Chicago 10 (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	100:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Brett Morgen
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Hank Azaria Dylan Baker Nick Nolte Mark Ruffalo Roy Scheider Liev Schreiber
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Jeff Danna Stuart Levy Kerry Barden

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

   It is perhaps an understandable irony that the greatest strength of Brett Morgen's partly animated documentary (Animentary anyone?) Chicago 10 is also its chief weakness. For in accurately recreating the chaos and revolutionary spirit that pervaded US politics in the late 60's Morgen has also create a film that is truly explicable only to those few who have a solid grounding in US political history. Nowhere is this made more evident than on the inside of the DVD case which contains a potted history of the period that is essential pre-reading for the viewer.

A short summary. In 1968 the Vietnam War was still grinding away and casualties were rising. The My Lai Massacre early that year convinced many fence-sitters that maybe the US was not on the side of right and it was time to withdraw. Against a background of growing turbulence twin forces of anti-war activism decided that the Democrat National Convention of 1968, to elect a successor to the despised Lyndon B. Johnson, would be the place to stand up and be heard. Two groups led the charge: the politically serious National Mobilization Committee to End the War In Vietnam (MOBE) and the peaceniks Youth Independant Party (the Yippies).

MOBE were led by David Dellinger and Tom Hayden and represented a coalition of anti-war groups. The Yippies were more of a gang of politically motivated hippies led by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman and influenced by beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Over the week of the Democratic Convention protestors and police engaged in stand-offs and sometimes violent confrontation. When the dust settled 8 men including Dellinger, Hayden, Hoffman, Rubin, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Black Panther leader Bobby Seale were charged with serious charges of conspiracy and incitement to riot. The title of this documentary comes from the fact that the two lawyers for the Chicago 8 were themselves charged with contempt for their hostile attitude towards the Court.

The potted history above gives no justice to the complexity of the civil rights melting pot that was 1968 but, unfortunately, this film does even less to clue the unsuspecting viewer into the events of that year. Leaping between the 1969 courtroom and the real events of 1968, without a pause for reflection or a voice-over to guide us, makes for an occasionally frustrating watch. This is despite the obvious heartfelt intention of filmmaker Brett Morgen whose previous doco was the exquisite The Kid Stays in the Picture about producer Robert Evans.

The chief gimmick of this film is the use of animation to depict the court case and the use of actors to lend voices to the actual court transcript. The trial was, predictably, a farce which ran for some 8 months. The Defendant constantly challenged and mocked the authority of the Court. Judge Hoffman (definitely no relation to Abbie!) reacted to the hippie prankdom with the disdain expected from a 74 year old man, eventually having Seale bound and gagged in court to shut him up! Seale was eventually tried separately.

Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Liev Schreiber and Jeffrey Wright play the key characters with dedication and skill. My only quibble was whether Judge Hoffman really did sound as close to Elmer Fudd as the late Scheider plays him. The viewpoint is fixed from the get-go and little has been done to place the characters in their historical context. On the whole the film works best when showing long scenes of actual footage of the stand-offs and the attempts made to avoid bloodshed. The Chicago 8 are portrayed as freedom fighters of the highest order without giving us the viewer a chance to sift through the material and determine whether the violence was a result of the police state or the natural effect of revolutionaries trying to get the revolution televised.

According to Wikipedia Hank Azaria ,who also produced the film, has plans to show two more documentaries in the series about the trial. Maybe as a series they will be easier to follow but, for the moment this film, in spite of its many merits, can't be recommended to anyone other than the keen student of US politics.

Video

    Chicago 10 is a combination of animated film and historical records. It comes in a 1.78:1 transfer. It is 16x9 enhanced.

The film looks pretty good. The historical records are kept in their raw state which does not detract from their impact. The animated scenes are clear and bright. The animation chosen is of a simple style. The effect is to symbolically depict the trial as a cartoon. The colours are bright and stable.

There are no subtitles which is a bit of a problem in the scenes where Abbie Hoffman rings up a New York DJ to report on how the trial is going.

There are no technical problems with the transfer.

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Audio

    The sound for Chicago 10 is English Dolby Digital 2.0 running at 224 Kb/s.

The dialogue for the animated sequences is clear and easy to hear. As said, the only exception to this is when Abbie rings the New York DJ. I suspect that these are the original recordings.

The sound for the documentary footage varies according to the source. It is not too hard to understand what is being said although, as said above, some subtitles would have been nice.

Music for the film is a blend of contemporary and pseudo contemporary. We get War Pigs by Black Sabbath straight from the 60's. However, the director made some interesting decisions in choosing music. The MC5 were front and centre in Chicago 1968 but the mighty Kick Out the Jams is played by Rage Against the Machine from their Renegades album. So too is The Stooges Down on the Street. Some original Rage songs also feature as well as Mosh by Eminem. Good music just curious why the originals weren't used.

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There are no extras.

    This is an All Region DVD release.

    The trial of the Chicago 8 was a key moment in radical politics and helped increase pressure on the US government to withdraw troops from Vietnam. However, this documentary is too scattergun in approach to preach to anyone except the converted. There is a lot to like about it but, perhaps, not a lot to learn. For US history buffs, however, this documentary would probably deserve 5 star respect.

The picture and sound quality are fine.

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