The Kid Stays in the Picture director Brett Morgen turns his unique eye toward the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention in this 2006 documentary. Using a star-studded voice cast along with a blend of archival footage and animation, Morgen tells the story of the eight demonstrators who were arrested and tried for conspiracy in the wake of the violent anti-war protests. Featuring the voices of Nick Nolte and Mark Ruffalo among others, Chicago 10 premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film
Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
Chicago 10 is that nearly perfect marriage of style -- edgy, different -- to documentary subject: 1968, that seminal year so celebrated in 2008 for changing the America that came after it.
A vibrant, unconventional documentary about the conspiracy trial of the so-called inciters of the riots that occurred during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Given the filmmaker's privileged perspective of hindsight, to notconsider the real-world repercussions of their theater, to not connect the dots between 1968 and 2008 is a squandered opportunity.
If you accept the premise that it's a multimedia happening rather than a history lesson, the half-documentary, half-cartoon Chicago 10 is a smash of a mash-up. Call it 1968, the Remix.
Revisits 1968 as a court room drama, through a fresh cinematic look to avoid period clichés while broadening history's appeal to both boomers and their children.
Chicago 10 isn't perfect, but is required viewing for anyone who wasn't around at the time, if only as a reminder of the effectiveness of citizen action.
Morgan is more interested in recreating the confusing experience of living through those times than in evaluating them in a perspective informed by 40 years of hindsight.
an ideological bum rush that hits you with the force of its conviction and keeps you enthralled with a mesmerizing mixture of documentary footage and motion-capture animation
Chicago 10 is an art-house rarity that manages to visually dazzle while peeling away the layers of this contentious moment in time, giving viewers an eyeful of social unrest and wondrous screen fantasia.
Short on nuance but long on passion, Chicago 10 recreates the gradual boil-over from peaceful gathering to chaos by augmenting ample, close-range footage with the kind of sonic boom that seldom accompanies political documentaries.
Animated trial segments with celebrity voice actors distract from more gripping news footage about those who protested a government which denied its citizens their rights.
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