movements and the fall-guys for the violence that disturbed the streets of the Windy City.
A wealth of archival footage and personal movies support the defendant’s accusations of City Government ineffectiveness and needless police brutality against the men and women protesting the US’s involvement in Vietnam and demanding changes in our government. The judge did not allow cameras in the courtroom so Morgen takes a cue from a quote by Chicago 10-er Jerry Rubin and reenacts the “cartoon”-like chaos inside the courtroom using animation and actors such as Nick Nolte, Live Schrieber and Hank Azaria as Abbie Hoffman to lend voice to the proceedings.
You watch in slack-jawed awe at what a travesty the trial was. The most egregious facet was the treatment of Black Panther member and defendant Bobby Seale (voiced by Jeffrey Wright). Seale had repeatedly requested to represent himself only to be bound, gagged, and handcuffed to a chair by Judge Julius Hoffman (the late Roy Scheider). Seriously! You’ll wonder if you’re watching a piece of fiction but shockingly you’re not. The irrefutable evidence is right there in front of you.
To contemporize things for younger generations the director uses modern recording artists like Rage Against the Machine and The Beastie Boys. Morgen also dispenses with the traditional interview/news footage documentary format to bring the subject matter to life for the audience. For instance: during the trial Abbie Hoffman would call a radio station with a daily report of what was going on in the courtroom. This is the actual audio recording of the conversation, re-enacted by the animated Hoffman so it’s more like a movie and less like a history lesson.
To be honest it’s not the best animation out there but we are after all talking about a documentary with an appropriate budget. We’ll make allowances for that, right?
The director is hoping to incite the kids in the audience to become politically aware and show that intelligent protest is not an oxymoron. For me this documentary was at once fascinating and disheartening. Here we are in 2008: our country embroiled in an unpopular war and on the brink of historic elections and instead of standing up and demanding reform as these people did, as our parents did, we sit seemingly complacent. It almost makes what they were fighting for and what these men went through in Chicago worthless doesn’t it? Where are the Yippies when you need them?
VIEW THE TRAILER:
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