Present Tensed

Chicago 10

Brett Morgen’s “Chicago 10″ [meta­critic] suc­ceeds in bring­ing to life the court­room sketches from the Chicago 8 tri­als, and unearthing a wealth of price­less archival footage from the siege of Chicago at the 1968 Demo­c­ra­tic National Con­ven­tion.

My main wor­ries walk­ing into “Chicago 10″ were that the par­al­lels between 1968 and 2008 would be too explic­itly (or clum­sily) drawn and that the style of ani­ma­tion would be dis­tract­ing. Not only did nei­ther really* come to pass, but it turns out that the focus on the ani­ma­tion was itself some­what mis­guided. Half to two-thirds of the film is archival footage of the finest order that cap­tured the sur­re­al­ism of the event so fully that the ani­ma­tion doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily feel so out of place. It’s the great­est suc­cess of the film.

I highly rec­om­mend the film. it takes a fresh approach to one of the most fas­ci­nat­ing events in Chicago’s (and arguably the nation’s) history.

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Trailer:

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* There’s a scene where they play “Mosh” by Eminem, which is a bit over the top but works mag­nif­i­cently, and (of course) the pros­e­cut­ing attor­ney does look a lot like G-Dub.

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