'CHICAGO 10' DOCUMENTARY ANIMATED, BUT NOT SO LIVELY.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic Well, it's different. "Chicago 10" may be the first cartoon documentary. It combines loads of news reports and guerrilla footage (including some stuff from Haskell Wexler's classic docudrama "Medium Cool") about the civil disorder Civil disorder, also known as civil unrest, is a broad term that is typically used by law enforcement to describe one or more forms of disturbance caused by a group of people. in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Convention with motion-capture animated sequences of related incidents, mostly the crazy conspiracy trial the following year. Cheers to director Brett Morgen ("The Kid Stays in the Picture") for going over well-trod ground in a new way. There are no talking-head interviews with old radicals here. No voice-over narration, either. The context of the massive anti-war movement and other social upheavals of the Vietnam era Vietnam Era is a term used by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to classify veterans of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam Era is considered to have begun in 1964 and ended in 1975. The U.S. Congress, U.S. is richly filled in by the dramas, real and computer-drawn, that we see on screen. But "Chicago 10" is nonetheless creaky creak·y adj. creak·i·er, creak·i·est 1. Tending to creak. 2. Shaky or infirm, as with age; decrepit: creaky knee joints; a creaky regime. and overinstructive. Like most political docs, it ends up working like an agenda tract more than capturing a breathing moment of history. Plus, the transitions from real footage to that less-than-realistic "Polar Express"-style animation are, to say the least, disorienting dis·o·ri·ent tr.v. dis·o·ri·ent·ed, dis·o·ri·ent·ing, dis·o·ri·ents To cause (a person, for example) to experience disorientation. Adj. 1. . They can't help calling attention to themselves, which constantly disrupts viewer immersion in the film. Morgen had a good reason for going this route; the live footage of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin Jerry Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was a high-profile American social activist during the 1960s and 1970s. He underwent a remarkable political transformation in the 1980s. , et al. in their yippie prime could hardly be matched by actors restaging the closed-courtroom scenes (the hair alone would probably take up most of a shooting day -- and the movie's budget -- to apply). I don't think Morgen believes that his extreme formal approach will fly with all, or maybe even most, audiences; so again, kudos to him for committing to a difficult choice. The trial sequences, presumably pre·sum·a·ble adj. That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. taken from transcripts, feature the voices of Hank Azaria Hank Albert Azaria (born April 25, 1964 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, United States) is an American actor, director, comedian and voice artist. He is most famous for his long-running career as one of the main voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons. as Abbie H., Mark Ruffalo Mark Alan Ruffalo (born November 22, 1967) is an American actor. Biography Early life Ruffalo was born in the industrial town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, the son of second-generation Italian American parents Marie Rose, a hairdresser and stylist, and Frank Lawrence as Rubin, Liev Schreiber as their and five other defendants' co- counsel William Kunstler William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 - September 4, 1995) was an American jurist, self-described "radical lawyer" and civil rights activist. Early Life The son of a physician, Kunstler was born in New York City and educated at Yale College and Columbia University Law (surviving defense attorney Leonard Weinglass provides his own voice), Nick Nolte as prosecutor Thomas Foran and the recently deceased Roy Scheider as the elderly, civil-liberties-torturing Judge Julius Hoffman. Geoffrey Wright provides the voice of Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party Black Panther Party (for Self-Defense) U.S. African American revolutionary party founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale (b. 1936) in Oakland, Calif. Its original purpose was to protect African Americans from acts of police brutality. co-founder who, when his chosen lawyer fell ill, insisted on defending himself and wound up bound and gagged under judge's orders. To his credit, Morgen depicts Seale as a disruptive courtroom presence, compared even with the more clownish antics of the yippies. Then again, the director made a point of not talking to any of the surviving defendants before writing his script, and Seale, for one, has disputed some of "Chicago 10's" portrayal of what happened to him. As for that title: Yes, they were called the Chicago Eight The trial of the Chicago Eight exemplified the state of turmoil that existed in the United States in 1968. Because the Chicago conspiracy trial opened with eight defendants, this group of radical leaders is sometimes referred to as the Chicago Eight. , Seven after Seale was sidelined; but Morgen decided to include the two lawyers in the count, since they wound up convicted of contempt along with their clients. Whatever. The soundtrack includes Rage Against the Machine and Eminem along with the more era-appropriate Steppenwolf and the like. It's an effort, apparently, to make it "relevant" for the kids today, who have an unpopular war of their own they could be protesting. Good luck with that one. Bob Strauss (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com CHICAGO 10 - Two and one half stars >R: language, violence, sex, nudity, drug use. >Starring: Voices of Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Wright. >Director: Brett Morgen. >Running time: 1 hr. 40 min. >Playing: Landmark Nuart, West L.A.; Edwards University Town Center, Irvine. >In a nutshell: Combination of archival footage and animated re-enactments doesn't really work, but gets across a lot of information about the 1968 Chicago protests. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Director Brett Morgen alternates between animated sequences and archival footage in his political documentary "Chicago 10." |
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